“City of Death” EDWE 11

City of Death was written by David Fisher (and more importantly Douglas Adams) under the popular BBC pseudonym David Agnew. Quite appropriate that David Agnew is a mix of David Fisher/Douglas Adams. It’s a four part adventure (though I always thought it was six, even up until watching it again and then watching the documentary) and it’s set in Paris.

Ok, lets face it. City of Death is awesome. My favourite bit, first of all, is where the Doctor and Romana are strolling through Paris. Everything is wonderful. The normality of the scenes, the fact this is two people having a good time in Paris, the fact this is just wonderful, the fact we have AMAZING music to it. It’s all beautiful and the scenes of Paris are absolutely brilliant. Reminiscent of the 10th Doctor and Rose, but this is much better.

The episode is amazing and as they say in the documentary, it does have a cinematic finish. The scenes are wide and beautiful, they take in the essence of Paris and the essence of the Doctor and Romana’s relationship. It is a beautiful episode, and the appearance from John Cleese makes it even more cinematic and wonderful.

The monster is brilliant, the idea of an alien like that is how Doctor Who should be, and the one-eyed Scaroth that’s the last of its species is fantastic! What’s more, the fact he’s splintered into 12 parts reminds me of the Doctor himself and his regenerations, and the fact both characters have a relationship with time.

They also have a relationship with art. The fact that people have different views on art and even the sketch of the Time Lady, all of it shows how something so simple and so historic (the Mona Lisa in this case) can be dealt with in Doctor Who.

So this episode brings in the wonderful scenes, the brilliant music, the brilliant people based stories,the brilliant alien Doctor Who feel, and the brilliant simpleness of some of it. It is a fantastic episode. Maybe I think that because its my dream episode. I’d love an episode in a fantastic setting like this, with encouraging music. I’d love to put stories of art and history into it, and mixing in fantastic locations. And then of course I’d love an alien like that, and people stories and relationships like that.

City of Death really does show EVERYTHING I feel a Doctor Who Episode should have. And of course it’s written by the fantastic Douglas Adams! Douglas Adams! Don’t Panic – I mean actual Douglas Adams! And it truly was a brilliant choice.

The story, the monsters, the music, the people and the setting all make City of Death one of the best Doctor Who episodes in the world. So I think this has to be one of my favourite Who stories ever.

And now my Doctor Who watching to move onto The Leisure Hive. And it’s rubbish. I’m writing this review to Part One of The Leisure Hive and the Leisure Hive is rubbish! John Nathan-Turner and CH Bidmead’s ideas of science don’t work, the setting of Brighton is a waste of time and the shots of the tents are POINTLESSLY LONG! You can’t have too much of a good thing, well the first scene has too much of a BAD thing! The Leisure Hive is such a let down, and really shows the way for many of the stories the 80s had to offer.

There were some good 80 Whos, but The Leisure Hive is dreadful. The Doctor looks like Michael Jackson in his hat! And I half expect him to do the Moonwalk! The Doctor isn’t giving his best performance (and the new outfit doesn’t help). The episode feels not very good, and the feel of it just isn’t what it should be. The Leisure Hive is a disappointment so far, but lets see what comes next, and the full review is here soon!