1.12: The Romans

In which Ian and Barbara are kidnapped by slave traders, the Doctor meets Nero, and Vicki turns out to be an absolute psychopath.

Broadcast: January-February 1965

Watched: July 2019

1. The Slave Traders

Hilarious way of getting out of a cliffhanger. Just skip forward an unspecified period of time until everyone’s fine. All the “regulars on holiday” stuff is lovely, especially the bit where they discuss the menu. So is the Doctor ostentatiously preferring Vicki to the others. So is this:

Doctor: I don’t know that I was under any obligation to report my movements to you, Chesterfield.

Barbara: Chester-ton.

Doctor: Barbara’s calling you.

Oh btw Ian and Barbara are so totally banging.

Then there’s the slave trade stuff, which is somehow more disturbing than the normal violence. This one is both incredibly funny and incredibly sinister, which is a good combination for Doctor Who.

2. All Roads Lead To Rome

Second story running in which Hartnell positively delights in an opportunity to kick the shit out of someone (“The old one, two!”)

This is at least the third story in which someone in not so many words threatens Barbara with rape. (Marinus, Reign, is there another?)

Ian’s habit of picking up forgettable and interchangeable sidekicks is becoming a bit obvious.

The shipwreck scene is amazing in a “I am sort of impressed that they tried” kind of way. Hell of a sense of scale to this story. The running joke with the regulars repeatedly just missing each other is great.

Also the use of stock footage in this one is brilliant. Storms! Lions!

3. Conspiracy

“Now close your eyes and Nero will give you a big surprise.”

The official court poisoner is fun. The way so much of this is played as farce is an interesting choice in a story which begins with half the regulars being kidnapped into slavery. 

Vicki casually announcing she’s poisoned Nero is brilliant. So is her look to camera when Nero wonders who’s responsible. So is the taster drinking the from poisoned goblet and immediately dropping dead. And the emperor’s new clothes bit where the Doctor pretends to play the lyre and everyone cheers is magnificent.

Ian and Delos being forced to fight is predictable, but works well. It’d be even better if Delos had a personality of some sort.

Nero is 26 when Rome burns. Odd how he’s often portrayed as middle aged.

4. Inferno

Delos deciding not to turn on Ian after all is oddly effective. Ian threatening to dunk Barbara in the fountain until she does the tidying is weird. Although there’s a moment where they are so obviously trying not to kiss, it’d almost feel more natural if they did.

Not sure what to make of the guy who helps the Doctor and Vicki escape being shown holding a cross. It sort of fits but at the same time I’m not sold on the “he’s nice because he’s a Christian” message. Very of its time. [Turns out this happens a lot in the mid 60s, including in an episode of Star Trek. It might be a reference to the 1951 film Quo Vadis.]

Anyway, this is the first tonally modern story isn’t it? There are funny bits and dramatic bits and even hints of emotion, all mixed together, refusing to settle on a genre. Even the two plots [Ian and Barbara kidnapped into slavery, the Doctor and Vicki getting involved in politics at Nero’s court] not intersecting and that becoming a running joke kind of fits that. This one feels like a big influence on the RTD show.

The Doctor treating it all as a jape, up to and including the fire, is effective but also a bit weird.