The Second Season of the New Doctor Who Series will be shown on the 15th April- that's three weeks away tomorrow. This is the first of four Classic Doctor Who reviews I'll be submitting weekly until then to wet everyone's appetite.

"City of Death" is quite rightly regarded as one of the best Doctor Who stories.

At this point in the show, the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) is accompanied by one of his own people, the Time Lady Romana (Lalla Ward). Together they visit Paris, Earth in the present day for a needed relaxing unwind after the hectic business of their Key to Time hunt and their most recent battle with the Daleks.

But whilst they are enjoying their holiday a chain of events unfold involving distortions in time, a plot to steal the Mona Lisa with the aid of advanced technology, and further thickening of the plot when six authentic copies of the Mona Lisa painting are discovered, all drawing the Doctor and Romana into a grand scheme to travel back in time to save an extinct alien species. But since this is against all the laws of time, the Doctor has to stop them.

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Despite the fact that the New Series of Doctor Who has reached unprecedented heights of popularity since it began showing last year, it does appear to me that the Old Series is still considered something of a forgettable embarrassment by popular culture. This disappoints me because I had hoped that the launch of the New Series would provoke interest and aid promotion of the old series. On the contrary, now the Old Series and the New Series both seem to be treated as separate entities, so whilst popular magazines promote the New Series Box Set , they treat the DVD releases of old stories as something to sweep under the carpet, something that no-one would be interested in- save the 'geeky fans' who like laughing at crap special effects. Sometimes it seems to me that the more praise the New Series gets, the more the Old Series gets talked down to in comparison.

Of course there are plenty of things to talk down about the Old Series, and I have never expected the general public to like all of old Doctor Who, warts and all, or to venture with a plunge into Doctor Who's convoluted continuity, particularly given the fact that the DVD releases are completely unchronological. But having said that there were some classic individual serials of Doctor Who, that I believe anyone outside of fandom can enjoy, and since none of these magazines or other popular media is promoting or suggesting them, as an Epinions reviewer, I guess I'll have to do it myself.

"City of Death" is one such story that can be enjoyed in its own right. It was written in the fan-guide Doctor Who: Discontinuity Guide book's review of the episode that "It's a pity that the rest of Doctor Who exists to make this story part of a bigger continuity, because it deserves to stand alone", and that is very true. This story actually has all the makings of what could have potentially been the pilot episode for Doctor Who. We begin with the Doctor and Romana already in Paris and for a newcomer watching them together, it gradually becomes apparent in their conversations that they are time travellers and aliens from the planet Gallifrey, so we're gradually taken into the characters and their time travelling Tardis, before actually seeing the Tardis in action as it makes a few time journeys- so it avoids being alienating in any way. With the pre-established pairing of the Doctor and Romana, a new audience wouldn't feel cheated of a backstory as to how the two travellers first met and came together, since we are told that they're both from the same planet. Indeed a lot of the action of the story is seen through the relateable human eyes of the bystander character Duggan, the Private Detective who's on the hunt of this trail of multiple Mona Lisas, and becomes in effect a temporary companion to the Doctor and Romana. And even without a series to follow it, it would work as a standalone as it contains multiple time journeys that whilst being only brief but important interludes to occasionally break the well established set location of present-day Paris, they actually do essentially document 'the human adventure' and document it well.

Well it's easy to watch, what else is so good about it?

The script is written by David Fisher and Douglas Adams, and they craft something truly outstanding together. The late Douglas Adams will eternally be known for his Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy legacy, and his style of writing translates very well here. Douglas is a masterful writer who perfectly crafts both the overall narrative and the incidental dialogue with a big pinch of both stimulating intelligence and tickling humour, both done with accessible universal appeal.

This was one of the really well thought out and hard science type of episodes -which wouldn't be done again after the Tom Baker era- but it is delivered in a simplistic way, aided by surreal visual promps. For example the villain scientist's experiments in time travel involve putting an egg in an accelerated time bubble and growing the egg into a matured chicken in a few seconds. This is of course a visual representation of the 'chicken and the egg' theory. It may sound corny, but it actually works and makes you think. The science in this episode is not without a few theoretical flaws, and the same goes for the historical dating, but the science in concert with the history is nothing if not stimulating, and I dare anyone to name a TV show today which is anywhere near as stimulating as this.

The cast do a wonderful job here with their characters. Tom Baker was arguably the best actor to play the Doctor, and he is funny with perfect timing in his delivery, he is overpoweringly charming and enthusiastic and more than that conveys an air of omnipotence that makes us trust his judgement much more than other Doctors. Lalla Ward does well as Romana at playing the Doctor's more detached equal, and they really look together like they had a lot of fun here. Tom Chadbon is appropriately deadpan and hammy as the detective Duggan, Julian Glover is great as the villain of the piece- the cheerfully ascerbic sophisticate and gangser on the side, Count Scarlioni and Catherine Schell is delightfully classy and rather sexy, but also rather sympathetic as the Countess. Adding a few cameos with John Cleese and Eleanor Bron and you have a perfect little cast of characters.

The interior locations are traditionally Doctor Who with cozy lighting and a stronger element of the bohemian and antiquated than the technological or gleaming. The music by Dudley Simpson is wonderfully perky and low key and has a nice orchestrated longevity. The special effects and spacecraft model work are very good for the era and stand up well, and whilst the alien masks are pretty rubbery, moments where they are seen are kept suitably brief and effective.

It is TV that really takes me away, by engaging my spirits as well as my brain. It is feelgood in an insideous way- as feelgood as watching episodes of "Moonlighting" or "The Comic Strip Presents", or listening to some Gloria Estefan songs. There was a time a few months ago when I hit a financial crisis, and I was feeling very worried and stressed out- and I decided to watch this, because I knew it was exactly what the doctor ordered (if you'll pardon the pun) and it really did cheer me up in a big way.

It is hard to believe in some ways that the unholy marriage between the worlds of Douglas Adams and Doctor Who could produce something so feelgood, given how both bodies of fiction are usually synonymous with bleakness and the grotesque, brutality and death and exploding planets. In this episode there is actually very little violence or death on display, and indeed this allows the few deaths we witness to have a hard-hitting impact and be dealt with poignantly. But centrally this is an episode about being on holiday- about seeing the sights and enjoying yourself, laughing at life's surrealism and enjoying the company of those around you, meeting new people, experiencing a different culture, visiting the louvre and having your own self portrait done by a street artist, and such. I remember watching this for the first time in 2002 on my 20th Birthday -it was my present-, and it was around the same time that I got exposed to the film "Fight Club", and collectively they were the kind of entertainment that showed me that TV and Cinema was capable of so much more than simply echoing our cynicism about society or feeding our desire to enjoy the sound of our own moaning. It showed me the kind of TV and Cinema that showed a lot of the wonderful things about life and the world and the possibilities of really getting out there and enjoying life and meeting new people and making achievements, and collectively that became the whole spirit of the year for me
(my God, did life really look that good to me only four years ago?)

The episode seems to carry with it the mood from the previous Doctor Who stories "The Armageddon Factor" and "Destiny of the Daleks", where the Doctor and Romana managed to finally defeat, or at least place under containment two of the greatest threats to the universe- the all powerful Black Guardian, and the all-destroying expansion of the Dalek Empire, and as such it feels as though a weight of bleakness and danger has been lifted off the series, and the world finally seems like a safer place.

Not only that, but as a 1979 story, the serial does encapsulate not only the spirit of both Doctor Who and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but also encapsulates the feel of the 1970's as a whole, in various ways, but first and foremost it encapsulates the spirit of 70's films like "American Graffitti", "Westworld", "Mean Streets", "The Deer Hunter", "Harold and Maude" and of course "Grease" and "Saturday Night Fever" and even "The Exorcist", in which a long stretch of the film is devoted to its characters simply having an outlandishly fun time together, and that is what happens throughout the first fifteen minutes of this episode between the Doctor and Romana as they enjoy their time in Paris, and it is wonderful and natural and very endearing indeed.

But given how over the decades, society's view of itself had become gradually more negative, and degraded and shallow, this is the kind of TV and Cinema that died out coming into the 80's, where generally TV and film, and even music couldn't communicate a sense of fun to an audience, unless it was fun at the expense of others, i.e. showing unhappy lives and grumpy people for the sake of giving the audience something to relate to or which involved people proving themselves to be the one in the right in a bit of personal drama and getting one over on their antagonist. In some ways I blame the gender wars for this attraction to inane assertiveness and belligerence and fingerpointing at all that is wrong and negative about men or women or society in general. I think the spirit of simple, happy and inclusive fun we see here has all but died out in the realms of mainstream TV and Cinema, although it did have a resurgence of sorts in the 90's, mainly because the 90's was such a nostalgic decade.

This is an episode that will probably be forever known as 'the funny one'. This is mainly courtesy of Douglas Adams' input of wit, as well as Tom Baker's usual classy delivery, and it is one of Doctor Who's more successful forays into comedic stories, in-fact the only other story I have seen that is as effectively humorous as this story is "The Three Doctors". Comedy is not something that Doctor Who has always done well, and if you look at episodes like "The Romans", "The Chase", "Creature From the Pit", a lot of the later 80's stories and most of Russell T. Davis' most recent episodes, they tend to be unfunny or have the humour strongly mismatched with the gravitas. In this story the humour is used well indeed, by hanging the drama on such bumbling characters, and having the humour sometimes work as an eagerly expected punchline, or sometimes come out unawares from the most dramatic of moments, and still managing to not upset the drama.

I've got to talk about the Paris setting of the episode. This was the first Doctor Who story to be filmed overseas, and it was a gimmick that was returned to in the mid 80's in the episodes Arc of Infinity (Amsterdam in Holland), Planet of Fire (Lanzarote) and The Two Doctors (Seville in Spain). Whilst the latter three stories seemed to be set in a foreign location just for the hell of it, there is something very important here about the Paris setting. It is of course the centre of the art world, which is appropriate to not only its Mona Lisa plot, but its central alien villain who appears as some kind of hybrid that is human from the neck down, and alien from the neck up, which seems to make him into a moving picture by an expressionist painter drawing a parodying or metaphoric image of a man with a slight Medusa theme.

The setting of course adds immensely to the feelgood factor, and the sense of being on holiday and loosening inhibitions. In keeping with the 70's in a nutshell feel of the episode, the Doctor and Romana, in their bohemian dress, their boundless ways of interacting with people around them and their clearly well-educated elocution and being of the more connoisseur persuasion, in this Paris location perhaps represent the later years of the 60's counterculture generation of College students in Britain and America who had revolted against traditional values in the 60's but by the late 70's had either settled down to conformity with a family and job, or in the case of the more radicals, had retreated to foreign countries like France and India, which were apparently more liberated, to escape the conservativeness and conformity of Britain or America. As we watch the sights of Paris, a bush of cockelshells, or an arial view of the city from the Eiffel tower or the classical architecture of the buildings and interiors, it is all superbly directed in such an unnoticed way. The directing is edgy with unconventional shots, it breathes the fresh air of the outdoors, and portrays Paris streets as beautiful without being too polished or too clean about it- it feels real, natural and tangible, and when we hear the Doctor's line "It's the only place in the universe where one can relax entirely", it fits like a glove and immediately puts the viewer in such a pleasant mood.

There is one more important aspect about the Paris setting I must draw attention to. What people forget about some of the films of the 70's is that they sometimes featured some very elaborate twists indeed. A lot of people think that cinematic twists are a purely 90's and modern thing and the domain of The Usual Suspects, Fight Club, The Sixth Sense, Seven (indeed they have become largely obligatory in cinema these days) but it was a kind of cinema that was present in the early 70's as well, in mindbender films like "The Wicker Man" and "Don't Look Now", and it was something that creeped its way into Television serials as well, in Doctor Who and more often in Doctor Who's rival sci-fi series Sapphire & Steel (which ran for six feature length serial adventures from 1979 to 1982, and is now available to buy in the complete DVD collection- go on, you know you want to). This story, along with Evil of the Daleks, The Mind Robber and Ghostlight, is the closest in feel to Sapphire & Steel territory, in that the serial runs with an air of intelligent mystery and puzzle pieces coming slowly to formation until the concluding part where all the revelations are finally made (although this is more spontaneous, more humorous and dynamic than the more cerebral Sapphire & Steel). There is a midway twist in the proceedings followed by a twist right before the end of the episode that ties up the mystery and reveals how we've been manipulated and misled by the antagonist in a way that I found most impressive.

Indeed, much like "The Wicker Man" and "Don't Look Now", the serial characterises its sense of mystery by the use of a foreign location for its setting, in this case, Paris, just like Don't Look Now used the location of Venice, and The Wicker Man was set in an isolated island village. The idea of a foreign place populated by strangers, being both a place of foreign and alien customs and surreal events that compell you to expect the unexpected, and also as a very treacherous place and community that is collectively conspiring against you and manipulating your perception, and to a small degree this is true- we do see aliens in disguise that we weren't expecting and even passerby locals do show an unusual awareness of the paranormal in some rather surreal moments.

The comedy works well to create this air of mystery in subtle but solidifying ways, as a piece of Television it's almost what I'd call a comedy of errors of perception, topped off by a most impressive climax where things suddenly get really serious. Initially there was a moment where the Doctor and his companions had been escorted as prisoners of the Count Scarlioni and his wife which was played for laughs, in which the Doctor was behaving like an invited guest and was simultaneously charming but also behaving as he pleased whilst under gunpoint, and on first viewing I was a bit cheesed off by this complete disregard for the gravity of the drama, but I came to realise how in-fact it was a means of the episode manipulating me into seeing the villains as civilised and amicable, with a rather sympathetic goal, and pulling me to their side over the Doctor's dogged determination to stop them because of some 'laws of time' technicality only to hit me with the sinister bigger picture in the final moments. For the longest period we feel as if the Doctor shouldn't be interfering in Scarlioni's plan but in a superb twist at the end, we realise the whole scope of the villain's plan and that the Doctor was right all along.

All in all, it was, and still is pretty fantastic. I give it full stars! It's content is appropriate for family viewing of all ages, and I feel it would appeal to a lot of people outside of Doctor Who fandom if they gave it a chance. If you've yet to watch any classic Doctor Who story, make it this one.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8