The Romans

Small side note before we begin: This episode is available in color on archive.org. Worth looking into if you like that sort of thing.

A pure historical written by Dennis Spooner. I don’t plan on bringing up writers every time, but it is notable how you can sometimes recognize the writer without seeing his name.

This story shares a lot of DNA with ‘The Reign of Terror’ from last season, which was my least favorite in that range. Spooner apparently likes to take a historical setting and mess around it, almost to the point of comedy. Dressing the doctor up, meeting some funny historical people, having some fun at the setting’s expense.

That’s fine I suppose, I’m open to a more comedic tone, but he seems to also want to add some drama, so his division of the cast and choice of setting are sometimes a bit skewed.

This time we’re in the ancient Roman Empire. We start of relatively light (And with a really weird transition from last time’s cliffhanger), but that’s a nice change of pace. It quickly becomes mingled however.

The Doctor decides to travel to Rome with just Vicki. He’s bored of sitting still. An odd choice, but okay. After that, Barbara and Ian quickly get captured as slaves. This is where the issues in tone begins.

We switch often between tones. We have the Doctor and Vicki on one side, disguised as a lyre player and generally having a jolly, comedic time. And then we go back to Ian and Barbara, who are drowning, forced to fight, sold to a lustful emperor and generally just not having a good time.

This is very jarring and detracts from both parts that are going on. The Doctor is having a laugh, and the story wants us to laugh with him, but we don’t because we just want to know if Ian and Barbara will be safe. It slowly becomes a tangled web, but the stories never quite meet each other and it becomes more worrisome and frustrating than intended.

The story does have highlights though. The Doctor in his energetic good mood, while unfitting, is fun to watch. Even getting another fight scene. The lyre performance he gives is also entertaining. At the start, Ian and Barbara are also flirting in a Roman villa, which is a blast and adds on nicely to the audio’s. Vicki does not add much on her own yet, but she still brings about a more positive doctor that wants to explain stuff, which is fun.

Some other notable moments are the emperor Nero, who is a bit of a buffoon, and the fire of Rome, which causes some nice introspection in the doctor, before he laughs it off. We’re getting closer to interfering…..

I haven’t learned that much about the history as the story assumes though. I’ve learned something about the slave trade and the habits of the Roman people, but I don’t really have any new insights in the actual fire or Nero, because both are played for laughs. It still feels very odd to me to do. The fire is by all means a tragic event, but we’re supposed to laugh at it. Doesn’t really land for me.

This story feels at times like a bunch of shorts stuck together. It’s fun in bursts, but the bursts don’t link together all that well and more often than not detract from each other (Let’s all laugh at the silly emperor who burned an entire city). The huge differences in tones make this one pretty weak, switching too quickly from comedy to slavery. That said, there are definitely some parts that are diamonds in the rough, like the lyre-based comedy.

The one where the TARDIS crew have a holiday near Rome and then rollick around Nero’s court as lyre players, slaves and gladiators.

The Romans is well known as the first ‘comedy’ episode of Doctor Who and I love it. It is truly hilarious – the regulars sparkle with a comedy script, especially Hartnell and the slapstick/farcical elements play out really well. The slightly darker aspects – mainly Ian’s storyline – don’t seem at odds with what else is going on and we end with the beautiful pay off of the Doctor inspiring Nero to burn Rome.

Some of the jokes are wonderful: the Chesterfield/Chesterton/Barbara’s calling you; the ‘she looks after the liars’; and ‘close your eyes and Nero will give you a big surprise…Pardon' (Jacqueline Hill’s delivery of that single word is hilarious).

The concept of the Doctor and Vicki having a parallel storyline to Ian and Barbara and the two pairs never knowing how their paths have nearly crossed is original and a lot of fun. Vicki unwittingly saving Barbara from poisoning and the Doctor constantly foiling Nero’s attempts to accost Barbara in the third episode are well played. Although Ian’s storyline relies on a number of coincidences everything else is too much fun to care.

Ancient Rome, and the nearby areas, are well depicted – Nero’s palace; a Roman villa; a Roman market; a countryside lane; a Roman galley, beach and cells. The costumes are, probably, accurate and look stunning, particularly the Doctor’s and Barbara’s.  This historical characters are depicted as one would expect for this time - sure that there may be historical myths being perpetuated and the rough edges of history shaved off for a children's TV show.  The official court poisoner, Locusta (who was definitely a real person - she's even referenced in the final episode of I, Claudius) is a brilliant inclusion.   The rest of the Romans are, I think, fictitious but it is an interesting touch to have Tavius revealed to be an early Christian.

The Doctor lectures Vicki on interfering with history when she nearly poisons Nero (and does, technically cause the death of comedy servant Tigilinus). The entertaining exchange at the close of the story when Vicki accuses him of influencing history by inspiring Nero to burn Rome is an interesting twist on his rather more serious discussions with Barbara in The Aztecs.

A great story and one of the highlights of the Hartnell era – the regulars are all on top form and the guest cast is practically faultless – with special mention for Ian’s surrogate companion Delos (played by Peter Diamond) and Locusta. Dennis Spooner’s script is brilliant and is proof that Doctor Who, as a series, can do practically any genre when in the right hands.