Season Two@60 - The Romans

 

Opinions I’ve heard about this story range from it being the best Sixties story to being throwaway nonsense. Its neither of these things yet certainly drifts closer to the former. I think I’d only seen it once before, probably on some grainy videotape in the days when Sixties stories were passed around fandom like rare commodities. All I could remember was a hectic farce which it is but maybe I appreciate that more now plus finding out it was intended to embody those attributes makes it easier to enjoy. Like a lot of seldom seen Doctor Who stories it pays to re-watch and discover just what makes it tick.

 

The series may have stepped back from their original intention to present `The Romans` as the first full on Doctor Who parody upon learning of Carry On Cleo but the final results are not too far removed from the latter at times. An undercurrent of levity drifts through this four parter with a tone seldom seen in the early years of the show. Curiously it’s a feeling that had become more familiar as the show’s long history has unfurled as more stories have tried to mix comedy and drama. Like many infamous historical times the Roman empire is far enough past to be acceptable for humorous use in a way that more recent horrors are not. For all its undoubted technical achievements it was a bloodthirsty place we would now have on our rogue state lists. Trying to acknowledge that while having a laugh is something `The Romans` pulls off rather well. However frivolous matters seem the production does have an undercurrent of the nastiness evident.

In a somewhat damp squib resolution to the literal cliffhanger at the end of `The Rescue`, the TARDIS crew are swanning about in someone else’s villa in Roman times. No time is wasted on trying to explain how they got out which is an interesting inversion of the idea that Sixties stories laboured with such practicalities. Compare this with the drawn-out sequence of the Doctor and Jo extricating themselves from a similar premise at the start of `Curse of Peladon` eight years later and it’s surprising how nimble `The Romans` is. This is a pace at which it will continue to the point where later on there are characters running about from one room to another.

The early scenes see a rarely glimpsed side of the TARDIS crew living it up at the expense of the villa’s absent owners and definitely drinking them out of wine. This is the most casual we’ve seen the regulars and possibly as casual as we will ever see companions in the classic series. Ian and Barbara are so familiar with each other like two people who’ve been sharing a flat for ages which allows them to chat and wind each other up as happens when Barbara tells Ian to fetch something from the fridge. It’s a lovely glimpse at how they are so comfortable with each other yet also the disconnect between the life they knew and the one they have now. That she pulls the gag twice makes it even better.

The best known line of this relaxed scenario relates to the Doctor’s frequent mispronunciation of Ian’s surname. Nobody is quite sure whether this originated from William Hartnell accidentally or deliberately saying the wrong name but when he does so here, Barbara corrects him whereupon the Doctor responds, “Barbara’s calling you”. The funniest scene of the whole story is when an attendant is attempting to place a crown on Nero’s head but he keeps moving around just as it is about to be placed. Its pure Morecambe and Wise in a good way!

Soon the quartet are split into two halves when the Doctor and Vicki venture to Rome only to come across the body of an elderly lyre player from whom the Doctor is then mistaken and dragged into a plot to assassinate Emperor Nero. That the old man was even a party of such a plot seems unlikely but then again you can never tell with assassins. Barbara and Ian meanwhile end up as slaves out of which Babs gets the better deal ending up as personal servant to the emperor’s wife. 

Nero himself is played with boggle eyed relish by Derek Francis who takes every opportunity writer Dennis Spooner provides to be the sort of crazy, large Emperor Rome often seemed to have. He takes a shine to Barbara and there’s an extended scene where he chases her around the palace. Presumably this was the Carry On material never excised! Jacqueline Hill is excellent with these scenes. An actor who appeared in several Carry On films himself, Derek Francis certainly embodies the decadent extravagance of Nero even if the actor is somewhat older than the emperor would have been at this time. While appearing to have fun he is capable of turning in a second into someone casually violent. In one scene he runs a sword through a guard, later he shrugs when his food taster falls down dead.

 

One person its easy to overlook despite his pivotal role is Tavius, a covert Christian whose faith enables him to recognise the goodness of Barbara’s plight. Though we never learn much about him and his early furtive behaviour makes it unclear if he can be trusted or not his attempts to help Barbara out of a sense of being the right thing is the opposite to Nero’s selfish desire for her. Michael Peake is a standout which isn’t easy amidst a cast who are all dialled up to eleven whereas his quiet, subtle demeanour becomes more noticeable due to that difference. His faith is only represented at the end when we see him holding a cross and you feel there is more to be told about this character.

In fact, the whole story only works because the cast throw themselves into it with relish; several times it appears as if they about to address the camera. William Hartnell has a whale of a time; the story is calibrated to make the most of his tics and gestures right from the start as the Doctor is at his most whimsical. Later the actor is superb as the Doctor tries to outwit the court, keeping Nero happy with flattery. He also excels at finding a clever way of fooling everyone what a great lyre player (and indeed liar) he is in an ingenious riff on The Emperor’s New Clothes. None of this is subtle by the way, but it is so much fun you don’t mind. Alongside this lighter side the first Doctor also seems to be becoming keener on physical combat; after his tussle in `The Rescue`, he again has a brawl here and boasts about it afterwards!

There’s a running gag with the two sets of regulars just missing each other as one enters, another exits. Despite all four being in Nero’s court by part three, the Doctor and Vicki never meet Ian and Barbara while there. For her second story Maureen O’Brien gets a bit less to do than the others though her interactions with the court poisoner are interesting. The grimmer side of the tale falls to Ian who ends up in a galley in the story’s most effectively ambitious scene, Director Christopher Barry conjures up something that seems as big as those old action films despite only having the money for about an eighth of a galley. Yet it works courtesy of inventive angles and some water being chucked at the poor oarsmen off camera.

While the serial does sometimes struggle to realise the full grandeur of Rome there are some clever set designs which represent it well enough. Use of drapes and basic columns, lighting and close up sequences ensure we feel the place is larger than it is. The villa and galley sets are the most impressive. The scope of the narrative is however a little too big for it to depict a convincing burning city at the end. `The Romans` is something of a kickback against people who say Doctor Who became too silly later on because this is one of the sillier stories in the canon and it works rather well.