City of Death

105 – City of Death
Doctor Who serial
The face of Scaroth.
Cast
Doctor Tom Baker (Fourth Doctor)
Companion Lalla Ward (Romana)
Others Julian Glover — Count/Tancredi Catherine Schell — Countess David Graham — Kerensky Kevin Flood — Hermann Tom Chadbon — Duggan Peter Halliday — Soldier Eleanor Bron, John Cleese — Art Gallery Visitors Pamela Stirling — Louvre Guide
Production
Writer	"David Agnew" (pseudonym for David Fisher, Douglas Adams and Graham Williams)
Director	Michael Hayes
Script editor	Douglas Adams
Producer	Graham Williams
Executive producer(s)	None
Production code	5H
Series	Season 17
Length	4 episodes, 25 minutes each
Originally broadcast	September 29–October 20, 1979
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → Destiny of the Daleks The Creature from the Pit

City of Death is a serial from the seventeenth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was made by the BBC and first broadcast in four weekly parts between 29 September 1979 and 20 October 1979 on BBC1. It features the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and Romana (Lalla Ward). Set mainly in Paris in 1979, the plot concerns a scheme by an alien, Scaroth, to steal the Mona Lisa to finance experiments in time travel in the hope of averting the accident that marooned him on Earth four hundred million years previously, which also began the existence of life on the planet as well.

The storyline for City of Death was devised by David Fisher but was heavily re-written by script editor Douglas Adams, aided by producer Graham Williams, and was broadcast under the single pseudonym "David Agnew". It was the first Doctor Who serial to film on location outside of the United Kingdom. The fourth episode was watched by over sixteen million viewers, the highest audience ever attained by an episode of Doctor Who.

Plot

While leisurely enjoying the city of Paris with Romana, the Doctor feels effects of time distortion. At the Louvre while admiring the painting of the Mona Lisa, he encounters the Countess Scarlioni wearing an alien bracelet used to scan security systems. The Doctor and Romana meet Inspector Duggan who has been tailing Count Scarlioni for some time, as he has placed a large number of lost art treasures on the market, and fears the Scarlionis are looking to steal the Mona Lisa. Though the three are briefly captured by the Countess, the Doctor helps them to escape and explore the Count's mansion, where they discover equipment by Dr. Kerensky to experiment with time, the source of the Doctor's time distortions. They also discover, behind a wall, six exact copies of the Mona Lisa, each painted by Leonardo da Vinci himself.

Leaving Romana and Duggan to continue to investigate in the present, the Doctor uses his TARDIS to visit Leonardo's workshop. The workshop is empty but he runs into Captain Tancredi, whose appearance is the same as Count Scarlioni. Tancredi reveals he is Scaroth, the last of the Jagaroth race, stranded on Earth and fragmented through time due to an explosion of their spacecraft on Earth 400 million years ago. Seeking to restore himself and his race, Scaroth has had a hand in aiding human technological advancement to the point of being able to travel through time. Tancredi, in this era, has convinced Leonardo to paint 6 copies of the Mona Lisa such that when Scarlioni steals the real piece, he can then sell it seven times over, substantially funding the completion of Dr. Kerensky's work. The Doctor escapes from Tancredi, returning to Leonardo's workshop. He uses a felt-tip marker to write "This is a fake" on the six blank canvases and leaves instructions for Leonardo to paint over the text, as to allow them to track the copies in the future by X-raying them.

The Doctor returns to the present, and learns that Scaroth has succeeded in stealing the Mona Lisa. Furthermore, Scaroth has killed Dr. Kerensky and threatens to do the same to the entire city of Paris if Romana does not complete Kerensky's work. The Doctor manages to convince the Countess to help them by revealing the Count's alien face, but the Count kills her before she can react. With the time equipment fixed, Scaroth uses it to travel back 400 million years in hopes to stop the explosion of his ship. Though Romana reveals that the equipment will bring him back after 2 minutes, the Doctor asserts that it is enough time for Scaroth to stop the explosion of the Jagaroth ship, itself the source of the spark of energy that created the beginnings of life on Earth; should Scaroth prevent the explosion, humanity will never have existed. The Doctor, Romana, and Duggan race to the TARDIS and travel back to intercept Scaroth. Duggan punches Scaroth unconscious before he can stop the ship. Scaroth's body returns to the present as the ship attempts to take off and explodes, assuring the development of life on Earth.

In the present, Scaroth is killed by his henchman Hermann, who does not recognise him without his human mask, and a failure in the time equipment sets the mansion ablaze. By the time the Doctor, Romana, and Duggan arrive, the original and 5 of the 6 copies of the Mona Lisa has been destroyed, but one of the copies remains untouched. The Doctor proposes that since a copy of a painting by the original artist is not a fake, the painting should be considered the real work of art, reminding Duggan that art is worthless if its monetary value is all that matters. The Doctor and Romana say goodbye to Duggan at the Eiffel Tower.

Continuity

• In Part One, Romana makes a throwaway reference to a great art gallery called the Braxiatel Collection; the Virgin New Adventures novel series would later expand on this, introducing the character Irving Braxiatel, a Time Lord.^[1]Braxiatel also appears in the Bernice Summerfield series of novels and audio dramas and in the Gallifrey series of audio dramas.^[1]
• The Mona Lisa also played a key role in the fifth serial of the third series of The Sarah Jane Adventures, Mona Lisa's Revenge.
• In the Big Finish production, The Lost Stories: The Nightmare Fair, Colin Baker's Doctor says he knew "a person who liked to knock down walls ... in Paris", a reference to Duggan.
• Footage of the Doctor from this story appears in the projection from the Cybermen's datastamp in "The Next Doctor".

Production

Serial details by episode

Episode	Broadcast date	Run time	Viewership (in millions)
"Part One"	29 September 1979 (1979-09-29)	24:25	12.4
"Part Two"	6 October 1979 (1979-10-06)	24:33	14.1
"Part Three"	13 October 1979 (1979-10-13)	25:25	15.4
"Part Four"	20 October 1979 (1979-10-20)	25:08	16.1
[2][3][4]

Pre-production

Writer David Fisher had contributed two scripts to Doctor Who's sixteenth season – The Stones of Blood and The Androids of Tara – and was asked by producer Graham Williams for further story ideas. Fisher submitted two proposals; the first of these became The Creature from the Pit while the other, The Gamble with Time, concerned a plot to rig the casinos in Las Vegas to finance time travel experiments.^[5] Williams asked Fisher to rework The Gamble With Time as a Bulldog Drummond spoof.^[5] Fisher's draft script centered around Scarlioni, a member of the Sephiroth race, who had become fractured in time in an accident. The script was mainly set in the year 1928 with the Doctor and Romana, aided by Drummond-esque detective "Pug" Farquharson, on the trail of the stolen Mona Lisa, pursuing Scarlioni from Paris to Monte Carlo where his partner, the Baroness Heidi, is using time travel technology to cheat at roulette at the casino to fund Scarlioni's time travel experiments. Other settings included Paris in 1979, Leonardo da Vinci's studio in the year 1508 and prehistoric Earth.^[6] At this point, production unit manager John Nathan-Turner had worked out that the production team could afford to film on location in Paris with a stripped down crew.^[7] This necessitated a rewrite to Fisher's scripts to move the action to Paris and, for cost reasons, to drop the 1920s setting.^[7] K9 also had to be removed from the script as the cost of bringing the robot dog and his operators to Paris was prohibitive.^[8] However, Fisher was going through a divorce at this time and his personal situation meant that he was unable to perform the rewrites.^[6] This meant that script editor Douglas Adams, aided by Graham Williams, had to perform a complete rewrite of the story over the course of a weekend. According to Adams, Graham Williams "took me back to his place, locked me in his study and hosed me down with whisky and black coffee for a few days, and there was the script".^[9] The revised script, now titled The Curse of the Sephiroth, was credited to "David Agnew", a standard pseudonym used by the BBC and which had been previously used on Doctor Who for the season fifteen serial The Invasion of Time.^[10] The serial was subsequently retitled City of Death on 8 May 1979.^[11]

The idea of making six copies of the Mona Lisa to be sold to private collectors, after the real Mona Lisa is stolen, bears a striking resemblance to an alleged exploit of Eduardo de Valfierno.

Shooting

Assigned to direct City of Death was Michael Hayes who had previously directed the Doctor Who serials The Androids of Tara (1978) and The Armageddon Factor (1979) and had produced and directed A for Andromeda.^[12] He had prior experience of filming in Paris having worked there on adaptations of Maigret (1960–63) and other Georges Simenon stories for the BBC.^[13] Location filming took place in Paris between 30 April 1979 and 3 May 1979.^[7] It proved a difficult shoot as the dates coincided with the May Day holiday period which meant that many of the locations chosen for filming were closed, necessitating considerable improvisation on the part of the cast and crew.^[7] Model filming was conducted at Bray Studios between 8 May 1979 and 10 May 1979.^[14] These concentrated on the shots of the Jagaroth spacecraft taking off from the prehistoric Earth and were overseen by Ian Scoones, a veteran of Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds.^[14] Following rehearsals, production moved to BBC Television Centre where the remaining scenes were recorded in two blocks; the first between 21 May 1979 and 22 May 1979 and second between 3 June 1979 and 5 June 1979.^[15]

Cast notes

• Tom Baker found filming in Paris to be a very different experience to what he was used to in the UK where crowds would gather to watch the filming and meet the stars. Doctor Who was not shown in France at the time and so the cast and crew were largely ignored.^[16]
• Lalla Ward found City of Death the most challenging Doctor Who serial she worked on but was pleased with the final outcome, saying, "We had to film loads of scenes in the rain and cold... there was no glamour in it at all... it was different from the ordinary stories too and I like the finished result".^[17] Seeing her costumes as an important part in creating the role of Romana, Ward clashed with costume designer Doreen James, rejecting the silver catsuit James had designed for her for the story.^[18] Ward came up with the idea for the schoolgirl costume she wore in conjunction with Tom Baker, recalling, "I thought it would be fun to wear something that little girls probably hated wearing because it might cheer them up... I didn't bank on the fact that I'd also get loads of letters from their fathers saying 'Cool School uniform!'".^[19]
• Julian Glover was a well established character actor who had previously appeared in Doctor Who as Richard the Lionheart in The Crusade. Glover was reluctant to don the Jagaroth mask created for scenes where Scarlioni had shed his human disguise as he felt the mask would impede his performance. As a result, he is doubled by Richard Sheekey in many of these scenes.^[16]
• David Graham had provided Dalek voices in many William Hartnell Doctor Who serials between 1963 and 1966 and had played the part of Charlie in The Gunfighters.
• Tom Chadbon was cast as Duggan on account of his resemblance to the Franco-Belgian comics hero Tintin.^[13] He would later return to Doctor Who in the role of Merdeen in the serial The Trial of a Time Lord. He also played Gordon in the audio play No More Lies.
• Peter Halliday had previously appeared in the Doctor Who serials The Invasion, Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Ambassadors of Death and Carnival of Monsters . He returned to Doctor Who in the serial Remembrance of the Daleks.^[20]
• Douglas Adams knew John Cleese and Eleanor Bron through his connections with Monty Python and Cambridge Footlights.^[21] On learning that both would be working in BBC Television Centre on the day the art gallery scenes were to be recorded, he persuaded them to make a cameo appearance in a short scene written for "two Englishmen".^[21][22] Cleese and Bron agreed on the condition that there be no pre-publicity regarding their appearance; Cleese wanted them to be credited as "Helen Swanetsky" and "Kim Bread" but the BBC declined, failing to see the joke.^[23] During recording, Cleese and Baker also recorded two short comedy skits for the BBC Christmas tape.^[23] Bron later returned to play Kara in Revelation of the Daleks. She also played Ileana de Santos in the audio play Loups-Garoux.

Outside references

Douglas Adams would later reuse elements of City of Death, along with the unfinished Doctor Who serial Shada (1979; 2003), in his novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987).^[24]

Broadcast and reception

City of Death was broadcast on BBC1 over four consecutive Saturdays beginning on 29 September 1979.^[25] At this time, industrial action had blacked out rival broadcaster ITV and as a result, the serial scored very high ratings, averaging 14.5 million viewers over the four episodes; 16.1 million watched the fourth episode, the largest audience ever recorded for an episode of Doctor Who.^[25]

Audience appreciation ratings were taken for the first two episodes of City of Death and both episodes attained a respectable score of 64%.^[25] Listings magazine Radio Times published two letters from viewers regarding City of Death. Les Rogers of Hastings praised the serial's cast and the location filming; less impressed, however, was Paul R. Maskew of Exeter who felt the show was being played for laughs.^[25] Responding to similar criticisms from viewers, Douglas Adams wrote, "If the programme didn't move and take a few risks then it would have died of boredom years ago".^[26] Several viewers wrote to point out the discrepancy between the start of life on Earth of 4,000 million years ago and the date given in City of Death of 400 million years ago. Graham Williams replied, "The good Doctor makes the odd mistake or two but I think an error of 3,600 million years is pushing it! His next edition of the Encyclopedia Galactica will provide an erratum".^[26] Another viewer wrote to point out that the atmosphere of the primordial Earth would have been poisonous to the Doctor and his companions; Douglas Adams responded to this criticism, citing dramatic licence.^[26]

City of Death was voted into seventh place in a 1998 poll of the readers of Doctor Who Magazine to find the best Doctor Who story; the magazine commented that it "represented the height of Doctor Who as popular light entertainment for all the family".^[27] John Connor, writing in the fanzine DWB in 1991, hailed the story as "the best blend of kitsch, surrealism, fantasy and comedy-drama seen in our favourite Time Lord's annals".^[28] Vanessa Bishop, reviewing the serial's DVD release, described it as "imaginatively written, well-performed and beautifully made, City of Death is a story where pretty much everything works".^[29] Reacting to the serial, as part of Doctor Who Magazine's ongoing "Time Team" feature, Jacqueline Rayner said "you're suddenly, almost violently, made aware this is happening in our world... with people just getting on with their business and two Time Lords walking through it. I don't think I've ever experienced that with Doctor Who up till now... it's the tiny touches of mundanity amid the fantastical that lift the story even higher".^[30]

However, Doctor Who fandom's initial response to the serial was not so positive; John Peel, writing in the fanzine TARDIS in 1979, decried it as "total farce... I simply couldn't believe this was Doctor Who... the continual buffoonery is getting on my nerves".^[28] A similar view was held by Gary Russell who, reviewing the VHS release in 1993, said, "City of Death, like most Douglas Adams material is overrated and misses the mark for me, falling between the stools of good pastiche and bad parody and making fairly unsatisfactory viewing".^[31] This line was countered by Vanessa Bishop who called it "the Doctor Who story it's alright to laugh at... we must now accept that City of Death is funny - because if we didn't the Crackerjack-style sleuths, scientists and all... would leave it knocking about near the bottom of all the Doctor Who story ranking polls"^[32] and, responding to the criticisms about the levels of comedy, that "it's precisely these things that make it seem so special".^[29]

In Print

City of Death is one of the few Doctor Who serials from the series' original run (1963–1989) not to have been novelised by Target Books. Target approached Douglas Adams on a number of occasions with a view to commissioning a novelisation, offering their standard advance of £600; Adams replied saying, "I don't want to be embarrassing but I do have a tendency to be a best-selling author".^[33] Target, concerned that their regular authors would seek better terms, refused to change their offer.^[33] Several years later, Target editor Nigel Robinson offered an advance of £4,000 – double what was the standard advance at the time – but Adams again declined.^[34] Adams was unwilling to allow another author write the novelisation.^[34] An unofficial novelisation was written by David Lawrence and released on a not-for-profit basis by the New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club in 1993.^[35]

Ian Scoones' storyboards for City of Death's special effects sequences were published in Peter Haining's book Doctor Who – 25 Glorious Years in 1988^[36] and a Scaroth figure was released by Harlequin Miniatures in 1999.^[37]

VHS and DVD and releases

• The serial was released on VHS videotape in April 1991 with a cover by Andrew Skilleter.^[25] It was re-issued on VHS in 2001.^[38]
• A DVD of the serial was released in 2005.^[39]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Barnes, The Fact of Fiction. City of Death.
2. ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "City of Death". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-07-31. http://web.archive.org/web/20080731011450/http://www.gallifreyone.com/episode.php?id=5h. Retrieved 6 August 2011. 
3. ^ "City of Death". Doctor Who Reference Guide. http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5h.htm. Retrieved 6 August 2011. 
4. ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2007-08-07). "City of Death". A Brief History of Time Travel. http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/5h.html. Retrieved 6 August 2011. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Pixley, Archive Feature. City of Death, p. 26
6. ^ ^{a b} Strading & Morris, Paris in the Springtime.
7. ^ ^{a b c d} Pixley, Archive Feature. City of Death, p. 27
8. ^ Howe et al., The Handbook, p. 471.
9. ^ Gaiman, Don't Panic, p. 49.
10. ^ Barnes, The Fact of Fiction. City of Death, p. 16-17.
11. ^ Pixley, Archive Extra. City of Death, p. 38.
12. ^ Michael Hayes at the Internet Movie Database
13. ^ ^{a b} Hayes et al., City of Death DVD Commentary, Part One
14. ^ ^{a b} Pixley, Archive Feature. City of Death, p. 28
15. ^ Pixley, Archive Feature. City of Death, p. 28-29
16. ^ ^{a b} Wiggins, Production Notes, Part One.
17. ^ Marson, Richard (May 1984). "Lalla Ward Interview". Doctor Who Magazine (88): 20–24. ISSN 0957-9818. 
18. ^ Wiggins, Production Notes, Part Two.
19. ^ Cook, Benjamin (3 March 2004). "Across the Universe...". Doctor Who Magazine (340): 14–19. ISSN 0957-9818. 
20. ^ Peter Halliday at the Internet Movie Database
21. ^ ^{a b} Wiggins, Production Notes, Part Four.
22. ^ Pixley, Archive Feature. City of Death, p. 29
23. ^ ^{a b} Pixley, Archive Extra. City of Death, p. 38-39.
24. ^ Simpson, Hitchhiker, p. 232.
25. ^ ^{a b c d e} Pixley, Archive Feature. City of Death, p. 30
26. ^ ^{a b c} Wiggins, Production Notes, Part Three.
27. ^ Cornell, Paul (3 June 1998). "The DWM Awards: City of Death". Doctor Who Magazine (265): 14–15. ISSN 0957-9818. 
28. ^ ^{a b} Howe & Walker, The Television Companion, p, 478.
29. ^ ^{a b} Bishop, Vanessa (7 December 2005). "Off The Shelf". Doctor Who Magazine (363): 60–61. ISSN 0957-9818. 
30. ^ Pritchard, Michael (1 February 2005). "The Time Team". Doctor Who Magazine (365): 55–57. ISSN 0957-9818. 
31. ^ Russell, Gary (15 May 1991). "Off The Shelf". Doctor Who Magazine (173): 18–19. ISSN 0957-9818. 
32. ^ Bishop, Vanessa (30 May 2001). "The DWM Review". Doctor Who Magazine (304): 45. ISSN 0957-9818. 
33. ^ ^{a b} Simpson, Hitchhiker, p. 233
34. ^ ^{a b} Howe, David J. (2007). "Appendix C: Off Target". The Target Book: The History of the Target Doctor Who Books. Tim Neal. London: Telos. pp. 150. ISBN 978-1-84583-023-6. 
35. ^ "Doctor Who and the City of Death". New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club. http://nzdwfc.tetrap.com/archive/city/. Retrieved 2007-05-23. 
36. ^ Haining, Peter (1988). "Designs on Doctor Who". Doctor Who: 25 Glorious Years. London: W. H. Allen. pp. –. ISBN 1-85227-021-7. 
37. ^ Pixley, Archive Extra. City opf Death, p. 39.
38. ^ Barnes, The Fact of Fiction. City of Death, p. 23.
39. ^ Roberts, Steve; Jonathan Wood; Mark Ayres (2005-08-08). "City of Death". Doctor Who Restoration Team. http://www.purpleville.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/rtwebsite/cityofdeath.htm. Retrieved 2007-05-23. 

Bibliography

• "City of Death". "David Agnew" (writer); Michael Hayes (director); Graham Williams (producer). Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1. 1979-09-29–1979-10-20. No. 105, season 17.
• Barnes, Alan (8 December 2004). "The Fact of Fiction. City of Death". Doctor Who Magazine (350): 16–23. ISSN 0957-9818. 
• Gaiman, Neil (2003). Don't Panic. Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2nd ed.). London: Titan Books. ISBN 1-84023-742-2. 
• Hayes, Michael, Tom Chadbon, Julian Glover (2005). City of Death DVD Commentary (City of Death DVD Special Feature). London: 2|entertain. BBCDVD1664. 
• Howe, David; Stephen James Walker (2003). The Television Companion. The unofficial and unauthorised guide to Doctor Who (2nd ed.). London: Telos. ISBN 1-903889-52-9. 
• Howe, David; Stephen James Walker; Mark Stammers (2005). The Handbook. The unofficial and unauthorised guide to the production of Doctor Who. London: Telos. ISBN 1-903889-96-0. 
• Miles, Lawrence; Tat Wood (2004). About Time 4: The Unauthorized Guide to Doctor Who (Seasons 12 to 17). Illinois: Mad Norwegian Press. ISBN 0-9759446-3-0. 
• Pixley, Andrew (27 October 1993). "Archive Feature. Serial 5H. City of Death". Doctor Who Magazine (205): 23–30. ISSN 0957-9818. 
• Pixley, Andrew (22 December 2004). "Archive Extra. City of Death". Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition (9 - The Complete Fourth Doctor Volume Two): 37–39. ISSN 0963-1275. 
• Simpson, M. J. (2003). Hitchhiker. A biography of Douglas Adams. London: Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-82488-3. 
• Stradling, Ed (producer); Morris, Jonathan (writer) (2005). Paris in the Springtime (City of Death DVD Special Feature). London: 2|entertain. BBCDVD1664. 
• Wiggins, Martin (2005). Production Notes (City of Death DVD Special Feature). London: 2|entertain. BBCDVD1664. 

External links

	Doctor Who portal
	Hitchhiker's portal

• City of Death episode guide on the BBC website
• City of Death at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
• City of Death at the Doctor Who Reference Guide

Reviews

• City of Death reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide

Fan novelisation

• Doctor Who and the City of Death