510 City of Death: Part One

EPISODE: City of Death: Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 510
STORY NUMBER: 105
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 29 September 1979
WRITER: "David Agnew" (pseudonym for Douglas Adams, Graham Williams, and David Fisher)
DIRECTOR: Michael Hayes
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 12.4 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - City of Death

"Help us, Scaroth! Help us! The fate of the Jagaroth is with you! Help us! Scaroth, you are our only hope! Our only hope! Help us! Scaroth! Scaroth! The Jagaroth! The Jagaroth!"

On a barren planet the spaceship carrying the last of the Jagaroth prepares to lift of. It's pilot Scaroth is ordered to lift off using warp thrust, which he objects to. As the ship leaves the ground it is destroyed. In 1979 Paris the Doctor & Romana enjoy the sights. In an underground laboratory Professor Kerensky complains about the lack of money to continue his experiments so his employer, Count Scarlioni, gives him a million francs and orders his servant Hermann to sell one of their Guttenberg bibles. While taking lunch in a cafe the Doctor & Romana become aware of a time disturbance and decide to investigate. An artist painting a picture of Romana depicts her face as a clock, prompting her and the Doctor to argue about art so he takes her to the Louvre and shows her the Mona Lisa. They encounter another time disturbance there, causing the Doctor to collapse onto woman, and then a man, carrying a gun, who follows them. Scarlioni congratulates Kerensky on the success of his experiments. The Doctor & Romana stop for a rest, and the Doctor shows her a bracelet, actually a high technology scanner, that he took from the woman. The man with the gun catches up with them and marches them into a nearby bar. The woman, the Countess Scarlioni, reports back to her husband what has happened and he orders the bracelet recovered. The Count's men catch up with the Doctor, Romana and the Detective Duggan, who had been following the Countess, and retrieve the bracelet. The Doctor tells Duggan that he thinks someone may want to steel the Mona Lisa. The Count orders the Doctor, Romana & Duggan brought to his house. Duggan tells the Doctor of how missing works of art are turning up which appear connected to Count Scarlioni before some more thugs turn up to take them to the Count. In the locked laboratory the count surveys the equipment, pausing in front of a mirror to remove the mask that forms his face and revealing that of Scaroth, the last of the Jagaroth!

What a fabulous ending! The slightly dodgy Count Carlos Scarlioni is revealed to be the very alien we saw at the start of the episode!

He's got a lovely Spaceship too, this and the Movellan ship in Destiny of the Daleks are probably the best bits of model work that are ever done in the show.

Unfortunately the ship isn't on the screen for that long......

JAGAROTH: Twenty soneds to warp thrust.
SCAROTH: Confirmed.
JAGAROTH: Thrust against planet's surface set to power three.
SCAROTH: Negative. Power three too severe.
JAGAROTH: Scaroth, it must be power three. It must be.
SCAROTH: Warp thrust from planet's surface is untested. At power three it is suicide. Advised. JAGAROTH: Ten soneds to warp thrust.
SCAROTH: Advise!
JAGAROTH: The Jagaroth are in your hands. Without secondary engines we must use our main warp thrust. You know this, Scaroth. It is our only hope. You are our only hope.
SCAROTH: And I am the only one directly in warp field. I know the dangers.
JAGAROTH: Three, two, one.
SCAROTH: What will happen if
JAGAROTH: Full power!

JAGAROTH: Help us, Scaroth! Help us! The fate of the Jagaroth is with you! Help us! Scaroth, you are our only hope! Our only hope! Help us! Scaroth! Scaroth! The Jagaroth! The Jagaroth!

That's it from the alien till the end of the episode when he stands revealed as The Count!

How and why the alien is now in 1979's Paris is a mystery that will be revealed as the story progresses.....

But we are in Paris for City of Death, both as a filming location and as a setting. And Paris' most famous art treasure is bang in the centre of the story from the word got:

DOCTOR: There we are, the Louvre. One of the greatest art galleries in the whole galaxy.
ROMANA: Nonsense! What about the Academia Stellaris on Sirius Five?
DOCTOR: What? Oh no. No, no.
ROMANA: Or the Solariun Pinaquotheque at Strikian?
DOCTOR: Oh, no, no.
ROMANA: Or the Braxiatel Collection?
DOCTOR: No, no, no, no, no, no!

We get a brief mention of the Braxiatel Collection there which will spawn a character and location featured in several of the Doctor Who New Adventures books.

DOCTOR: This is the gallery. The only gallery in the known universe which a picture like The Mona Lisa.
ROMANA: It's quite good.
DOCTOR: Quite good? That's one of the great treasures of the universe and you say quite good?
ROMANA: The world, Doctor, the world.
DOCTOR: What are you talking about?
ROMANA: Not the universe in public, Doctor. It only calls attention.
DOCTOR: I don't care. It's one of the great treasures of the universe!
ROMANA: Shush!
DOCTOR: I don't care. Let them gawp, let them gape. What do I care.
ROMANA: Why hasn't she got any eyebrows?
DOCTOR: What? Is that all you can say? No eyebrows? We're talking about the Mona Lisa!

And quite quickly it becomes obvious that someone wants to half inch it!

ROMANA: What's this?
DOCTOR: The woman I bumped into was wearing it.
ROMANA: And you stole it from her?
DOCTOR: Look at it.
ROMANA: It's a micromeson scanner.
DOCTOR: That's right. She was using it to get a complete report on all the alarm systems around the Mona Lisa.
ROMANA: You mean she's trying to steal it?
DOCTOR: It is very a pretty painting.
ROMANA: It's a very sophisticated device for a level five civilisation.
DOCTOR: That? That's never the product of Earth's civilisation.
ROMANA: Do you mean an alien's trying to steal the Mona Lisa?
DOCTOR: It is a very pretty painting.

The Who wants to pinch it seems to be part of a larger mystery:

DUGGAN: What's Scarlioni's angle?
DOCTOR: Scarlioni's angle? Never heard of it. Have you ever heard of Scarlioni's angle?
ROMANA: No, I was never any good at geometry.
DOCTOR: Who's Scarlioni?
DUGGAN: Count Scarlioni.
DOCTOR: What?
DUGGAN: Everyone on Earth's heard of Count Scarlioni.
DOCTOR: Ah, well, we've only just landed on Earth.
DUGGAN: Right, fine, that's it. I give up! You're crazy!
DOCTOR: Crazy enough to want to steal the Mona Lisa?
DOCTOR: Or at least be interested in someone who might want to steal the Mona Lisa.

DUGGAN: So, you can imagine the furore.
ROMANA: The what?
DUGGAN: Furore. The whole art word in an uproar.
ROMANA: Oh, furore.
DUGGAN: Masterpieces that have apparently been missing over the centuries are just turning up all over the place.
DOCTOR: All fakes, of course.
DUGGAN: They've got to be, haven't they? Haven't they?
ROMANA: Are they?
DUGGAN: They're very, very good ones. They stand up to every scientific test.
DOCTOR: Really? What, and the only connection in this is the Count?
DUGGAN: Yes.
DOCTOR: So?
DUGGAN: Nothing dirty can be proved, though. He's clean. Absolutely clean. So clean he stinks.
DOCTOR: He isn't clean any more. The Countess has the bracelet.
DUGGAN: What's that bracelet worth?
DOCTOR: Well, it depends on what you want to do with it

A large part of this episode is spent wandering round Paris showing it off to make best use of the decision to film there.

DOCTOR: It's the only place in the world where one can relax entirely.
ROMANA: Mmm. That bouquet.
DOCTOR: What Paris has, it has an ethos, a life. It has
ROMANA: A bouquet?
DOCTOR: A spirit all of its own. Like a wine, It has
ROMANA: A bouquet.
DOCTOR: It has a bouquet. Yes. Like a good wine. You have to choose one of the vintage years, of course.
ROMANA: What year is this?
DOCTOR: Ah well, yes. It's 1979 actually. More of a table wine, shall we say. Ha! The randomiser's a useful device but it lacks true discrimination. Should we sip it and see?
ROMANA: Oh, I'd be delighted. Shall we take the lift or fly?
DOCTOR: Let's not be ostentatious.
ROMANA: All right. Let's fly then.
DOCTOR: That would look silly. We'll take the lift. Come on.

So we get to see some of it's most famous locations starting with the Eiffel Tower, both outside from ground level and inside the tower at some height!

And because the story heavily features the Mona Lisa it's only right it's home the Louvre Gallery appears.

We also get to see Notre Dame Cathedral and the Sienne River.

Rue Vielle du Temple provides an amazing looking pair of doors complete with heads reminiscent of this story's alien!

Since he's in Paris that Doctor gets to ride on it's famous Metro System, similar to London Underground.

They board Line 6 at the above ground Dupleix station near the Eiffel Tower.

The next time we see the train it's bellow ground for it's call at Trocadéro Metro Station before the Doctor & Romana leave it at Boissière Metro Station which we see at platform and surface level.

There's many other locations round the city used in this episode so have a look at Doctor Who Locations.net's guide for this story. Hurrah, It's our old friend David Agnew again in the writers chair! Except, as we know from Invasion of Time, "David Agnew" is a pseudonym used when the show's staff end up writing a story in a time of crisis.

The original story meant for this slot, A Gamble With Time, was originally written by David Fisher, who had already completed The Creature from the Pit, the third story shown this season but the first filmed. Originally written as a Bulldog Drummond parody, the action was shifted to Monte Carlo. *Then* the cost of location filming in Paris was assessed and found to be within the program's budget so the action would have to switched to Paris. At this point Fisher was experiencing marital difficulties so, as the story goes, producer Graham Williams, one half of the Invasion of Time David Agnew, and Script Editor Douglas Adams locked themselves away for a weekend and wrote the script.

This appears to be the first time that Douglas Adams is locked away until a story is written. It wouldn't be the last and would later prove the most effective method of getting a book out of him with Douglas typing in one room while his editor worked next door!

Adams also makes a cameo appearance in this episode! He can be seen as a man having a drink in the bar, first just behind the Doctor as he gets up to leave the cafe and then sitting at a table as Duggan brings them back in.

Meanwhile the shifty-looking man wearing a cloth cap and carrying a metal case who exits the train at Boissière Metro Station after the Doctor and Romana is the story's director Michael Hayes !

DUGGAN: All right, that's enough. Very cleverly staged, but you don't fool me.
DOCTOR: What are you talking about?
DUGGAN: Your men who were in here just now.
DOCTOR: My men? Those thugs?
DUGGAN: Your thugs.
DOCTOR: Are you suggesting those men were in my employ?

The Thug in the trilby in the gallery who then later deprives the Doctor of the bracelet is obviously Pat Gorman making his only appearance this season so it's time for a ceremonial reading of his full Doctor Who credits: he was a Freedom Fighter/Rebel in Dalek Invasion of Earth, a Planetarian in Mission to the Unknown: Delegate Detective thinks he's Sentreal the black Christmas tree, a Greek Soldier in The Myth Makers, a Guard in Massacre, a Worker in The War Machines, a Monk in The Abominable Snowmen, a Guard in The Enemy of the World, a Cyberman in The Invasion, a Technician in The Seeds of Death, a Military Policeman in The War Games episode two, the Silurian Scientist in The Silurians, a Technician in The Ambassadors of Death, a Primord in Inferno, the Auton Leader in Terror of the Autons, a Primitive and Long in Colony in Space, a Coven Member in The Dæmons, a Guard & Film Cameraman in Day of the Daleks, a Sea Devil in The Sea Devils, a UNIT Soldier in The Three Doctors, a Presidential Guard and Sea Devil in in Frontier in Space, and a Global Chemicals Guard / 'Nuthatch' Resident in The Green Death, a UNIT Corporal in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Guard in The Monster of Peladon, a Soldier in Planet of the Spiders, the Gate Guard in Robot part one, a Thal Soldier in Genesis of the Daleks, a Cyberman/Dead Crewman in Revenge of the Cybermen, a Guard in The Seeds of Doom, a Soldier/Brother in The Masque of Mandragora, a Chancellory Guard in The Deadly Assassin, a Medic in The Invisible Enemy, a Kro in The Ribos Operation and the Pilot in The Armageddon Factor. He returns as a Gundan in Warriors' Gate, a Foster in The Keeper of Traken, Grogan in Enlightenment, a Soldier in The Caves of Androzani, a Slave Worker and a Cyberman in Attack of the Cybermen. Of those it' easiest to spot his face in Abominable Snowmen, Planet of the Spiders, Robot and The Armageddon Factor! He's got several Blake's 7 appearances to his name as a Scavenger in Deliverance, Federation Trooper / Rebel in Voice from the Past, Trantinian planet hopper Captain in Gambit, Death Squad Trooper in Powerplay, Federation Trooper in The Harvest of Kyros & Rumours of Death, Hommik Warrior in Power, Helot in Traitor and a Federation Trooper in Games & Blake. We was also in Adam Adamant Lives! as a Guard in More Deadly Than the Sword, a Man at Club in Beauty Is an Ugly Word, a Coven Member in The Village of Evil, a War Office Guard / TA Soldier in D for Destruction and an S.S. Guard in A Sinister Sort of Service. He appears once in The Prisoner as a Hospital Orderly in Hammer Into Anvil and just once in Doomwatch as Man in Hear No Evil. His Porridge appearance in the second Christmas Special The Desperate Hours is another easy spot: he's the Prison Officer who comes into the loos as Fletcher and friends are sampling the contraband home brew. He was in two episodes of The Sweeney as a Flying Squad Officer in Thou Shalt Not Kill (director: D Camfield) & Latin Lady, and two The Tomorrow People stories: Worlds Away as the Vesh Hunter and War of the Empires as a US Marine. In the BBC The Day of the Triffids he played a Blind Man in episode 5 while in Douglas Camfield & Robert Holmes adpation of The Nightmare Man he played The Killer with Camfield using him again as a Legionnaire in Beau Geste. He was in The Professionals five times: as a Golfer in Killer with a Long Arm, a CI5 Agent in Close Quarters & Servant of Two Masters, a Security Man in Weekend in the Country and the Police Superintendant at inquest in Discovered in a Graveyard. He's a Policeman again in The Young Ones: Interesting and towards the end of his career Russell T Davies uses him in Dark Season as a Heavy.

IMDB doesn't name the thug with Gorman towards the end of the episode but Aveleyman reckons it was Peter Kodak who previously an Elite Guard in Genesis of the Daleks.

SCARLIONI: Good. Thank you, you may go.

SCARLIONI: But not good enough. Kill them.
HERMANN: The detective and his friends, Excellency?
SCARLIONI: No, Hermann, those two fools.
HERMANN: With pleasure, Excellency.

Neither return for the next episode!

Meanwhile the two detectives in the Louvre are both regulars: James Muir had been a Soldier in The Time Monster, a UNIT Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Muto in Genesis of the Daleks, a UNIT Soldier in Terror of the Zygons, a Brother in The Masque of Mandragora, a Death Attendant in The Sun Makers, a Technician in The Pirate Planet, and a Druid in The Stones of Blood He will return as a Mandrel in Nightmare of Eden, then would have been the Man Fishing and a Krarg in Shada, after which he was seen as a Foamasi in The Leisure Hive, a Gaztak in Meglos, a Tharil in Warriors' Gate, a Police Driver in Black Orchid, a Policeman in Time Flight, an RAF Driver in Remembrance of the Daleks. He'd been in Blake's 7 as a Federation Trooper in Seek-Locate-Destroy, a Phibian in Orac, a Rebel in Pressure Point, a Monster in Dawn of the Gods, a Link in Rescue, a Helot in Traitor, a Pirate Guard in Assassin & a Federation Trooper in Blake. He was the Vl'Hurg Leader i episode 4 of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and was a technician in Moonbase 3: Castor and Pollux. The other detective was Mike Mungarvan: he'd been a Mutt in The Mutants, a Guard in The Face of Evil, an Outsider/Outcast Time Lord in The Invasion of Time, a Druid in The Stones of Blood, a Gracht Guard in The Androids of Tara and a Dalek Operator in the previous story Destiny of the Daleks. He returns as an Argolin / Pangol Image in The Leisure Hive, a Citizen in Full Circle, Kilroy in Warriors' Gate, the 1st Kinda Hostage in Kinda, Ranulf's Knight in The King's Demons, a Soldier in Resurrection of the Daleks, a Jacondan in The Twin Dilemma, an Extra and the Duty Officer in The Trial of a Time Lord, a Lakertyan / Tetrap / Genius in Time and the Rani, and a Policeman in Silver Nemesis. He's also been in the new series once as a Passer By in The Christmas Invasion. He was in Blake's 7 as a Prisoner in The Way Back & Space Fall, an Alta Guard in Redemption, a Customer / Gambler in Gambit, a Helot in Traitor and a Rebel Technician / Federation Trooper in Blake, making him one of the few people to appear in the first and last episodes of that series. He was also in Fawlty Towers as a Hospital Orderly in The Germans, The Sweeney as a Constable in Victims and The Professionals as Will in Black Out.

LOTS of reused props in this episode!

In the spaceship's control room, there is a 2001: A Space Odyssey spacesuit chest unit painted black as per The Armageddon Factor!

For more see Hello Spaceman: 2001 A Space Odyssey Recycled for more on these props appearances in Doctor Who.

Then there's the consoles on top of the computer tape reels

We first saw those two stories ago in The Armageddon Factor then again last story in Destiny of the Daleks, though their use here was filmed first.

In long shot one of them is upside down!

But we've seen that console Count Scarlioni is standing by before too:

It's the pilot's console from the Marshall's shuttle in The Armageddon Factor.

DOCTOR: Nice, isn't it?
ROMANA: Yes, marvellous.
DOCTOR: Marvellous. Absolutely.
ROMANA: Absolutely marvellous.
DOCTOR: Well, I think it's marvellous.
ROMANA: So do I. Though it's not quite as you described it.
DOCTOR: Really? How did I describe it?
ROMANA: You said it was nice.

What I've written really doesn't do what I've seen this episode justice. This is a fabulous episode, a witty script enhanced by some stunning location footage in Paris and some top performances. You really need to buy the DVD & watch it. And yet it's initial viewing figures - remember ITV are still out on strike - are less than those for any episode of Destiny of the Daleks!