512 City of Death: Part Three

EPISODE: City of Death: Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 512
STORY NUMBER: 105
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 13 October 1979
WRITER: "David Agnew" (pseudonym for Douglas Adams, Graham Williams, and David Fisher)
DIRECTOR: Michael Hayes
SCRIPT EDITOR: Douglas Adams
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
RATINGS: 15.4 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - City of Death

"Just about to pop off through time again, Doctor? How very discourteous when I'd gone to all the trouble of fetching the thumbscrews!"

Duggan & Romana walk into the Louvre, with all it's alarms having been immobilised, and find the Mona Lisa gone. Duggan mistakenly sets the alarm off forcing them to make a hasty exit. Kerensky, having recovered, find the room at the back of the cellar with the six Mona Lisas and find the unconscious Count who starts to recover, using the same words that Captain Tancredi is speaking in 1505. Tancredi tells The Doctor of how the Jagaroth wiped themselves out in a war and that the survivors were killed when their spaceship exploded on a primordial lifeless world. Scaroth was splintered through time as identical copies in contact with one another. Tancredi has had the Mona Lisas made by Leonardo DaVinci for Scarlioni to find. Tancredi decides to torture the Doctor for information. The Doctor escapes his guard, writing This Is A Fake on the back of the parchments Tancredi intends to get Leonardo to use and leaves a note for DaVinci. Unfortunately as he is about to leave Tancredi arrives with the thumb screws. Scarlioni recovers and puts Kerensky back to work. Romana & Duggan meet up at the deserted Cafe. The Count has Kerensky modify his machinery, but Kerensky refuses, as Hermon enters with the stolen Mona Lisa. The Doctor tells Tancredi that he is a Time Lord. The Count raves about his achievements in front of his wife, worrying her. Tancredi too is overcome by his other selves communicating with him allowing the Doctor to escape in the Tardis, returning to 1979. Romana leaves a note for the Doctor at the Cafe as she and Duggan wonder if Scarlioni has travelled in time to arrange the copies. They return to the count's château, with the Doctor collecting his note sometime later. Hermon holds Romana & Duggan for Scarlioni while the count tries to persuade Romana to help build his time machine. Romana is convinced Scarlioni could destroy Paris with his machine. Kerensky is killed by Scarlioni using it, who ages him to death.

Somehow, and I can't quite put my finger on it, something is just slightly off about this episode compared to the two that preceded it. Yes the dialogue still sparkles, but somehow , possibly due to the necessity of having to explain what's going on, this doesn't quite work so well. And yet Destiny of the Daleks Part 4's record of 14.4 million viewers falls after just 3 weeks, being smashed by an entire million extra viewers! And we're not done yet.....

And there is A LOT of explanation this episode:

SCARLIONI: Doctor, will you explain to me exactly how you come to be in Paris 1979 and

TANCREDI: Florence 1505. I am waiting, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Well, I do flit about a bit, you know.
TANCREDI: Through time?
DOCTOR: Yes, I suppose so.
TANCREDI: How, precisely?
DOCTOR: I don't know. I don't seem to be able to help myself. There I am, just walking along minding my own business and pop! I'm on a different planet or even a different time. But enough of my problems. What are you doing here?
TANCREDI: I will tell you. The knowledge will be of little use to you, since you will shortly die. I am the last of the Jagaroth. I am also the saviour of the Jagaroth.
DOCTOR: Well, I mean, if you're the last of them, there can't be that many about to save, can there? Jagaroth?
TANCREDI: You've heard of us.
DOCTOR: Jagaroth. I think it was on one of my trips. Yes, you all destroyed yourself in some massive war. Wait, when.
TANCREDI: Four hundred million years I think is the figure you're looking for.
DOCTOR: Is it really? How time passes. So what are you doing here?
TANCREDI: Surviving. The prime motive of all species. We were not all destroyed. A few of us escaped in a crippled spacecraft and made planetfall in this world in its primeval time. We found it uninhabitable.
DOCTOR: Yes, well, four hundred million years ago it would have been a bit of a shambles. No life to tidy it up. No life.
TANCREDI: We tried to leave but the ship disintegrated. I was fractured. Splinters of my being are scattered in time. All identical, none complete. I am not satisfied with your explanation. How do you travel through time?
DOCTOR: Well, as I was saying
TANCREDI: What is that box?
DOCTOR: What box?
TANCREDI: That box.
DOCTOR: That box? I don't know. I've never seen that box in my life. Ah!
DOCTOR: The original, I presume? Completed in 1503 and it's now what, 1505, and you're getting the old boy to do you another six, yes, which you then brick up in a cellar in Paris for Scarlioni to find in four hundred and seventy four time. That's a very nice piece of capital investment.
TANCREDI: I can see that you are a dangerously clever man, Doctor. I think it's time we conducted this conversation somewhat more formally.
DOCTOR: Oh, thank you.
TANCREDI: Hold him here while I collect the instruments of torture. If he wags his tongue, confiscate it.
DOCTOR: How can I talk if you confiscate my
TANCREDI: You can write, can't you?

While this is going on Count Scarlioni has been acting slightly distractedly in 1979:

SCARLIONI: Kerensky.
KERENSKY: Yes?
SCARLIONI: Where am I?
KERENSKY: In Paris, of course.
SCARLIONI: Paris.
KERENSKY: Yes.
SCARLIONI: A dream. Perhaps a dream.
KERENSKY: Who, who are you?
SCARLIONI: I am who I am, Kerensky. I am the one who pays you to work. Now, to it. Time is short.
KERENSKY: But your face.
SCARLIONI: Do you pick a quarrel with my face, Kerensky? Beware I do not pick a quarrel with yours. I may choose instruments somewhat sharper than words.
KERENSKY: Who are the Jagaroth?
SCARLIONI: So, no dream. The Jagaroth. You serve the Jagaroth. Now work!
KERENSKY: It's the Jagaroth who need all the chickens, is it?
SCARLIONI: The chickens! You never cease to amaze me, that such a giant intellect could live in such a tiny mind.
JAGAROTH : Scaroth!
SCARLIONI: I must think. I must have time to think.
KERENSKY: What have you been making me work for? I thought we were working to feed the human race.
SCARLIONI: The human race. We are working for a far greater purpose, on a scale you could not conceive. The fate of the Jagaroth is in my hands, and you will work for my purpose willingly or unwillingly.

SCARLIONI: You will now see the true end product of your labours. This is what you will now produce for me. Look at it.
KERENSKY: But Count, this machine is precisely the reverse of what we, of what I have been working on.
SCARLIONI: But you will agree that the research you have done under my guidance points equally well in either direction.
KERENSKY: Yes, yes, it does. It means increasing the very effect I was trying to eliminate.
SCARLIONI: Precisely.
KERENSKY: But the scale of this is fantastic. Count, what you are trying to do, this is monstrous beyond imagining.
SCARLIONI: But you will do it.
KERENSKY: No! A thousand times no.
SCARLIONI: What?
KERENSKY: Even if I wanted to, I could not.
SCARLIONI: Oh? Why is that?
KERENSKY: Equipment on this scale, power on this scale, it would cost millions and millions. Even you, Count, could not afford such things.
HERMANN : Excellency! Excellency! The Mona Lisa is no longer in the Louvre!
SCARLIONI: Ha ha! Excellent, Hermann, excellent.
HERMANN: The moment the news breaks, sir, each of our seven buyers will be ready.
SCARLIONI: And how much money will this bring us, Hermann?
HERMANN: About a hundred million dollars, sir.
SCARLIONI: Continue with your work, Professor. Enjoy it, or you will die.

But as yet it's unclear what they're building.

Meanwhile back in 1605:

TANCREDI: I haven't started yet.
DOCTOR: I know, it's just his hands are cold.
TANCREDI: So sensitive. I think we're in for a little treat.
DOCTOR: All this is totally unnecessary.
TANCREDI: You make it necessary. You will not tell me the truth.
DOCTOR: I've changed my mind. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's being tortured by someone with cold hands. What is it you want to know?
TANCREDI: Excellent. I want to know how you travel through time.
DOCTOR: It's simple. I'm a Time Lord.
TANCREDI: And the girl? The truth.
DOCTOR: Well.
TANCREDI: Time is running out, Doctor.
DOCTOR: What do you mean, time's running out. It's only 1505. All right, all right. I'll tell you. There is one thing I'd like to know is how do you communicate across time with the other splinters of yourself?
TANCREDI: I am asking the questions.

We get to see at least six version of Scaroth, all played by Julian Glover in different costume and makeup. Scarlioni & Tancredi are the only identifiable ones here:

SCAROTH: Scaroth. Scaroth.
DOCTOR: Are you all right?
TANCREDI: Continue. The interface of the time continuums is unstable, I know that. Tell me, tell me something useful.
SCAROTH: Scaroth!
TANCREDI: Wait!
DOCTOR: Right-o.
TANCREDI: No, not you. Continue, Doctor.
SCAROTH: Scaroth!
TANCREDI: A moment!
DOCTOR: Is he often like this?
SOLDIER: I'm not paid to notice.
TANCREDI: Yes, I know.
SCAROTH: Scaroth!
SOLDIER: Captain!
TANCREDI: I know. Leave us.
SOLDIER: Us?
TANCREDI: Me. Leave me!
SOLDIER: Sir.
SCAROTH: Scaroth!
TANCREDI: I'm coming. Yes.
SCAROTH: Scaroth! We are here. Together we are Scaroth. I am Scaroth. Me, together in one. The Jagaroth live through me. Together we have pushed this puny race of humans, shaped their paltry destiny to meet our ends. Soon we shall be. The centuries that divide me shall be undone. The centuries that divide me shall be undone.
TANCREDI: The centuries that divide me shall be undone! DOCTOR: The centuries that divide me shall be undone. I don't like the sound of that!

Returning to Paris The Doctor lands in the Galerie Denise René on Boulevard Saint Germain, one of the two new locations we see in this episode.

Meanwhile The Cobbled Street we see Romana & Duggan running down is Rue Saint Julien Le Pauvre.

They've just left the cafe: when the Doctor returns there looking for them we get another cameo from author & script editor Douglas Adams!

Playing Tancredi's soldier, who we saw earlier in the episode is an old Doctor Who face, and voice, is Peter Halliday. He was in The Invasion as Packer, the Silurians as the Silurian Voices, The Ambassadors of Death as the Alien Voices and Carnival of Monsters as Pletrac. He has one more appearance to come as in Remembrance of the Daleks as the Vicar. He appeared in two of the earliest television series A for Andromeda and The Andromeda Breakthrough as Doctor John Fleming. He too was in Out Of The Unknown appearing in the sole completely surviving third season episode The Last Lonely Man, directed by Douglas Camfield where he played Patrick Wilson. This episode is also on the Out Of The Unknown DVD set linked to above. He appears in UFO as Dr. Segal in A Question of Priorities, the missing third season Doomwatch episode Say Knife, Fat Man as Rafael Dominguez, The Sweeney episode I Want the Man as Chief Insp. Gordon and the last first season episode of The Tripods as the Interrogator

Meanwhile Duggan, teamed with Romana for this episode, is played by Tom Chadbon, here playing Duggan, will be back in the first four episodes of Trial of a Timelord as Merdeen. He appears in one of the surviving fourth season Out of the Unknown episodes, The Man in My Head, as Brinson which you can see in the Out of the Unknown DVD Set. Earlier in the year this episode was shown he was in the second season Blake's 7 episode Countdown, as Del Grant the brother of Avon's long lost love Anna. He can be briefly seen s a Stockbroker in the 2006 version of Casino Royale.

Having left the Cafe Duggan and Romana have made the mistake of returning to the Count's Château where they are quickly apprehended!

SCARLIONI: My dear, it was not necessary for you to enter my house by, we could hardly call it stealth. You had only to knock on the door. I've been very anxious to renew our acquaintance. In fact, I was almost on the point of sending out a search party.
DUGGAN: Listen, Scarlioni.
SCARLIONI: I'm speaking to the young lady. You have some knowledge which could be very useful to me.
DUGGAN: You'd better not touch her, Scarlioni.
SCARLIONI: Oh, do be quiet.
ROMANA: I'll look after myself, thank you.
SCARLIONI: Please, do sit down. Now I understand you have some highly specialised knowledge which could be of immense service to me.
ROMANA: Who, me?
SCARLIONI: I'm speaking of temporal engineering. I am told that you are a considerable authority on time travel.
ROMANA: Well, I don't know who could have given you that idea.
SCARLIONI: Your friend the Doctor let it slip.
ROMANA: The Doctor? But he's in er
SCARLIONI: Yes, Florence, sixteenth century. That's where I, we met him.
DUGGAN: Can anyone join in this conversation or do you need a certificate?
SCARLIONI: If he interrupts again, Hermann, kill him.
HERMANN: Sir.
SCARLIONI: Perhaps you'd care to come downstairs and examine the equipment in more detail?
ROMANA: And if I refuse?
SCARLIONI: Oh, must we go into vulgar threats? Let us just say that I shall destroy Paris, if that'll help you make up your minds.
ROMANA: And am I supposed to believe you can do that?
SCARLIONI: Well, you won't know until you've seen the equipment, will you. Bring him.
HERMANN: Yes, sir.

DUGGAN: Can he?
ROMANA: What?
DUGGAN: Destroy Paris?
ROMANA: What, with this lot?
DUGGAN: Yeah.
ROMANA: No trouble. Blast the whole city through an unstablised time field.
DUGGAN: You don't seriously believe all this time travel nonsense, do you?
ROMANA: Do you believe wood comes from trees?
DUGGAN: What do you mean?
ROMANA: It's just a fact of life one's brought up with.
SCARLIONI: You're beginning to appreciate the truth of my words then, are you?
ROMANA: That you can destroy Paris? Yes.
KERENSKY: Why all this talk of destruction? What are you doing with my work?
SCARLIONI: Professor, I shall show you. Would you care to examine the field generator? You will now see, my dear, how I deal with fools.
KERENSKY: No, not that switch!

Kerensky's demise is an old classic, ageing someone to death, and it's been done at least once before in The Dalek Masterplan 12 when Sara Kingdom dies. Visually impressive we see a fit and healthy Kerensky aged to the point where there's nothing but bone left!