Comments on: Doctor Who: City of Death

By: Caesar

Caesar — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:06:46 +0000

It must be said that Tom Baker was also getting rather bored with some of the stories and that his working relationship with Graham Williams was not as good as that between him and Philip Hinchcliffe. This shows in stories like ‘City of Death’.

By: Caesar

Caesar — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:02:41 +0000

City Of Death is not a particularly good story, despite the author being Douglas Adams, and the production values are rather cheap. There are also numerous holes and inconsistencies in the story. Some of the acting is rather poor too. There are a number of other stories that are better than this one.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 12:48:53 +0000

I just finished Leisure Hive yesterday, actually. It worked better for me, maybe because it was more of what I expected in terms of goofy costumes and design quality — it all hung together somehow. (And the devolved baby – so cute!) The extras, about how this was some radical set of changes at the time with new producer Nathan-Turner, were interesting but kind of quaint.

By: Paul O'Brien

Paul O'Brien — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 11:06:03 +0000

If you found the production values questionable in “City of Death” then I’d really brace yourself for “Leisure Hive”, which is very, very early 80s indeed.

The thing to remember with Doctor Who is that up until the early 80s it didn’t look that bad to audiences at the time. People simply didn’t expect it to look any better, and were more or less happy to accept dodgy effects in the same way that they would at the theatre. In the early 80s, unfortunately, they start trying to use New and Exciting Video Technology, which is just a disaster, because once you start trying to compete in the arena of production values, you’re doomed to fail on a 1980s BBC budget. (”Hey, what if we still film a quarry… but tint it purple?”) They have to wait 15-20 years for the cost of CGI to come down before it’s worth attempting again.

By: Simon Fraser

Simon Fraser — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 14:32:22 +0000

I think ‘The Talons of Weng Chiang’ is about the best of them. If you can get past the dodgy ethnic stereotyping.
The first Pertwee story, the Auton Invasion, was all shot on film ( before they started mixing in the video footage ) so it looks lovely, like some Val Guest brit Sci-Fi movie of that period.

By: Rich Johnston

Rich Johnston — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 13:33:59 +0000

Adams stripmined Shada and City Of Death for Dirk Gently. Ironically, he left Pirate Planet well alone though.

No mention of the wonderful John Cleese finale? For shame…

By: Chuck

Chuck — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 14:39:04 +0000

One of my favorite Baker-era stories is “The Talons of Weng Chi-Ang”. I didn’t enjoy “City of Death” much. Watching people walk around Paris isn’t entertaining to me. The effects never get much better in these old shows, but that’s not what I watch ‘em for. I like the character of the Doctor, and I like the “anything can happen” feel of his adventures.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 11:38:45 +0000

Allan: I’ll have to look for some of those with Baker, then, since I’m curious to hear him talk about his experiences. I’ve got the Leisure Hive up next, which apparently has Ward but not Baker commenting.

Eric: I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Troughton. I’ve been getting DVDs by Doctor — I’ve got all the 5th and 7th out, so I figured I’d try 4th next, working my way backwards.

Chris: I’m looking forward to some Sarah Jane, although I think I’m overdosed on Daleks.

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 09:50:29 +0000

Jer – “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency” actually uses plot elements from both “City Of Death” and “Shada”. It wasn’t the first time he did it, as the Kirikkitmen arc of “Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, novelised as “Life, the Universe and Everything”, was based on a Who pitch that was rejected as too silly.

By: Chris Galdieri

Chris Galdieri — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 01:22:02 +0000

Alan, I’ll be stoned along side you, then — wait, that came out wrong. My wife and I were underwhelmed by City of Death but are currently enjoying Genesis of the Daleks, which we Netflix’d just to see Sarah Jane Smith after the “School Reunion” episode of the new series. Baker seems much more engaged with his surroundings in this one than in City, where he was looking off-camera to the point that I wondered if he was using cue cards.

By: Jer

Jer — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 01:19:57 +0000

Grr… I do actually know how to spell “Holistic”.

By: Jer

Jer — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 01:18:59 +0000

Hmm. There are some plot elements there that sound suspiciously like plot elements Adams used in “Dirk Gently’s Holisitic Detective Agency”. I thought he’d scrapped an unused Doctor Who script for that book (for “Shada”, IIRC), not one that had actually been filmed. That’s kind of disappointing.

By: Eric Gimlin

Eric Gimlin — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 00:22:59 +0000

I love this particular story; but I can’t argue too much with the problems you bring up. I actually find the Black & White episodes of Who have aged far better than the color ones; B/W hides a lot of flaws and conditions you to worry less about the ones that are there. And I think Troughton was the best Doctor, which helps right there…

This may not be the best serial, it’s probably the best one to start with if you haven’t seen the original series. If you can’t get past it’s flaws, I doubt you would have much luck with other stories, Alan. Believe it or not, this looks better than a lot of the others from this era. (The Blue-screen work on the Pertwee episodes has to be seen to be disbelieved.)

By: Allan Harvey

Allan Harvey — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 00:04:56 +0000

Baker does contribute to the DVDs. He’s done several commentaries; most recently for Genesis of the Daleks. He was due to record a track for this DVD and be interviewed in Paris at the locations used, but it just didn’t work out.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 21:19:31 +0000

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that! There’s one particular scene that sums it up for me — Duggan is supposed to knock down a weak spot in a stone wall, so he runs at it shoulder-first… and the entire set shakes when he hits it.

By: Alan Sepinwal

Alan Sepinwal — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 20:31:31 +0000

After getting hooked on the Eccleston/Tennant incarnation of the series, I Netflix’ed this one on the recommendation from a lot of hardcore fans, and it did very little for me. I think the 5-cent production values were the real killer. Where the current show doesn’t exactly look like the most expensive thing ever put on screen, it also doesn’t look like a community theater production being taped for public access. Even allowing for the state of FX in the ’70s, the pacing, the blocking and the lighting were all too clumsy and awkward for me to get past. Maybe if I had watched the original series as a kid I would be accustomed to its rhythms the same way I make allowances for the limitations of ’70s and ’80s superhero comics, but watching it as an adult with zero nostalgia was a chore.

And now I look forward to a good public stoning.