Doctor Who: The Romans

History can be fun.

These write-ups of Doctor Who serials don't come with any claim that I have a lot of knowledge about the overall show. Going through these early seasons, I have noticed a pattern, that a more science fiction-oriented serial will usually be followed by a serial in which the Doctor and his companions are transported to some time in Earth history. I know from watching An Adventure in Space and Time that the historical serials are in there at the suggestion of Sydney Newman, the Head of Drama at the BBC, who wanted "to mix stories of world history in with the sci-fi, to educate the young viewers while entertaining them". So I was interested to see, on a Doctor Who Wiki page, that writer/script editor David Whitaker (who was script editor from An Unearthly Child through The Dalek Invasion of Earth) was already feeling that the historical serials were "a liability" to the show by this point in the second season. The historical stories would continue to be a regular part of Doctor Who going forward, but glancing over the list of serials that are ahead of this one I see that the sci-fi / historical pattern was eventually broken and the show started leaning more toward the sci-fi.

I can understand why someone would be uncertain about keeping up the pattern, as I have to admit that I am much less enthusiastic about diving into one of the historical stories than I am about watching the sci-fi ones. When faced with something like The Romans, which is set in the days leading up to the Great Fire of Rome in 64 A.D., I go into it with the worry that it's going to be a slog to get through.

Thankfully, writer Dennis Spooner made The Romans surprisingly entertaining by scripting it primarily as a comedy, a change of pace for the show at this time. It deals with subject matter like slave trading, assassinations, attempted poisonings, gladiatorial fights to the death, and a fire that nearly wipes out an entire city, but still manages to be silly and light-hearted.

The story begins with the TARDIS materializing on the edge of a cliff, then toppling over. But this is just a shocking opening scene that doesn't mean much in the long run. No one on board was hurt, the TARDIS can take off through time and space from any angle, and the next time we see the main characters - the Doctor; Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, the schoolteacher companions he picked up in 1960s London; and Vicki, the young girl they picked up from the end of the 2400s in the previous serial - they have just been hanging out in the outskirts of Rome for nearly a month, squatting in an empty house they came across. If you were wondering how they would show Vicki adjusting to being part of the group, and how they would adjust to having her in the group in place of the Doctor's teenage granddaughter, who bailed on them in the name of love in The Dalek Invasion of Earth, the answer is that it doesn't deal with these things very much. There's a time jump, they've been together for a month, and the only uneasiness comes from the fact that Vicki is bored with sitting around in Rome. She thought she was going to be going on adventures with these people.

But then they run into excitement when the Doctor decides, on a whim, to take the place of a murdered musician who was meant to play harp for Emperor Nero, and Ian and Barbara are abducted by slaver traders. From that point on, the four episodes of this serial - which are titled The Slave Traders, All Roads Lead to Rome, Conspiracy, and Inferno - are packed with a good amount of action and dangerous moments.

While Ian is off having swordfights and getting in a shipwreck, the most entertainment in this serial comes any time someone has an interaction with Nero, played by Derek Francis, who requested a role on the show. Francis plays Nero as a total buffoon; he pursues an intimate relationship with Barbara with all the smoothness of Pepé Le Pew and is fooled when the Doctor pretends to play the harp in such a soft, delicate manner that only those with "keen perceptive hearing" will be able to hear it.

That fake concert is a great moment for the Doctor, and another comes when he's able to fend off an assassin. You wouldn't think this frail, easily tired old man would be able to do much in a fight, but he manages to send this killer running - something which, understandably, makes him quite proud. He tells Vicki that he's so used to outwitting his opponents, he forgets how delightful the art of fisticuffs is.

I didn't expect it, but The Romans is quite fun.