City of Death - Episode 2

This story got the highest ratings for any Doctor Who story during the classic era. This episode got 14.1 million viewers any that was a record but it would only last seven days with 15.4 million and then that record lasted for seven days when the final episode got 16.1 million. This was due to strike action at ITV. Whilst the previous episode was memorable because of the French location filming but todays episode doesn’t have any of that.

First thing that stands out in this episode is the comedy is back and I think that this is down to the fact the story is starting to stagger a bit because it doesn’t seem to flow as well as it did in the previous episode. There is a bit in terms of what the Count and Countess are doing and that is they are trying to steal the Mona Lisa. The Doctor decides to go and visit Leonardo Da Vinci and encounters Peter Halliday (aka Packer). Halliday’s character is quite a comedy character which seems to be odd considering moments later he meets an older version of the Count. The cliffhanger is just as good as the previous episodes and its just the way that Julian Glover walks into the room. Julian Glover is a fine piece of casting and its largely down to his performance in the two episodes so far that has stood out aside from the location filming.

The idea of their being several Mona Lisa’s is something that could only have come from the mind of Douglas Adams (sorry David Agnew). I cant think or look at the Mona Lisa on the TV without thinking of the moment that’s about to come up where the Doctor writes THIS IS A FAKE. It’s quite an big moment and even gets mentioned in a Big Finish story.

I know that the comedy might seem a little bit unwelcoming but I think that it works a lot better than the humour that appeared during Adams’ last story ‘The Pirate Planet’. The performances from Tom Baker and Lalla Ward have been quite fun to watch and also I have found the running gag about Duggan hitting everyone and anyone to be quite fun and I think that this has slightly made up for the lack of filming in Paris. I think that this story is still fun but I am worried that the lack of location filming is going to sap any positivity out of this story.