Doctor Who: City of Death (1979)

Date(s) of Broadcast: 29 September 1979 - 20 October 1979
Number of Episodes: 4
Average Episode Running Times: 25 mins
Format: colour
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Company: BBC
Production: Graham Williams
Production Unit Manager: John Nathan-Turner

SCRIPT
Script: David Agnew (real names: Douglas Adams, Graham Williams)
Story Editors: Douglas Adams

DIRECTION
Director: Michael Hayes

PHOTOGRAPHY
Studio Lighting: Mike Jeffereies
Film Camera: John Walker

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Film Editor: John Gregory

MUSIC
Title Music: Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
Title Music Arranger: Delia Derbyshire
Incidental Music: Dudley Simpson

SOUND
Studio Sound: Anthony Philpott
Special Sound: Dick Mills

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Jean Steward
Costumes: Doreen James, Jan Wright

VISUAL EFFECTS
Visual Effects: Ian Scoones

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Designer: Richard McManan-Smith

MISCELLANEOUS
Production Assistant: Rosemary Crowson
Assistant Floor Manager: Carol Scott

CAST
Tom Baker (the Doctor)
Lalla Ward (Romana)
Julian Glover (Count Scarliono / Captain Tancredi (Scaroth))
Catherine Schell (Countess Scarlioni)
Tom Chadbon (Duggan)
Kevin Flood (Hermann)
David Graham (Professor Theodor Nikolai Kerensky)
Pamela Stirling (Louvre guide)
Peter Halliday (soldier)
Eleanor Bron, John Cleese (art gallery visitors)
Mike Finbar, Pat Gorman, Peter Kodak Anthony Powell (thugs)
Lewis Pirella, Harold Shields, Colin Thomas, Elaine Williams (customers in cafe)
Bruce Callender, Maureen Mason (Louvre guards)
Richard Sheekey (double for Scaroth)
Tom Chadbon, Peter Halliday (Jagaroth voices)
Walter Henry (cafe patron)
James Charlton (artist)
Christian Foucat, Robert Jouhier (gendarmes outside Louvre)
Jane Bough (maid)
Iris Everson, Juliette James, Leon Maybank, Terry Sartain (customers in art gallery)
David Glen, Alfred Moore, James Muir, Mike Mungarvan (plain clothes detectives in Louvre)
Michael Brydon, Karen Cooper, David Glen, Philip Grant, David Harris, Kevin Hudson, Michael Josephs, Mike Mungarvan, Jenny Persiva, Maggie Pilleau, Helen Raye, Shane Ricco, Lee Richards, Graham Smith, Kevin Sullivan, Frances Tanner, Geoffrey Whitestone, Sue Winkler, Cathy Winter (tourists in Louvre)

PLOT SUMMARY

The Doctor and Romana try to have a break in contemporary Paris but discover what seems to be a fracture in time. It's been caused 400 million years in the past by a Jagaroth spacecraft that has become stranded on Earth. While trying to take off using its warp drive, it caused a massive explosion, the resulting radiation kick-starting life on Earth and splitting its inhabitant, Scaroth, into twelve time periods. One of these Scaroth's is in Paris, posing as Count Scarlioni, who is selling fake Mona Lisa's to finance his experiments in time travel which he hopes to master and use to prevent his ship from being destroyed. But if he does that, life on Earth will never develop...

A little gem. Tautly plotted, full of wonderful jokes and characters and effective use of Parisian locations add up to one of the all-time great Doctor Who adventures. Baker is at his best here and the direction is unusual and inspired. You;d never guess that the scripts were last minute rewrites. One to show newcomers and sceptics.

UK
Television Distributor: BBC
Video Distributor: BBC Video

1979
September
29: UK - Part One television broadcast (on BBC1)

October
6: UK - Part Two television broadcast (on BBC1)
13: UK - Part Three television broadcast (on BBC1)
20: UK - Part Four television broadcast (on BBC1)

The Gamble With Time - working title
Curse of Sphiroth - working title

BOOKS

Doctor Who: The Television Companion pp.366-368
credits, synopsis, review (by David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker)

KEYWORDS

aliens, time travel

Last Updated: 15 October, 2008