First Doctor review: The Romans

[ghost2]

The Romans is my new favorite First Doctor serial. It's awesome in almost too many ways to count, but I'll mention a few of them.



Ian, Barbara, Vicki, and the Doctor are hanging out in an unoccupied villa in the Roman Empire, 64 AD, when the Doctor gets it into his head to walk to Rome with Vicki. So the Doctor and Vicki share most of their scenes and their nice little friendship continues to develop. Though Vicki doesn't have too much to do in this serial, she does go out of her way to save a slave's life. Rather an important move there, considering the slave's identity!

As for the Doctor, he gets some excellent material. He totally pwns a mute assassin in a fight, repeatedly and amusingly forgets his pseudonym, pretends to play the lyre, and basically causes the Great Fire of Rome.

Meanwhile, Ian and Barbara have both fun and dramatic scenes. One of my favorite happy scenes is an early one where Barbara messes up Ian's hair in an attempt to make him look like a proper Roman. Since he promptly starts to recite lines from Julius Caesar, she realizes she may have made a mistake.

Things turn serious when slave traders kidnap Barbara and Ian. They're sold to different owners and sadly, Ian is forced to work in a galley. Barbara ends up in the court of Nero, the emperor. Of course Ian gets free and tracks down Barbara, who by now faces the problem of trying to keep Nero from putting his grabby hands all over her.

When I finished watching The Romans, I immediately wanted to go back to the beginning and see it all again. Only the thought that I have so much more still to watch made me on to The Web Planet. It had a very tough act to follow.

Comments

[cersia5.livejournal.com]

I saw some of this episode and seeing the Doctor pretend to be something outside of a Time Lord made me giggle. It was as if Hartnell had forgotten he was suppose to play a Time Lord impersonating someone else. Reminds me of Fivey's crew in the King's Daemons when they slipped the roles of being 'evil' beings.

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

I don't want to be too hard on Hartnell, but: yeah, I get where you're coming from. I really loved the nice rapport between the Doctor and Vicki, though.

[obscuruslupa.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite First Doctor serials. The story is good and the character interaction is cute. Especially Ian and Barbara. "So this is what they hit me over the head with." "*shifty eyes* Yes."

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

That was another great bit. Of course, Barbara did own up to her mistake, and Ian took it in good humor. Better than I would have, probably!

[minerva-fan.livejournal.com]

I am almost done ... erm ... acquiring this serial. The scenes I've watched so far, though, made me squee with love. Barbara looks so incredibly beautiful in this episode, and so does Vicki. I can't wait to watch the whole thing.

Oh, and you will love The Web Planet. It's very avant garde, and extremely courageous and ambitious. Considering the low-tech place they were working from, I think they did a great job. And the voice acting--ooh, so delicious.

I also like the SloMo Fights of Death. (They couldn't fight too quickly, because the alien costumes were oddly balanced adn actors tended to keep falling....."