The Romans Review

The Romans

Again another first time watch for me (up until The War Machines as the end of season three, the stories will all be new for me). I heard it was good and that it was a sort of comedy. That's pretty much all I knew going in.

Whilst watching this story I had to write down this quote from the Doctor: "You know, I am so constantly outwitting the opposition, I tend to forget the delights and satisfaction of the gentle art of fisticuffs." The first Doctor said that! Right after he giggled his way through a fight. Which brings me onto my next point; the Doctor has been reminding me of Yoda in Return of the Jedi recently with his giggling all the time. It's something that just seems to have evolved in the last few episodes and carries on for a while (I'm part way through The Crusade story whilst writing this). It's completely different to the man we saw in An Unearthly Child, and not an aspect of this Doctor that I've really seen before. It's making me like him even more though.

The idea of making this historical as a comedy is brilliant and works really well here. Some of it's quite subtle, where other times it's outright silly, but in a good way. It took me a bit of getting used to at first, especially after possibly the best cliffhanger so far in The Rescue. The TARDIS materialises on a cliff edge, wobbles, then completely topples off. It's recapped at the start of this story, and I thought it was a great idea. Then next thing we're seeing the TARDIS crew all lying about having been there for a month.

It's interesting to see how the Doctor takes delight in having basically caused Nero's burning of Rome so he can rebuild it as he desires. If you think about it it's actually a bit out of character, people could easily die in the fire, and it would cause a lot of damage. All so Nero can rebuild it as he wants. Not something the Doctor should be so happy about. I choose to look at it as him realising that history is a bit more malleable than he first thought. In The Aztecs he made a big thing about how you couldn't change history, but here he is realising that that might still be true but it doesn't mean you can't influence it. Or in fact be the cause of history turning out how it does. It's and interesting dynamic show early in the show.

I've been thinking about this for a good while now but I've never been sure whether to bring it up or not but in reviewing this story I couldn't not. Ian and Barbara. I've always thought that they are very close and I've been reading what other fans say about it. But after watching this story it's no wonder that there is a comic in which they marry. They are far too friendly and playful in this story for something not to be going on between them at this point. I think it's nice that it's only heavily hinted, we never actually see them doing or saying anything to confirm this.

I am much preferring Vicki to Susan already. It's a case of better writing for her, less screaming (thank God) and, I hate to say this, better acting. She also seems a lot more upbeat and more companion material.

There isn't really much more to say about this other than I did enjoy it a lot.
Episode scores:
1. The Slave Traders: 7.5/10
2. All Roads Lead to Rome: 7/10
3. Conspiracy: 6.5/10
 4. Inferno: 7/10

Average score: 7/10

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