12. The Romans

This is a story I have seen before and to be honest wasn't looking forward to seeing again. However I soldiered on and was pleasantly surprised by the story. In fact, this story is quite good. I don't know why I had a negative view of this one before but I thought it was fantastic.

The story, costumes, sets, acting, all for the most part was pretty good. I thought some of the humor scenes were a bit stupid - the Scooby-Doo scene where Barbara is being chased by Nero and goes behind a curtain just as the Doctor walks into the hallway for example. But other times they handle the "near misses" of the various actors pretty well. All the divergent story lines I felt were compelling, which is often not the case for me.

I also thought it was notable that in this story we see the "observer" status of the TARDIS crew that was cultivated in the first season start to crack and crumble. In The Aztecs they couldn't save the sacrifice being a prime example of how the TARDIS was just taking them through time and space but that they couldn't really change or alter the past.

In this story, however, that begins to fall away. After a fight where the Doctor easily dispatches an assassin he claims he taught the Mountain Mauler of Montana how to fight and then later the Doctor gives Nero the idea to burn down Rome. If the Doctor taught the Mauler (whoever that may be) then he wasn't a passive observer in that instance and certainly he was responsible for the fire that would consume Rome. Vicki points this out to him at the end of the story and he tries to deny it and then realizes he is responsible and a look of pure joy and satisfaction spreads across his face. It is almost like a "time can be rewritten" Eureka! moment that a future (current) Doctor will have.

Another theme that will be repeated many times in the future is the TARDIS crew is actually in Rome for a vacation but an adventure breaks out around them anyway as it always seems to do. The big difference here is it appears that they actually get a month or two of peace in before it all comes apart. At the end when Ian and Barbara get back to the Roman villa I also thought I detected a bit of romance brewing between them

This early version of Doctor Who is evolving into the show I love today and I love seeing it happen.

Ranking: 8/10 (good)