Sunday 22 March 2015

The Romans


Sammyc@Samanthacarey84 Beware the Ides of March! 


Pierre Sigman@DWfan9 oh one of my favorite 1st Doctor stories. It has comedy & drama, fistycuffs & fires, lions, Lyres & legionnaires, style, panache, & a great TARDIS team.

sue stokes@Sue_Stokes The Romans is one of my favourite serials, almost film like, so lavish, adore it


John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland Hartnell plays the comedy in The Romans with great relish. He's loving it.



We pick up where we left off at the end of the Rescue - with a literal cliffhanger! 

Talk about wobbly scenery...

...the TARDIS just fell off a cliff! 

Well ahead of its' time; it's one of those "months later" cliffhanger resolutions... 

They obviously landed on their feet finding that villa! 

"So you're awake at last, young man!" 

Vicki and Barbara have been down the shops. Vicki's getting a bit bored with the others making the most of their hols. 

But there's a dodgy type lurking in the bushes. He backs off, though... 

Great little crowd scene, nice camera move past the stalls there. 

"Slaves from Gaul" reminds me of Asterix! 

Bloody markets. I absolutely cannot abide haggling. I hate the time wasting faff of it. 

Slave traders Didius and Sevcheria show an unhealthy interest in Vicki and Barbara. Out of your league, lads. 

Murder! Blimey! The bush lurker knifes a busker. 

The Space Pirate@SpacePirateOz Try saying that three times fast

Didn't think he was *that* bad. 
Lass Productions@21stcenturylass Infamy infamy! 

The Doctor's enjoying a well-prepared meal. No Cybermen in sight. 


Ants' eggs? "What do you think I am, a goldfish?" 

The Doctor says the TARDIS can take off from any angle. 


"...Chesterfield."
"Chesterton."
"Barbara's calling you."
Lovely stuff. 


The Doctor agrees to take Vicki with him to Rome to give Ian & Barbara some 'alone time'. 


Anyone who thinks Amy and Rory were the 1st couple aboard the TARDIS are kidding themselves... 

Simon Pittman@LibraryPlayer If I could put Amy & Rory with any other Doctor, it would be the 1st! Imagine his reaction to their flirty behaviour! 

"Come along Bond, er... Pong... er, Pond."  

The Space Pirate@SpacePirateOz Bong. 

The slave traders are on the move... 

"Some in the fridge." Oh, Barabra, you clown. 

atruedrwhofan@atruedrwhofan I love the scenes of Ian and Barbara alone in the villa. William and Jackie chatted and decided to play it with flirtation. 

sue stokes@Sue_Stokes does anyone not ship Barbara/Ian? Lovely couple.


atruedrwhofan@atruedrwhofan I've never "shipped" anyone in my life, but I admit even I do with Ian and Barbara. 




Ian hears a noise... 

The slave traders have followed Barbara back and plot to catch and sell them. 

Barbara scores a bit of an own goal, concussing Ian with a jug. 

The Doctor and Vicki find the dead busker. 

A case of mistaken identity later and Hartnell becomes Billy Lyre. 

The Centurion carts the Doctor and Vicki off to see the Emperor - he thinks he's the headlining act at RomeFest. 

Ian is sold to be part of a ship's crew, gutted to be sent abroad on transfer deadline day. 

The Centurion meets up with the bush lurker, furious he doesn't seem to have killed the busker... 

...and sends him to have another stab at it! 

Not so much a cliffhanger as a curtain fall there... 

All roads lead to Rome... apart from the ones heading away from it. 

"Ooh, so you want a fight, do you?" 

Despite appearances, the 1st Doctor is quite handy in a fight! Did we get our 1st glimpse of Venusian Aikido there? 


"Do you know it was I that used to teach the Mountain Mauler of Montana!" 

The Doctor figures out straight away that the centurion was behind the assassination attempt. 


Vicki worries that they might try again, but the Doctor even fancies himself in the rematch. 

Barbara is locked in a cell, where she tries to look after one of the other women who's falling ill. 

That's some lovely stock footage of the Roman galley. 


I love how much distance is travelled in these historicals; the crew separated by seas and continents... 

Ian buddies up with another rowing enthusiast called Delos. 

Barbara is visited by the kindly Tavius, but gives him short shrift, doubting his motives. 

Tavius is a wonderfully layered character. Has the time to breathe in the old multipart format. 


Ian and Delos have to put their backs into it to weather the storm. 

"In... out... shake it all about!"


The "near miss" where the Doctor and Vicki almost see Barbara at the slave auction is great stuff. 

10,000 sesterces for Barabra? Not sure Hartnell'd be happy another member of the cast being paid more than him...



Ian awakes on the shore, the ship having been smashed to pieces in the storm. Delos saved his life. 


Tavius bought Barbara because of her kindness to the other slave, but he still can't free her. 

She's been bought to work for the Emperor's wife, Popeye. 


"Ask him to come in - no wait, perhaps it would be better if I go to see him." Another near miss! 

Tavius whispers conspiratorially to Billy Lyre. 


Here comes Nero...  

It's all gone a bit Carry on Cleo now that Nero's turned up. Not quite Biggins in "I, Clavdivs" but not far off! 



Lovely overlooked bit if comedy from Hartnell here as Nero calls for  footstool, and the Doctor almost sits on it. 

"That, your excellency, would be an impossibilly-illity." It would indeed.  

Vicki isn't much help when Nero demands some choons from the Doctor. 


"I must say, I got out of that one rather well!" 

Ian's luck is rotten - captured by soldiers he's been regifted to the slave traders that sold him in the first place. 




Ian and Delos are cat food! 

They're going to be gladiators. Will they get to meet Wolf and Jet? 

The Doctor says they're only there as observers, still not keen on any rewriting of history at this tender age... 

Nero's hapless slave Tigilinus has his work cut out trying to fix the crown atop the imperial head. 

"Tigilinus, get off my bed!" 

Yet another near miss as Nero chases Barbara round the corridors. 


Vicki visits the official poisoner. 

James Cooray Smith@thejimsmith Locusta was a real historical figure, believe it or not. 

"If you poison somebody, don't they take their revenge?"

"Always. That's why I'm kept so busy!" 


Poppaea's a tough boss. Bit of a slave driver. 

Not as bad as the sexual harassment in the workplace from Nero, though. 

"That strange young woman's been chasing me round all morning!" Pull the other one. 

In the cells, the woman Barbara helped realizes this is the Ian her former cellmate spoke of. 

The moment you've all been waiting for guys and gals... Heart-throb Hartnell in a towel

If you look closely in some of these shots the "steam" stays fixed, as it's gauze over the camera. 

Nero strong-arms the Doctor into headlining his dinner gig. 

Poppaea's decided Barbara has to go, so pays Locusta a visit - it's poisoning time! 

"Close your eyes and Nero will give you a big surprise." Er... no thanks. 


Barbara downs her drink in one. Nero's still fugly. 

"Oh, something else I forgot to mention, I think I've poisoned Nero." Like you do. 

As Vicki switched the drinks, the Doctor has to intervene to stop him drinking poison. 

Poor old Tigilinus... 

Once again, Vicki didn't really seem to grasp the whole 'web of time' thing there... 

When the feast comes around, Hartnell's called on to let loose a mad Lyre solo. He was the Roman Hendrix. Fairly sure that's Purple Haze. 

"He's alright, but he's no Clapton..." 

Of course, it's a, ahem, "riff" on the Emperor's new clothes. 

"I'm going to fight you, Ian."

"Are you, Delos? Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough."

Rubbish circus. Where are the clowns and acrobats? 


Barbara and Ian reunited! 

 But they may be parted again soon... 


In fact, Ian might soon be many-parted!  

The slaves are revolting! 



Tavius finally frees Barbara, though partly to spite Poppaea.  

"I've got a friend who specialises in trouble. He dives in and usually finds a way." Ian sums up the Doctor neatly! 


Vicki & the Doctor find Nero's plans for a self-styled replacement for Rome. 

That's one hot pair of specs the Doctor has! 


Neropolis sounds pretty cool actually. 


I love how fire looks on old black and white video tape. 

Nero buys the rabble and orders Rome burnt. Seems he's still not 100% fixed on "Neropolis", considering "Nerosis" (!) 


Tavius is able to quietly slink Ian away to Barbara, but stays behind himself. 

Turns out Tavius' motivation has been his faith in a trendy modern religion that's just started up... 

Nero's fiddling with his Lyre while Rome burns... 

"Doctor, look!"
"It's only a model." 

Despite all his lecturing, the Doctor giggles himself silly at the thought he's just written history. 

John Davies@_JohnDavies Rule One: The Doctor is a hypocrite! 

Ian's been waiting all story long to pull that fridge gag back on her. 

Barbara's got some explaining to do about Ian's jug-inflicted headache. 

The Doctor and Vicki rock up and assume Ian and Barbara have been "idling". One way of putting it. 

"Have a grape!" Checkmate, Chesterton, checkmate. 


The TARDIS takes off at a wonky angle. 


"Where will we go next, has the Doctor told you yet?". Oh, Vicki... 

Radio interference? Being dragged down? 


The TARDIS is headed to The Web Planet! 

What did the Romans ever do for Doctor Who, eh? 


TTFN! K.
Coming Soon... Terror of the Vervoids

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