One fat geek's SUCCESSFUL attempt to regenerate into a not-so-fat geek by watching the entirety of Doctor Who while walking on a treadmill

All Roads Lead to a Roman Holiday

Mar 22 2017
All Roads Lead to a Roman Holiday

It may not feature Gregory Peck or Audrey Hepburn, but today's new story The Romans is the first time a major actor (Derek Francis) actually requested to be on Doctor Who. It is also the first story to have intentional comedic elements, although there is most certainly a dramatic plot as well. I know what you are thinking: British actors wearing togas and performing as ancient Roman characters? Will wonders never cease!

Let's talk about that.

The Slave Traders

The TARDIS materializes on the edge of a cliff, and then tumbles into a ravine. Cut to a full month later, with the TARDIS still jammed upside-down in a ditch while the Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Vicki have settled into a pleasant vacation in the Roman countryside of 64 A.D. where they have set up residence house sitting for a wealthy man who is away campaigning in Gaul. Most everyone is enjoying the relaxation, but Vicki has begun to agitate about wanting adventure. Ian and Barbara ask the Doctor if maybe they shouldn't go check on the TARDIS. The Doctor, being a waspish prick, spontaneously decides that he is going to take a trip to see the city of Rome itself, and Vicki is welcome to join him, but he doesn't need to be nursemaided by the other two. What could possibly go wrong?

I mean, besides Ian and Barbara being captured by slave traders, while the Doctor and Vicki end up in some kind of murderous plot where the Doctor is mistaken for a famous musician on the way to play for Nero himself.

Ian winds up being sold to become a galley slave on a ship, while Barbara is bound for the city of Rome to be sold at auction. Being a history teacher (and also a Goddess, but that's not important right now), Barbara knows fully well how badly Roman slaves are treated and how few ever manage to escape.

As the episode closes, the Doctor is about to be attacked and murdered by the same assassin who killed the real musician. He will surely be dead in moments!

All Roads Lead to Rome

While rowing in the galley during a storm, Ian leads a successful slave revolt and is nearly drowned but ultimately saved by a fellow slave. Ian sets out to Rome to find Barbara, but by the end of the episode he has been re-captured by the same slave trader and is bound for the Circus to fight as a gladiator.

Barbara, meanwhile, is sold to Nero's household. At one point she just misses being seen by Ian before his capture, and later she just misses seeing the Doctor when he comes to meet Nero. Poor Barbara is just not having any luck today. I'd say "at least she didn't fall off a cliff like yesterday", but that's kind of how she started out this story as well. 

As for the Doctor, he manages to fight off the assassin and actually shows off some fine hand-to-hand combat skills. The dude still has some surprises left in him. He eventually makes it to see Nero, still masquerading as a musician, and manages to bluff his way through is audience with the Emperor by playing directly into Nero's ego. And believe me, if anyone knows about ego it is the Doctor. There is also a strong hint that the musician whom the Doctor is impersonating was actually supposed to be an assassin meant to take out Nero, so there is much skullduggery happening around the edges.

So anyway, yeah, it's a fun little story. After the combined heaviness of The Dalek Invasion of Earth and The Rescue, it's nice to have an adventurous but largely light-hearted tale. It is also proof again that a historical episode does not need any sci-fi elements to be entertaining or to find drama. More's the pity, since there will be very few historicals after this one. All the money's in robots, aliens, and monsters.

STATS:

Doctor(s): First
Companion(s): Vicki, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright
Episode(s): The Slave Traders, All Roads Lead to Rome
Entendre: Double
Steps Walked: 6,444 today, 192,079 total
Distance Walked: 3.06 miles today, 86.46 miles total
Weight: 295.22 lbs (five day moving average), net change -12.08 lbs


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