Doctor Who - City Of Death
It’s a good thing I’ve already reviewed City Of Death, the story, because that allows me to get right down to City Of Death, the DVD. Well, two DVDs to be exact, as quite a few features have been devoted to the second (and arguably best) of Douglas Adams’ three major contributions to the Doctor Who mythos (or technically, only one of the two that actually aired). As such, the majority of the bonus features on the second disc focus on Adams and his work. “Paris In The Springtime” tells the story of City and of Adams’ brief stint as Doctor Who’s script editor. Actors Tom Chadbon, Julian Glover and Catherine Schell, director Michael Hayes, and writers David Fisher, Rob Shearman and Mark Gatiss appear in this feature alongside numerous archived interviews with Douglas Adams. Fisher alone seems to be unenthusiastic about Adams’ work on the show, but then again, the documentary points out that Adams and producer Graham Williams made radical alterations to Fisher’s original script A Gamble With Time to come up with City.
The low point of the bonus features is “Eye On Blatchford,” an original comedy sketch introducing us to the next-to-the-last of the Jagaroth. This, combined with a few of the hidden features and even certain bits of “Paris In The Springtime,” leads me to my only criticism of City’s bonuses: the attempts at Adams-esque humor invariably fall a bit flat. Fortunately, “Springtime” only tries in a few places. But I myself have learned the hard way that no one can write like Douglas Adams except for Douglas Adams, and as such, even attempts at affectionate homage often fall very, very flat. Not to say that having a little bit of fun with the subject matter is off-limits, but in my experience, trying to honor the work of Douglas Adams by trying to ape his style usually has two results: it never quite rings true as a tribute, and may make the person who’s writing the tribute look unoriginal - at best. That said, I’m a serious devotee of Adams’ work, perhaps too serious considering how silly so much of it is, so feel absolutely free to take my opinion with a grain of salt, if not the entire shaker. In any case, the strengths of “Springtime” more than make up for the shortcomings of any of the other features.
Other bonuses include highlights from a surviving B&W raw studio recording session tape offering a rare glimpse of the atmosphere that Tom Baker created on set for guest stars, as well as an amusing look at just how hard it was to get a live chicken to cooperate for a special effects sequence.
City Of Death may well be, along with the majority of Tom Baker’s first season as the Doctor and Deadly Assassin, as good as Doctor Who got in the late 1970s, and I’m surprised it wasn’t released on DVD before now. But it was definitely worth the wait.
