All Roads Lead to Rome (The Romans Episode 2)

The one where Barbara is bought as a slave for the empress of Rome...

We rejoin the action as mute assassin Ascaris creeps into the Doctor's quarters in his second attempt to kill who he thinks is Maximus Pettulian. But he surely hasn't bargained on the fight the Doctor puts up as we see William Hartnell turn into a whirling ball of energy and giving as good as (in fact, better than) he gets! Hartnell seems to be enjoying this scene a little too much as he runs rings round stuntman Barry Jackson (later to turn up as Drax in The Armageddon Factor, fact fans), clocking him over the head with jugs and wrapping him up in bedclothes. I note this episode was recorded on New Year's Day, 1965. Perhaps Hartnell had been on the celebratory whisky?

People talk about the Fourth Doctor punching the chauffeur in The Seeds of Doom, or the Twelfth Doctor socking it to a racist in Thin Ice, but the First Doctor got there many years before. We've seen how wantonly violent he can be in stories such as 100,000 BC, The Reign of Terror and The Dalek Invasion of Earth, but here the Doctor positively revels in the violence. As he says: "Do you know, I'm so constantly outwitting the opposition I tend to forget the delights and satisfaction of the gentle art of fisticuffs!"

William Hartnell: the most violent Doctor ever?

The Doctor mentions to Vicki that he taught the Mountain Mauler of Montana how to fight, who of course isn't a real historical figure, but it's interesting to mention here that Operation Montana Mauler took place in March 1969 during the Vietnam War, in which the People's Army of Vietnam lost around 300 people. No, it's not relevant, just one of those wonderful points of trivia Doctor Who fans sometimes like!

Ian and Barbara find themselves in pretty dire straits in this episode. Barbara is thrown into a jail cell, something she should be used to by now because similar happens to her in 100,000 BC, The Daleks and The Reign of Terror. A potential slave buyer sees her being kind to a clearly unwell fellow prisoner and decides to bid for her. Tavius seems, on the surface, to be quite benign, and doesn't appear to have the usual subtly implied sexual interest in Barbara. Indeed, later in the episode, after he's successfully bought her and taken her to Nero's palace, he admits that the kindness he saw her show the prisoner was what attracted him to her. Tavius has been as selfless as someone can be when they are trading in people's lives and liberty, and although Barbara seems wisely wary of him, she does thank him in the end. I love her resilience and strength of character however, when she insists that she has no intention of staying, and will try to escape given a chance!

Meanwhile Ian is aboard a slave ship, forced to row for days despite exhaustion and starvation. Typically, he's befriended a fellow prisoner, Delos, played by the somewhat leaden Peter Diamond. The stock footage used of the Roman ship on the high seas gives the episode size and scale, and when the storm hits (really quite suddenly, it must be said), the inserted footage of thunder, lightning and rolling waters makes for a pretty convincing scenario. Unfortunately what ruins all this is the fact it's blatantly obvious that it's just some stage hands chucking buckets of water over the actors. Nevertheless, it does the job, and the storm scene is so chaotic that even the camera gets a good knocking in the melee.

I love the fact the Doctor and Vicki keep missing Barbara. They leave the town square just as she is being presented at the slave auction, and they narrowly miss out on seeing Barbara in Tavius's quarters at Nero's palace. It's a lovely little touch by writer Dennis Spooner, if somewhat frustrating for we viewers, and adds a soupcon of Carry On Cleo to the mix (that film had been released in November 1964, but couldn't have been an influence on Spooner, who was commissioned to write The Romans in August 1964). By the way, look out for yet another First Doctor lookalike in the slave buyer crowd - it seems there are a good many Maximus Pettulian doppelgangers floating around Ancient Rome!

One thing that's been lovely these last few episodes is the relationship which has developed between the Doctor and Vicki/ William Hartnell and Maureen O'Brien. They just work so well together. I think Vicki's mischievous personality complements this version of Hartnell's Doctor much better than Susan ever could. They enjoy each other's company, almost like partners in crime. Vicki understands the Doctor, and the Doctor knows exactly what Vicki's all about. They're like two peas in a pod, giggling to each other in asides, and bouncing off each other. The scene where they meet Nero is great because you see Vicki going along with and supporting the Doctor's little ruse to get out of playing the lyre, and when they move into the apodyterium, Vicki fuels the Doctor's natural inclination for curiosity. I could never imagine the Doctor and Susan behaving like this.

Interestingly, whenever O'Brien has talked about her relationship with Hartnell, it's always been in the positive. In 2013 she was asked what she thought of the depiction of Hartnell in Mark Gatiss's An Adventure in Space and Time: "I found it very sad and very upsetting to watch. [Bill and I] had fun. Our rehearsals were fun, despite when he broke into spitting, snarling rages. He had a laugh, he liked to work. He liked his whisky. We had a good time. We used to go to Bill's dressing room. Jackie, Bill and I used to gather, we had a glass of wine and some lovely food before we did the show. There's that side that no-one seems to stress."

I think you can tell O'Brien fitted right in straight away, and the chemistry you could see between the four regulars in Season 1 is just as prevalent here with the new recruit.

The last thing to mention about All Roads Lead to Rome is Emperor Nero. Derek Francis is now known as a highly prolific and admired character actor, but in 1965 he was still a relatively fresh face, having made his TV debut just seven years earlier as Polonius in an adaptation of Hamlet. His Nero isn't exactly OTT but he is definitely larger than life, and I'd argue that fits the tone of the story, or at least the story strand he's in. The scenes featuring the Doctor and Vicki are much lighter than the grimmer journey Ian goes on, and so Francis's fruity, full-flavoured performance can be forgiven. However, if it were in something like the more heavyweight The Crusade or The Aztecs (and remember how Gabor Baraker's turn as Wang-lo in Marco Polo seemed tonally out of place?), it wouldn't have worked at all.

First broadcast: January 23rd, 1965

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: William Hartnell - then aged 56 - running rings round stuntman Barry Jackson - then aged 26 - is a joy.
The Bad: A few buckets of water do not a flood make.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★☆

NEXT TIME: Conspiracy...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: The Slave Traders (episode 1); Conspiracy (episode 3); Inferno (episode 4)

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/the-romans.html

The Romans is available in a DVD box set with The Rescue. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/99t/Doctor-Who-Rescue-Romans-DVD-William-Hartnell/B001MYKYOU