Episode 56 (M3): Conspiracy

...and here I am, 11 days later, watching this episode on a new TV - literally. We've always had second-hand before, but we decided to splash out this time. It'll take a while to get used to, but we'll get to watch the rest of the new matt Smith series in HD! Wonder if it'll make much difference?

Anyway, back in the much slower-paced days of the 60s, we have an episode which feels very busy (for its time). This one is almost entirely comedy - full-on farce in places - and as a result it feels less real. This doesn't matter, though, because the setting has already been presented with enough fidelity in previous instalments that it has "bedded in", and we can just accept it as Rome.

And what a setting it is! The palace looks absolutely huge, and if you're going to have as much running through corridors as we have here then this is the place to do it. Between them, Ray Cusick's design team and Christopher Barry's cameramen have done a great job of making it seem to stretch on and on. The bath house also works well, with dry ice steam and a filter hiding the small scale. Barry wasn't impressed with the effect, but I think it works fine. And the final shot of William Hartnell here reminds me very strongly of Peter Cushing's Doctor.

So, what about this comedy plot then? We have Vicki and the Doctor still missing Barbara by moments, which is becoming a running gag. Nero chasing Barbara is the most farcical element, and it mostly works (though the bit where he pulls her on top of him doesn't really convince quite enough). These days, that's a bit blacker than it was back then, but still. Far darker is the whole poisoning subplot. This is obviously still intended as comedy, but you get a slave given a poisoned cup to drink just because he's annoying (and dying on-screen as a result), and a person who only makes the poisons because she has to being dragged off to some unpleasant fate for failing in her job. Both of these come about because Vicki swapped the poison, effectively attempting to assassinate Nero. OK, so she unwittingly saves Barbara; but this is not light and fluffy stuff! I'd go so far as to say that it is only the performances (particularly Derek Francis', but also Maureen O'Brien's) that keep this working.

William Russell, meanwhile, is now the only regular stuck in a definitely non-comedy plotline. The arena has two gladiators training who are rubbish at it, but this doesn't matter because they are obviously only learning. And when Ian and Delos face off against each other it's really not bad, only suffering because of the limitations of filming in the 1960s. As Russell says in the commentary, a TV fight lives and breathes on its cuts, and they were allowed far too few. Delos' actor, Peter Diamond, arranged the fights here and also in the film The Princess Bride, so he's responsible for my favourite cinematic fencing match of all time (between the Man in Black and Inigo Montoya atop the Cliffs of Insanity). Wonderful.

Of course, this fight only happens because of the jealousy of Nero, as he whets his appetite for the later slaughter of the Doctor. Which, in turn, came about because of the Doctor's need to avoid playing the lyre at Nero's feast, and a rather too successful application of the trick from Hans Christian Anderson's The Emperor's New Clothes. It all fits together in the story like an intricate jigsaw, and it all helps to make this the best episode of the story so far (the above-average music helps too).

Speaking of the feast, it's rather unfortunate that attention focuses so heavily on the fact that they sit at historically inaccurate tables. As Barry explains, this was an artifact of having to fit so many people into the available studio space, rather than ignorance. It's a great scene, and made all the more meaningful for me because of something that happened 11 days previous.

While we were still on holiday, it was decided that each of the children would cook one meal to give us a break. Unusually, Isaac decided to go for the more complex of the two - in fact, he decided to prepare a Roman feast. We ate it on the night we watched All Roads Lead to Rome, sitting at a historically inaccurate table, and he did a great job! The starter comprised local shellfish (prawns, mussels and crab), olives, nuts and fruit. This was followed by Numidian chicken and cabbage, then dates cooked in honey with a quarter of an almond replacing the stone in each date. Finally there were grapes, and the whole meal was accompanied by spiced wine (well, actually spiced grape juice, but that suits me as a teetotaller). The menu came from one of the Horrible Histories books, and it was great.

So thank you, Isaac. I thought of it a lot while watching the scene in this episode.

Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 30th January 1965
Viewers: 10.0 million
Chart Position: 28
Appreciation Index: 50

Rating:
7.5/10.

Next Time:
Inferno.