Doctor Who, season 2 continued …

I haven’t had time to post recently, so here’s a summary of the remaining episodes of The Romans.

Taking the story as a whole, it’s a bit of a mixed bag that doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be.  A whole story could have been told of Ian’s time on board the ship and getting caught up in the arena – I mean, it practically pre-empted the successful Starz Spartacus TV series by some 50 years, but it’s over almost before it starts.

A whole story could have been told about Barbara having to survive off her wits at the court of Nero, but it’s mostly reduced to a farce here.

The Doctor is, in parts, Doctorish while, in others, just making light of everything – including the Emperor’s New Cloak farce.

Nero is shown as a complete idiot that only gets away with it because he’s in charge.  A whole story could have been told showing how he got to be in charge, given what a talentless selfish nobody he would be if he wasn’t Emperor.

In short, there are no end of good stories here trying to get out, but they’re squashed under the weight of trying to make it a jolly old jape.

Next time … The Web Planet