The Romans
One of my all-time favorites, "The Romans" is also one of the best historical stories, shining brightly alongside classic gems "Marco Polo" and "The Aztecs". William Hartnell steals the show, clearly reveling in the wonderful script's comic touches. This amazing actor can always make me smile and forget my troubles by just watching him. "The Romans" features a number of memorable moments for his Doctor, notably a fight scene in which he throws an assassin around a room, then out of a window, the scene where he pretends to play the lyre to an enraptured audience, and his delight at discovering he was inadvertently responsible for giving Nero the idea of burning Rome.
Maureen O'Brien firmly establishes Vicki as being vastly superior to Susan, lighting up the screen with her exuberance alone. She is an absolute delight, clicking wonderfully with the Doctor. I love the moment when Vicki swaps the poisons over - in an attempt to save the life of Poppaea's slave - and nearly kills Nero.
Jacqueline Hill and William Russell are superb. Hill embraces the story and imbues it not only with comedy, but also awkwardness (her scenes with Nero), despair (worrying about the hopelessness of her position as a slave), and an enormous sense of fun, ably demonstrated in her fooling around with Ian. Speaking of which, Ian and Barbara are more in love here than in any other story! Never mind the fridge jokes and coy smiles, it's scenes such as the one in which Barbara stares wistfully out of her prison window, practically willing Ian's safety - that's where we see the spark between these two (and there's only one of them there!). Whether you enjoy picking up on subtext like this or not, it is nonetheless easy to argue that the heart-warming relationship between these two characters helps to make "The Romans" enjoyable not only from a comedic and dramatic perspective, but also a romantic one.
William Russell's Ian is possibly at his very best here. Not only adept at comedy, Russell manages to infuse his character with a certain amount of desperation in evading the law and escaping captivity. There is an animal-like quality to the way Ian hides to the back walls of the Roman streets, his unshaven face and tousled hair painting him less as the resourceful hero he is often cast as and more as the wanted fugitive. Things like this help to highlight the story's more dramatic aspects and balance the comedy and the tension well. Other elements that contribute to this nice balance include the scenes on the slave ship, the underlying seriousness of Tavius' motivations for wanting Nero dead, and Poppaea's plot to murder Barbara.
I simply can not praise this story enough. Everything gels together into a faultless production - Ray Cusick's gorgeous sets, Christopher Barry's direction, Dennis Spooner's clever and witty script, the stellar cast - and is a testament to the dedication of everyone who worked on it. "The Romans" is a brilliant story and one that I never tire of seeing again and again.
5 / 5 stars