From City of Death: 29 September 1979 It is an open secret that City of Death had some of the best dialogue ever written for Doctor Who, ever. The reason is simple: David Agnew wrote it. Apparently this is a pseudonym for David Fisher, Douglas Adams and Graham Williams. Case proven over quality, since Douglas Adams was involved and I'm certainly not going to be so churlish as to ignore this basic law. This moment is a bit of a cheat, since it could cover the dialogue for the entire series. How philosophical do you want to get about a moment? Perhaps if I just give one passage from early on in which we find The Doctor and Romana are at the top of the Eiffel Tower:
Doctor: Nice, isn't it? Romana: Yes, marvellous. Doctor: Marvellous. Absolutely. Romana: Absolutely marvellous. Doctor: Well, I think it's marvellous. Romana: So do I. Though it's not quite as you described it. Doctor: Really? How did I describe it? Romana: You said it was nice. Doctor: It's the only place in the world where one can relax entirely. Romana: Mmm. That bouquet. Doctor: What Paris has, it has an ethos, a life. It has... Romana: A bouquet? Doctor: A spirit all of its own. Like a wine, It has... Romana: A bouquet. Doctor: It has a bouquet. Yes. Like a good wine. You have to choose one of the vintage years, of course. Romana: What year is this? Doctor: Ah well, yes. It's 1979 actually. More of a table wine, shall we say. Ha! The randomiser's a useful device but it lacks true discrimination. Should we sip it and see? Romana: Oh, I'd be delighted. Shall we take the lift or fly? Doctor: Let's not be ostentatious. Romana: All right. Let's fly then. Doctor: That would look silly. We'll take the lift. Come on.
The conversation bangs effortlessly back and forth like a ball at the Wimbledon final. If you watch the episode all through, then you realise that the actors seem very much on the same wavelength. The comment about 1979 being more of a table wine than one with a good bouquet is priceless. Adams had great economy of style in his writing and he is already sorely missed. I had been putting off reading his finally, but recently completed novel, Shada. I haven't been disappointed now that I have actually treated myself. There's more, of course. Gems such as:
The Doctor: "I say, what a wonderful butler! He's so violent!"
and...
Duggan: "You know what I don't understand?" Romana: "I expect so."
and...
Countess: "My dear, I don't think he's as stupid as he seems." Count: "My dear, nobody could be as stupid as he seems!
Hello, I'm Paul Hammans, terminal 'Who' obsessive, F1 fan, reader of arcane literature about ideas and generalist scribbler. To paraphrase someone much better at aphorisms than I: I strive to write something worth reading and when I cannot do that I try to do something worth writing. I have my own Dr Who oriented blog at http://www.exanima.co.uk
