Doctor Who: The Rescue / The Romans

The first Doctor (William Hartnell) stars in this highly anticipated two-disc set. In The Rescue, The Doctor and his fellow time-travelers arrive on the planet Dido in the late 25th century and discover a crashed spaceship from Earth whose lone survivors battle a vicious shapeshifting creature determined to destroy all humans. The Romans finds the doctor "performing" at Emperor Nero's Court in Rome in the year 64 AD. When he accidentally ignites the Emperor's plans for rebuilding Rome, the Doctor gives Nero the idea of playing the lyre while Rome burns. Abundant exclusive extras will thrill even the most die-hard Doctor Who fans.

The Rescue
Arriving on the planet Dido in the late 25th Century, the time travellers come upon a crashed spaceship from Earth. Its two occupants - a paralysed man named Bennett and a young girl, Vicki - are living in fear of a creature called Koquillion, a native whose people have apparently killed the other members of the human expedition.
However, the Doctor quickly deduces that Koquillion is in fact Bennett in disguise; it was he who killed the others in order to conceal an earlier murder he had committed on the ship.
Confronted by two of the humanoid Dido natives - whom he thought he had completely wiped out - Bennett falls from a high rock ledge to his death. As Vicki's father was amongst the murdered crewmen and she is now an orphan, the Doctor offers her a place aboard the TARDIS.

The Romans
The four time travellers are enjoying a rare holiday, staying at a villa not far from Rome in the year 64 AD. The Doctor soon becomes restless and sets off to visit the city, taking Vicki with him. In their absence, Ian and Barbara are kidnapped by slave traders.
Having been mistaken for the famous lyre player Maximus Pettulian and asked to perform at the Emperor Nero's Court, the Doctor has to devise ever more elaborate schemes to avoid revealing that he cannot actually play the instrument.
Ian meanwhile becomes a galley slave, while Barbara is sold to Nero's slave buyer Tavius at an auction in Rome. Ian and a fellow slave named Delos escape from the galley when it is wrecked in a storm and make their way to Rome to try to find and rescue Barbara.
There they are recaptured and forced to fight as gladiators in the arena. Events reach their climax when, by accidentally setting light to the Emperor's plans for the rebuilding of Rome, the Doctor gives him the idea of having the city razed to the ground. Nero plays the lyre while Rome burns, and the Doctor and Vicki and a reunited Ian and Barbara make their separate ways back to the villa.

The Rescue

Directed by Christopher Barry
Costumes by Daphne Dare
Film Editing by Jim Latham
Incidental Music by Tristram Cary from stock
Produced by Verity Lambert
Story Editing by Dennis Spooner
Title Music by Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, arranged by Delia Derbyshire
Written by David Whitaker

The Romans

Directed by Christopher Barry
Costumes by Daphne Dare
Film Editing by Jim Latham
Incidental Music by Raymond Jones
Produced by Verity Lambert
Story Editing by Dennis Spooner
Title Music by Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, arranged by Delia Derbyshire
Written by Dennis Spooner

The Rescue
The TARDIS makes the familiar 'wheezing and groaning' noise both inside and outside the ship as it materialises in this story.

Jacqueline Hill suffered shock and a sore face when the wooden effects gun used in the scene where she shot the Sand Monster detonated with greater ferocity than expected.

Tom Sheridan, who played the Space Captain heard but not seen in this story, was also inside the Sand Monster costume.

The Romans
There is a slapstick fight scene between the Doctor, aided by Vicki, and the mute assassin Ascaris, which ends with the latter falling from a first floor window not to be seen again...

The Doctor convinces Nero and his courtiers that he is a skilled lyre player, without ever playing a note - a scene that pays homage to Hans Christian Andersen's 1837 story The Emperor's New Clothes.

The part of Tigilinus was expanded in late rewriting of the scripts to incorporate that of another minor slave character. Similarly the slave trader Sevcheria was 'promoted' after the first episode to become the captain of Nero's guards, originally envisaged by Spooner as a separate individual.