Do I remember right this being your favourite Hartnell story?
Plot • This—deliberately, of course—has none of the edge of The Aztecs, or the grand scale of Marco Polo. It even lacks the detail of The Reign of Terror. It is far from gripping, but is consistently engaging, whether dropping in elements of The Emperor's New Clothes or delivering at least one great cliffhanger. The plot has a fairly strong through-line although its desire to master several genres at once makes it feel a bit lopsided for my liking. Although I do really love the touch at the beginning where we join the Tardis team weeks later when they're already getting on perfectly well. 7/10
Characters • Vicki is fantastic in this, and the guest characters (particularly Nero and Locusta) are well-served and memorable. If there's a weak spot for me, it's actually the Doctor, surprisingly. I find his flippancy at the end disconcerting, and entirely at odds with his much more effective rage and terror in The Aztecs, only a year earlier. But what it does have is the very beautiful interplay between Ian and Barbara. In terms of their characters, this is an essential story. Lovely. 8/10
Entertainment • I do enjoy this one, hugely. Derek Francis gives a fine comedy performance, and as I said it does hold your attention well overall. If there's one aspect I feel works poorly it's the Benny Hill/Carry On chase sequence involving him and Barbara. Not only is it not terribly amusing, but it feels out-of-place—and worse goes on for so long that it introduces issues with the story's pacing. A bigger budget would have allowed us to see more of Rome (say, the coliseum, which seems a conspicuous absence), but nonetheless it successfully creates a world where everything that happens within makes sense. 7/10
Legacy • The first out-and-out comedy seems an obvious thing to mention, although the demise of those kind of stories denies this the legacy it perhaps should have. We also have the show's first comedy death (Tigilinus I believe)—and for better or worse, it does introduce a new, less serious side to the Doctor. 5/10
Fan consensus • I really don't know. Probably quite high, and rightly so. 7/10
