Elena and her friend Harrison (PROSE: City of Death) visited an art gallery in Paris in 1979 where they mistook the Doctor's TARDIS, which had been parked in the gallery, as just another exhibit. She noted that "divorced from its function and seen purely as a piece of art, its structure of line and colour is curiously counterpointed by the redundant vestiges of its function".
When the Fourth Doctor, Romana II, and Duggan entered the TARDIS and it dematerialised, the woman found the object's disappearance "exquisite, absolutely exquisite". (TV: City of Death)
Behind the scenes[]
- Both the female and male art lover characters were unnamed in City of Death, sharing the collective credit "Art Gallery Visitors", although John Cleese suggested they be named "Helena Swanetsky" and "Kim Bread". James Goss paid tribute to these names in his novelisation by calling the woman "Elena".
- Bron and Cleese only agreed to appear on the condition that they received no advance publicity or credit in Radio Times, so their appearances would come as a complete surprise to viewers.
- In DWM 571, Pete McTighe noted that, when brainstorming a mini-episode to accompany the trailer for the The Collection Blu-ray release of Season 17, he considered bringing Bron and Cleese as their art-lover characters. However, he feared that the characters would be too obscure for general audiences, and ultimately scrapped the idea in favour of Risen, which brought David Gooderson back as Davros, tying in with Destiny of the Daleks rather than City of Death.
