Doctor Who (TV Series) All Roads Lead to Rome (1965) User Reviews

Much better tone, great design.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 30 October 2019]

Barbara awaits sale as a slave, Ian is forced to row as a slave.

I much preferred this to the opening episode, the tone is much better, it still has touches of humour, but it's slightly more serious, the contrast of humour and serious drama is so much better.

It's a very, very nice production, it looks fantastic, even the stock images look very good along with the material. Terrific costumes, Ian and Barbara in particular look fantastic, the sets are amazing.

I am so surprised at how sprightly Hartnell is here, the way he handles the assassin, it's a great scene.

Very good. 8/10

Fiddling while Rome burns

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 8/10 · 6 July 2014]

Review of all 4 parts:

This 4 part historical adventure from writer Dennis Spooner is a mix of serious drama and comedy. It takes place in Roman times and brings the time travellers to the court of Emperor Nero leading up to the burning of Rome. It features murder, intrigue and humour, some of which is reminiscent of a 'Carry On' film.

This is quite well liked by a fair amount of viewers but I find it pretty weak. The tone is uneven, slipping jarringly rather than smoothly between whimsical humour and dark drama throughout the adventure and descending to full on crazy farce in episode 3. This farce element is silly and just does not work as far as I am concerned, especially when mixed with the story's dark themes, making episode 3 not much better than the very weakest Who episodes. The drama is relatively uninteresting at times throughout the story too. If it were not for the strength of the main cast it would fall totally flat. Luckily the cast carry it off to some extent and I can accept that amongst dark stories such as The Dalek Invasion of Earth and weird sci fi drama The Web Planet a story like this is intended as a fun interlude. I just find it mostly not very well done. Writer Spooner was also the show's new script editor. His tenure had problematic humour and a drop in quality (with the exception of The Crusade).

A few good aspects to the drama and the funnier moments of humour along with some entertaining interaction and dialogue for the main characters (including a decent performance by newcomer Maureen O'Brien as Vicki) keep standards from being entirely poor but this was a disappointing adventure for me.

My Ratings: Episode 1 - 6.5/10, Episode 2 - 6/10, Episode 3 - 4/10, Episode 4 - 6.5/10

All Roads Lead to Rome

[guswhovian · 8/10 · 15 July 2020]

The Doctor and Vicki arrive in Rome, Barbara is sold to be a slave in Nero's household and Ian is shipwrecked.

As you can tell by the plot description, a lot happens in "All Roads Lead to Rome". I preferred the opening episode, but this is still a good episode. William Hartnell continues to delight, and has a wonderfully unexpected fight scene with the assassin at the beginning of the episode. Derek Francis appears as Nero for the first time at the end of the episode. Although it's a brief bit, his scene with Hartnell and Maureen O'Brien is wonderful.

Ian has become a galley slave, but is soon shipwrecked with his newfound friend Delos. The shipwreck is well executed in the studio, with lots of water being thrown on the actors. Barbara has the least interesting storyline, but the bit where she kicks a lecherous slave buyer is a nice character moment. You go Babs!

There and Back Again

[boblipton · 21 June 2010]

Dennis Spooner's script for this series can be called the ancestral script for all modern Doctor Who, from its revival in 2005 forward. It moves surefootedly from comedy to thrills and back again and most of the cast is excellent, with Ian and Barbara flirting one moment and dragged off as slaves the next. Derek Francis as Nero is as funny as any performance imaginable, and if I find Hartnell too smug to be funny in his comedy scenes -- very surprising, given his long background in comedy.

The straight historical scripts were never seen as particularly popular -- very odd, considering the show's original charter as an educational program and the fact that more than eleven million viewers turned in for this serial. By the end of 1966 they had dropped out of the production. That's a pity, I think, but this serial exists in full. Enjoy.