The Doctor arrives in the highlands of Scotland, where his old companion Jamie McCrimmon, under the Nom de Guerre of Black Donald, is leading a band of rebel Highlanders against the Redcoats. But things aren't quite as the Doctor remembers them in this corner of history— the English report to a mysterious "Overlord," anachronistic oil-extraction technology is everywhere, and mythological monsters are terrorizing the moors. To get to the bottom of the mystery, the Doctor and his old friend must venture into the Overlord's territory, the perilous City of Spires.
This audio play is the first of a three-part arc continuing with The Wreck of the Titan and concluding with Legend of the Cybermen.
City of Spires contains examples of:
- All Myths Are True: Part of what seems to be happening in the highlands, with Red Caps and other mythological creatures coming to life and Rob Roy showing up years after his death.
- Anachronism Stew: There are oil pumps and refineries decades before there should be any, and several people are a 100 years from the future.
- Asshole Victim: Heyward.
- Body Horror: The creation of the Red Caps, which involves clamping a red cap into a normal person's skull and injecting their brain with the "black water" until they are transformed into a barely intelligent but physically powerful slave of the Overlord.
- Also, the Overlord himself. Which turns out to be a colony of alien leeches who hollow out human bodies and take them as hosts.
- The Bus Came Back: For Jamie, last seen in The Two Doctors (though chronologically for him it was The War Games).
- Call-Back: The Doctor recalls how he was shorter and had black hair and travelled with Ben and Polly. The Doctor even makes the same mistake of WHEN it took place, mentioning it was 1745 instead of 1746.
- The Doctor is repeatedly called a "dandy".
- Jamie refers to the "Piper that comes to claim the dead". The Doctor says the last time he saw one it was a metal man, a Cyberman.
- Call-Forward: The Doctor says the assembled hordes of Genghis Kahn couldn't get through the TARDIS' defenses just like his Ninth incarnation would later claim.
- The Cavalry: Rob Roy and his rebels provide a neat distraction towards the end.
- Cyborg: The Redcaps.
- Full-Name Basis: Jamie only refers to Rob Roy as Rob Roy MacGregor.
- Hulk Speak: The Redcaps, though their vocabulary is extensive beyond the regular Hulk Speak candidate.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: In addition to the Time Lord memory block preventing him from remembering his time traveling with the Doctor, Jamie has also forgotten ever meeting the Doctor at all.
- Man in a Kilt: Jamie, as per usual.
- Going Commando: When the Doctor gives him a "leg up", Jamie suggests he doesn't look up.
- MegaCorp: The Herodinia feign being one, and has Victor Ciprio design and maintain machinery for ulterior motives.
- Mistaken for Foreigner: The Doctor cycles through "English" to "French" because the Scots find him such a peculiar person.
- Mistaken for Spies: The Doctor. As per usual.
- Never Heard That One Before: When the Major says to the Doctor "Ah, we meet again."
- Nom de Guerre: Jamie's identity as "Black Donald".
- Not That Kind of Doctor: Said word for word by the Doctor after being mistaken for a medic.
- Older and Wiser: Jamie is 40 years older than he was during his last appearance in the franchise, and has spent the intervening time becoming a seasoned Highland warrior.
- Ominous Obsidian Ooze: 18th-century Scotland is inexplicably littered with anachronistic pumpjacks owned by the Hirudin Corporation. The Doctor soon discovers that what they're extracting isn't oil, though it looks the part: called "Black Water," it's often seen being pumped into unwilling victims to create Red Caps, the corporation's Superpowered Mooks.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: One of the Highlanders that betrays Black Donald (Jamie) is rewarded with food. The other one, unceremoniously shot.
- Running Gag: People thinking the Doctor is French, which continues through the two subsequent plays in the arc as well.
- Sequel Episode: Discussed. The Doctor believes this adventure is one to The War Games, but it's actually one to The Mind Robber.
- Sequel Hook: When the Doctor confronts the Hirodinia at the end, the Doctor wants to know who's buying all the "Black water", and the Hirodinia ask him in return if "She" sent him.
- Title Drop:Only a mad man would enter the City of Spires!!
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Values Dissonance: Jamie catches Alice from a fall, and she objects to his arm being around her waist. - Weaksauce Weakness: The Hirodinia, like Earth leeches, find salt extremely painful.
- The Worm That Walks: The Hirodinia, or rather as they call themselves The Vision of the Hirodin Corporation in order to coerce people to work for them.
- You Have Failed Me: Redcap kills a guard who had his sword stolen by Alice, and then threatens Major Heyward not to fail him.
