YMMV / Doctor Who S17 E2 "City of Death"

• Aluminium Christmas Trees: While the main plot about stealing The Mona Lisa and peddling a bunch of forgeries off as the real deal might just sound like one of the many fantastical lighthearted plotlines from the Graham Williams era of Doctor Who, such a scheme was actually attempted in 1911, albeit without any involvement from one-eyed aliens.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Duggan quickly became popular for his characterization as an impulsive, yet capable Bulldog Drummond parody who bounces off of the snarky intellectual Romana and the ever-Doctory Doctor quite well. The fact that he was never made a companion is lamented by many.
• Gateway Series: A huge factor behind this serial's belated fan appraisal lies in the fact that it's a perfect introductory story to the Classic Series, establishing all of its most quintessential tropes and greatest strengths in both storytelling and characterization in a neat four-episode package. It being one of the Lighter and Softer stories while still maintaining shades of its more Darker and Edgier counterparts further cements its entry-level status, showing how well the Classic Series can balance the two approaches under the right circumstances. In essence, this is the most archetypal Doctor Who story you will ever find, and it makes for an excellent introduction as a result.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Scaroth being the last of his kind and failing to save his people. The Ninth Doctor will be in a similar position.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In the cafe, the Doctor mentions a crack in time. Somewhere, a lightbulb went on over Steven Moffat's head. Additionally, the picture the artist draws has a very familiar-looking crack in it...
  • Also, Scaroth exists in different guises over history. One wonders if this is where Moffat got the idea for Clara Oswald.
  • Scarlioni, played by Julian Glover, disposes of Kerensky by rapidly aging him into a skeleton. Flash forward ten years...
  • A copy of the Mona Lisa made at the same time and in the same workshop? Only one so far, but it's a start.
  • The Star Trek: The Next Generation finale "All Good Things..." saw life on Earth get stopped by a Negative Space Wedgie — and Q shows Picard this by taking him to Paris 4 Billion Years ago!
  • The name of the Jagaroth ship, Sephiroth, was Scaroth's original name. This name change likely saved him from confusion with a much more famous villain later on down the line.
  • Thirty years later, Sarah Jane and her crew would have trouble with the Mona Lisa.
  • The Doctor was appalled that Romana thinks computer-created art is better than human-created art. Discussion on computer generated vs human-created art occurred frequently in real life in 2023.
• One-Scene Wonder: John Cleese and Eleanor Bron as art critics.
• Padding: There's a whole lot of shots of the Doctor and Romana just merrily running around Paris; excused partly by The BBC wanting to get their money's worth out of the location shooting (literally all they could afford was a silent shoot with Tom Baker, Lalla Ward and no other actors, and they may... um, not have asked permission to film from anyone), and partly for Scenery Porn.
• Retroactive Recognition: While Julian Glover was well known in British television by this point, the film roles that would make him internationally famous were yet to come.
• Sacred Cow: Criticized at the time of release due to excessive humour, "City of Death" is now widely regarded by critics and fans as one of the great masterpieces of Classic Doctor Who.
• Special Effect Failure: Scaroth's face. It's a good design, but in closeups one can plainly see the human face beneath it.
• Vindicated by History: Despite drawing the highest ratings of the Classic Series and getting generally good reception, this episode was dubbed "over-rated" and "smug" by some fans-turned-creators like John Peel and Gary Russell, who hated the idea of "funny" Doctor Who and accused it of turning the series into Farce. Nowadays, it's one of the most beloved Classic serials and frequently makes top ten lists. Steven Moffat and Gareth Roberts are huge fans, and 4chan's perennial Doctor Who discussion thread "/who/" even voted it the best Doctor Who TV story ever.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: The main villain was originally called Sephiroth, with other characters named after the individual Sephiroth also appearing and representing aspects of him. None of this has anything to do with the plot, which was probably why those characters were excised and the character was renamed Scaroth in the final version. And it's probably for the better that they didn't use the name Sephiroth, unless if they wanted to be the butt of many jokes once a very famous video game came out.

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