Doctor Who “City Of Death Part 4”

Hey!  It’s John Cleese in a cameo!  Cool!

Oh, and the Doctor needs to save all life on Earth.

Yes, we got an explanation for how the Count can be in the past and the present at the same time!  See, in prehistoric times, before there was any life at all on Earth, the Jagaroth race were down to just him, but his ship exploded as he tried to leave the Earth.  But it didn’t kill him because that would make sense.  No, instead it split him into twelve portions in twelve different time periods, all more or less communicating with each other at all times.  Since the Count wants to get himself knitted back together long enough to travel back in time and stop himself from blowing up his own ship, that sounds like the sort of thing the Doctor normally does to help people.

Heck, Romana opts to finish the research anyway, though I suspect part of that is due to the fact that Duggan was locked up in the basement cell.  Oh, and the thing the Count used to kill Professor Kerensky, well, the Count will use it again to destroy the entire city of Paris.

By then, the Doctor has returned to the Count’s place, and he opts to see the Countess to see what she knows.  What does she know?  Well, when the Doctor namedrops his friend Shakespeare, she fetches a copy in the Bard’s own handwriting from a secret closet.  And that would be when the Doctor says something about the Count having only one eye in a green head on his real face, and the Countess, well…

So, while the Doctor gets taken to see the Count, the Countess pulls out some old paperwork of Egyptian hieroglyphics, and sure enough, there’s a Jagaroth on the end.

By then, Romana finished her work, and the Count is going to go back and stop himself mostly by reversing time for everyone but him until he gets there.  He’ll have two minutes to do what he wants to do there before getting snapped back to the present.  But then the Countess tries to kill him, especially after he shows her his real face, except the bracelet he gave her was also a self-destruct device.

OK, so, he’s a killer.  And he leaves instructions to kill the Doctor, Romana, and Duggan after he goes away, but that’s where Duggan comes in handy as his “hit everything” plan finally works by busting through the door.  And that means a race against time to get to the TARDIS, parked in the Louvre, and get back to the dawn of time to stop the Count.

Why stop him?  Because the explosion of his ship is what caused life to form on Earth.  No explosion, no life, and the Count just doesn’t care.

Fortunately, they do beat the Count, and then Duggan’s plan comes in handy again when he pops the Count and knocks him out.  The Count goes back, and without his mask, his own bodyguard freaks out and attacks him.  Both die and most of the Mona Lisas burn.  The Doctor manages to save one, and it isn’t the original, but he figures that’ll be OK because no one will be able to tell the difference and art is to be admired and enjoyed above all else.

That’s awfully nice.  You know, as long as you aren’t an alien with one eyeball and a head that looks like a pile of spinach.  Those guys are more trouble than they’re worth.