Doctor Who (TV Series) Conspiracy (1965) User Reviews

Conspiracy

[guswhovian · 8/10 · 16 July 2020]

The Doctor and Barbara deal with court intrigue, while Ian is trained to be a gladiator.

"Conspiracy" is by far the most outright comedic episode of The Romans. Some of the comedy works, and some of it doesn't. The attempted poisoning of Barbara is excellent, while Nero chasing Barbara around the palace feels like a cut-rate pantomime. However, the most brilliant sequence is where the Doctor "plays" the lyre to the guests at a banquet. William Hartnell is superb.

William Russell doesn't get much to do in this episode except wander around a jail cell. However, the set design and costumes continue to impress me.

It's all very cut throat.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 30 October 2019]

Nero is desperate to have his wicked way with Barbara, The Doctor is required to play for The Court.

Once again this episode looks awesome, the banquet scene in particular is so lavish. It's another wonderfully amusing episode, it has a nice mix of humour and serious drama. Nero is suitably bonkers. The humour has sometimes seemed a bit over the top in The Romans, but when it's used well it can be sinister, I think they've started to get that right with Nero.

The Official poisoner is a terrific character, hard to believe in such a post now, but it was Ancient Rome. Ann Tisard is fantastic as Locusta, she's so matter of fact. Derek Francis is fun as Nero, he's playing it in somewhat comic fashion, but he's certainly a huge character. Barbara's bracelet would serve a purpose in a later story. Ian's gladiator scene is very well done.

Fiddling while Rome burns

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 4/10 · 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

Some fun moments, some cringey blatant sexual harrassment

[TARDIS_Tech_Support · 5/10 · 5 September 2022]

Ugh, I already hated Nero at the start of this episode, but his treatment of Barbara, and her being powerless to fully get away from the jerk -- and having The Doctor almost see Barbara on multiple occasions was utterly frustrating. Which was sort of the point, and as such, the cast & crew succeeded in what they were trying to accomplish.

That said... it wasn't a very fun episode, and it wasn't a very serious episode. That weird line in-between didn't sit especially well for me, and I just kind of wanted it to be over.

I wish there had been a decent choreographer for the sword & shield scenes as well, since it felt really amateurish, given how important the fights were to the goals of the protagonists.