“The Last Queen of the Nile” is the titular story for this final box of this year’s Fourth Doctor Adventures and really goes out on a high. A “pure historical” (in other words our time travelling heroes and their timeship are the only sci-fi elements) which is rare for any non-Hartnell Doctor but even rarer four Mr. Baker, but it really succeeds in its goal of showing the “Whoniverse’s” version of Anthony and Cleopatra with real dramatic gravitas, while also not forgetting to have a bit of fun here and there. Let’s take a look!
The Doctor (Tom Baker), Leela (Louise Jameson) and K9 (John Leeson) arrive in ancient Alexandria and soon run into some Roman soldiers led by Mark Anthony (Michael Lumsdan), who believes K9 would make a great gift to please the love of his life, Cleopatra (Pippa Bennett-Warner) and takes it by force when The Doctor doesn’t want to part with him. Planning to leave back to his love The Doctor convinces him that he’s a great showman and will be similarly a great act to please Cleopatra, so he takes him with him as well (along with the TARDIS). Meanwhile back in Rome Octavian Caeser (Blake Ritson) is riling up the senate, convincing them that Anthony was too busy with his foreign love to look after Rome, whereas he had done many great things for the people, easily getting them on his side. Upon returning “home” Anthony is met with awe by his son Antyllus (Timothy Blore) but scorn by Cleopatra, who is worried about his attacking nearby tribes that could otherwise be an ally.
As The Doctor figures out what part of history they’re in and seeks to take Leela and leave before Caesar arrives Leela stops an assassination attempt on Cleopatra and is named her new bodyguard, making her stuck between loyalty to a new oath and The Doctor’s warnings about changing time. That being said, K9, upon being asked by Cleopatra, tells her about her own future, putting everything at even greater risk. The Doctor tries to smooth things over but only ends up in chains, so the battle between Anthony and Caeser begins and despite K9, Leela and even Cleopatra’s warnings about the future Anthony still goes ahead with a ill-advised navel battle, so the Queen of Egypt sends Leela and Antyllus to Caesar to beg for peace, but he kills Anthony’s son instead and then opens fire on Antony’s ship, with the Doctor on board next to him. As the ship of her lover sinks Cleopatra throws K9 overboard and resigns herself to her fate…
It’s a good story, with a great ending (which I’ll get to in the spoilers, naturally!) and hats off to all the actors/actresses involved for doing the script justice. There are a few nudges in terms of what actually happened historically (like Antyllus survived the war but was executed shortly afterwards, so not too different to here, and he did get used as an emissary to Caesar a few times…) but who cares? It was a great story, and was “close enough” for Doctor Who…
The Continuity:
This is four out of the six episodes AND the overall title of the set, yet so much focus on the Silent from the prior story. Oh well… I get it, marketing and all that…
Not a lot. Leela mentions having seen Romans before, which is a reference to one of the earliest Fourth Doctor audio dramas “The Wrath of the Iceni”. The Doctor also mentions having met Alexandria’s founder, Alexander the Great, which is a reference to the First Doctor Lost Story / Audio Drama “Farewell, Great Macedon”.
Overall Thoughts:
Sometimes… okay, a lot of times I find the pure historicals quite dull, especially set during this early a time period, but thankfully this had the right blend of drama and fun, with Mark Anthony being a bit of a light-hearted sop but the drama of his love and what happened to them both not being lost either, with the finale being a particularly strong emotional beat to end on. A rare total win for the Fourth Doctor range!
Leela accompanies Cleopatra back to her home after some time has passed and she soon decides to head to her tomb and take her own life. Meanwhile The Doctor and Anthony have managed to survive and pick up K9 to boot, so similarly head back to Alexandria, only for Mark to hear about Cleopatra’s suicide and becomes so stricken with grief and regret that he impales himself with his own sword. The Doctor assists the dying Anthony back to Cleopatra’s tomb, allowing him to see the love of his life one more time before passing knowing that shouldn’t affect the timeline too much. This does indeed happen as Leela lets them in and Anthony dies in his love’s arms, then as the TARDIS had been brought to the tomb as a gift offering (lucky coincidence!) The Doctor and K9 head there before Ceasar can break the doors down. As a final act of aid Leela gives Cleopatra a deadly Janus thorn, which she immediately stabs herself with. As she succumbs to the poison next to the one she loved Leela boards the TARDIS and it fades away just as the future Caesar Augustus arrives.
On board the TARDIS Leela admits to her act, and as The Doctor reminds her he told her in the past not to carry those thorns any more, Leela said it was just one she carried in case she ever found herself in a situation where there was no other option, meaning it was used for its intended purpose at the end, even if it wasn’t Leela who used it…
Hogan Reviews 