It may be “good to be the King” – but Rory Williams is finding it much less so to be the Emperor.

The first box set – and Rory’s time in Ancient Rome – comes to a close in Jacqueline Rayner’s thoughtful tale, which once again redresses the balance between the comedy and the drama, with the former more gentle and deriving from the latter. Rayner gets to the heart of Rory’s situation – as he says, he’d die for Amy (and indeed as we know, dying is something he’s rather good at), but living for her is much harder. There’s a strong relationship built between Arthur Darvill’s Rory and Samantha Béart’s Anna, and we share his anguish when it seems that she’s got caught up in the machinations of the court.

With this story, we move further from The Romans (Doctor Who style 1965) and more towards the plotting of I, Claudius. Mina Anwar’s Juliana has her eye on the prize – vicariously – while Max Hutchinson’s Marinus knows that the strength of the Roman Empire in its steadfastness, and an Emperor who thinks that the soldiery doesn’t want to be involved in pointless combat is rather missing the point. Rory and his ducks on the pond aren’t a good fit for this world, as he increasingly realises, and I think it’s the right creative choice to move him on from this arena at this point. The concentration on this story on the Rory/Amy relationship is another good choice, and I hope that’s a thread that will continue through the sets to come.

Verdict: The spotlight was more usually on Mrs Williams in the TV show, and this set has more than proved the versatility of Rory as a character. 9/10

Paul Simpson

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