City of Death

Last night I was watching a Doctor Who story from 1979 called "The City of Death". The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and Romana (Lalla Ward) are on holiday in 1979 Paris when they become involved in a scheme to steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. The scheme is being masterminded by a mysterious Italian count (Julian Glover) who has been stealing a series of great artworks. It turns out that the Count is in a fact a green, one-eyed, multi-tentacled alien, whose spaceship exploded on primeval Earth, before life developed, and is stealing the artworks to finance the construction of a time-machine to stop the explosion. However, if he succeeds it could spend the end of life on Earth. I really enjoyed it, and I would say it is one of the best of the original Doctor Who serials. The script was co-written by Douglas Adams (who was the series' script editor at the time), and there is plenty of his trademark humour, which, fortunately, doesn't get in the way of the drama.

As usual on a Friday, there was barely anyone in work. We got a letter notifying us of the annual cost-of-living pay raise. It's not as much as the Union were holding out for, though. The management basically ignored the Union and instituted the raise anyway, which is exactly the same thing that happened last year. Although the next pay day we will be getting some backpay, hopefully. By the time I left work, at around five o'clock the office was almost deserted.