sentences:  I simply couldn't believe this was "Doctor Who"... the continual buffoonery is getting on my nerves".A similar view was held by Gary Russell who, reviewing the VHS release in 1991, said, ""City of Death", like most Douglas Adams material, is overrated and misses the mark for me, falling between the stools of good pastiche and bad parody and making fairly unsatisfactory viewing".This line was countered by Vanessa Bishop who called it "the "Doctor Who" story it's alright to laugh at... we must now accept that "City of Death" is funny — because if we didn't the "Crackerjack"-style sleuths, scientists and all... would leave it knocking about near the bottom of all the "Doctor Who" story ranking polls" and, responding to the criticisms about the levels of comedy, that "it's precisely these things that make it seem so special".