At the end of the previous story, The Rescue, the Tardis lands rather precariously on the side of a cliff. The Tardis is seen as falling off the cliff. The Romans begins with The Doctor and his companions Ian, Barbara and Vicki living it up at a Roman villa outside a village not too far from the city of Rome, in the time of the Emperor Nero.
After reassuring everyone that the Tardis is still in working order despite its fall from the cliffside, The Doctor decides to visit Rome, and takes Vicki along. Ian and Barbara remain behind at the villa, but are soon set upon by slave traders and sold into slavery. Ian ends up first as a galley slave, then eventually as a gladiator. Barbara, meanwhile, is bought by Tavius, who is responsible for the staffing of the Emperor's household, where Barbara will become the handmaiden of the Empress.
The Doctor, meanwhile, discovers the dead body of a musician by the name of Maximus Pettulian. Shortly after discovering the body, The Doctor is mistaken for Maximus. Nero had ordered Maximus to be discreetly murdered as he is jealous of any fellow musicians, and the Roman Centurion who has mistaken The Doctor for Maximus attempts to fulfill his orders. The Doctor foils the attempt, and makes his way to Rome with Vicki.
Nero welcomes The Doctor, as he can't have The Doctor murdered while he's staying at the Emperor's palace without causing problems. Meanwhile, Ian and Barbara, who are already in Rome are unaware of The Doctor's presence. The Doctor is forced to give a musical performance, wherein he plays nothing but the audience, including Nero, of course won't admit that they've heard nothing. The Doctor quips, afterwards, that he was the one who gave the idea of The Emperor's New Clothes to Hans Christian Anderson centuries later.
Nero, however, is enraged and attempts to have The Doctor killed. When confronted by Nero, The Doctor ends up setting fire to Nero's plans to rebuild Rome. This gives Nero an idea, which puts in motion the events that lead to Nero's burning of Rome. Under the cover of the fire, The Doctor and his companions escape Rome and return to the villa and it's revealed that Tavius, who aids in Barbara and Ian's escape, is a Christian. One of the last shots of Rome that we see is Nero playing a lyre while watching the city burn.
The problem I had with the Romans is Derek Francis' portrayal of the Emperor Nero. In this story, Nero is written and portrayed as a skirt chasing buffoon. I found it hard to believe that this version of Nero would even have the intelligence to come up with grand plans for rebuilding Rome. He spends the better part of one of the episodes chasing Barbara around, with Barbara trying to avoid him. The Empress, played by Kay Patrick, comes off as jealous and controlling and thoroughly unlikable.
I'll admit the reference to the Emperor's New Clothes was clever, but in the end the attempts to make this episode somewhat humorous just didn't work for me. Once the broadly played Nero arrives on the scene, the story fall apart. If the writers and Derek Francis had chosen to play Nero as a more serious and menacing individual, thus upping the suspense and the danger that The Doctor and his companions faced, then The Romans might have really worked. As it is, The Romans is, to put it quite simply, below average Doctor Who.
