It's a gem but it's a rare outlier in the modern era. I'd also cite The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances, which also happens to be my favourite Who story ever, and is very much not about famous historical figures (which would rule out Churchill, Matt Smith astronaut one, Vincent and Madame de P). But that's less about the sense of place I'm praising in the Venice story. For that I'm maybe looking more at something like City of Death, which while great for other stuff - and not a historical! - is extremely Paris-centric. To be fair doing a famous place X properly and in depth in the modern era might prove challenging on multiple levels.
I have a vague sense that NuWho has tended to alternative "celebrity" and "non-celebrity" historicals but I don't have the data to back that up. We've got The Unquiet Dead as a celebrity historical in series 1 followed by Father's Day and The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances which don't feature celebrities. Then in series two you've got Tooth and Claw (celebrity), The Girl in the Fireplace (celebrity) and The Idiot's Lantern (non-celebrity). Series three you've got The Shakespeare Code (celebrity), The Dalek two-parter (non-celebrity) and Human Nature/Family of Blood (non-celebrity) and then Donna's series you've got Fires of Pompeii (non-celebrity) and The Unicorn and the Wasp (celebrity) - so RTD, at least, is about half and half I would say.
Nice list, thanks! In terms of a really strong sense of historical place - which I think is what I was wanting most of all - I’d pull out The Idiot’s Lantern, The Shakespeare Code and The Fires of Pompeii. And yes I really appreciate non celebrity historicals, though I’ve pulled out the Shakespeare one here.
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