The Fires of Pompeii

Season 4, Episode 2, Aired
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Episode Summary

Location: Pompeii
Date: 23rd/24th August 79AD
Enemies: Pyrovile
The Doctor takes Donna back to Pompeii, on the day of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, and is faced with a great moral dilemma. Should they warn the residents of the impending disaster, or let history take its natural course?moreless
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Fan Episode Reviews (24)

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  • Donna and the Doctor grow closer in Pompeii.

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By sagarmathasgirl, Feb 07, 2011 Report Abuse
    I have to admit--I was worried about Donna as the companion. She annoyed the heck out of me in "Runaway Bride," and I foresaw more of the same in this series. However, I started watching "The Catherine Tate Show" to get used to her anyway. And I have to admit, I've been pleasantly surprised by her performance. Instead of being a wackily irritating guest star, she's actually exploring and building up the character she represents, leading me to start liking Donna Noble. She's determined not to fall in love with The Doctor, for one thing. While this should prove impossible (um, excuse me, it's David Tennant), the lack of sexual tension allows them to grow even closer as friends. Instead of accepting what he says as fact, she takes the initiative and tries to change his mind. Her "just save someone" scene was almost heartbreaking in its sincerity. The Doctor himself (and Tennant) deserves no end of love and praise. Great actor, great character, the most obvious and basic reason for watching this show. Perfect timing in this episode. I love how he's able to say the most ridiculous things with a straight face, as if they're perfectly familiar to him.
    The guest stars in the episode were all pretty good; the special effects, as always, were done well.
    A great, very challenging plot point was when the Doctor realises he caused the volcano to happen. Every time the Doctor has to confront his own morality, convictions and ethics, the episode becomes stronger. Especially this one, considering Donna also betrays her former ideals to help him.
    All in all, a strong, character-building episode.moreless

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    2 1

  • It was ok.

    7.0
    "Good"
    By TVsheep, Aug 18, 2010 Report Abuse
    I liked this episode, and it was definitely better than Partners In Crime, but it wasn't all good.

    Good:
    The Pyrovile were pretty scary, and liked the theme of Pompeii. Also, when Lucius Pextrus Dextrus foretold the episode Turn Left. ("she is returning" "something on your back")

    Bad:
    The attitude of the son in the family just wasn't realistic. Teenagers in the year 79AD were different to teenagers nowadays.
    When Pextrus had that stone arm that the doctor just pulled off. That was lame.
    How do you make a big complicated alien machine out of marble???
    How did the doctor and donna survive being inside an erupting volcano just because the were in a pod?

    Meh.moreless

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    1 3

  • The Doctor and Donna travel to Pompeii on volcano day, and meet some delightful people who are going to die. And some have eyes on their hands because they're clearly seven and in nursery. And some stuff blows up. And there's a stone gal at one point.moreless

    6.0
    "Fair"
    By CodenameV, Aug 18, 2010 Report Abuse
    Well. That's that then.

    Fully expecting an episode on par with last week's cracking opener, I was extremely disappointed this week. Basically, the Doctor arrives in Pompeii with Donna and Donna tries to convince him to help save everyone who is destined to die in the volcano eruption that buried the city. There is also an irritating sub plot with some women who can see the future, and who are infected with a monster made out of stone.

    That's about it. It wasn't very good.

    It had a few good moments, true. Some of Donna's comments to the Doctor were generally amusing. When the Doctor fought a fire monster with a water pistol produced a chuckle. And the insults towards Celts are always cause for hysterics. But that's about it. It's an episode that is only saved by the laughs rather than the action.

    Now, speaking of the action...The Doctor is an ALIEN. Get that into your thick heads writers! He does not cry - he does not show emotion other than anger. He is alien. He does not care about human beings. The Doctor would not go back to rescue someone. The Doctor sat and watched as one of his assistants was obliterated, just because that explosion was the cause of the Big Bang. He does not care. If the Doctor was human, I'd be happy for him to emote. But he isn't!

    Okay, rant over.

    Best bit of the episode was of course when the weirdo predicting villain told Donna "darkness is all I see in your future...you will show you are truly noble before the light returns" and the words to the Doctor "you walk under a false name. Doctor. It is a lie. Like you." and "She is returning to you, Doctor....she is coming!"

    So, basically, I was right. The running theme for this year is (drum roll) ROSE TYLER.

    That bit saved an otherwise crap episode.

    6/10moreless

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    1 3

  • Better than the opener but lacking something.

    7.5
    "Good"
    By inakaguy, May 12, 2008 Report Abuse
    This episode is an obvious improvement over the season opener but ultimately left me cold.

    Some of the good points were character development for Donna, good performances from the supporting cast and the Latin/Celtic joke, which genuinely worked for me.

    However, the plot was all a bit flat as far as I was concerned, and once again, the CGI monsters left me distinctly underwhelmed. It seems like Dr Who feels it has to compete with Hollywood or something in creating special effects, when to my mind, the scariest monsters from the series have taken the least special effects; the statues and the boy with the gasmask.

    The episode was certainly a lot stronger than the first week's but while there was little to dislike, there wasn't a lot to love either.moreless

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    2 1

  • Volcano Day Written by James Moran Directed by Colin Teague

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By shawnlunn2002, May 06, 2008 Report Abuse
    Donna: "I'm here in Rome. Donna Noble in Rome. This is weird. Everyone is dead".
    The Doctor: "Don't tell them that".

    After starting off the season with a light episode, the next episode was going to have to be a more serious affair and this week certainly made sure of that. If ever there was an episode on this show that raised an ethical debate, then surely this one would be it.

    The premise of this episode has been around for ages. Thanks to the press, it was well documented that The Doctor and Donna would go to Pompeii on the eve of its destruction and that The Doctor would be forced to allow history to take its natural course.

    One of the concerns that I had is why on earth would The Doctor take Donna to a time where so much devastation would emerge and then have to tell her that he couldn't do a thing to stop it. It would be an incredibly bad error in judgement if ever there was one to be had.

    Fortunately their trip to Pompeii is an error of sorts. The Doctor intends to take Donna to Ancient Rome, not the destruction of Pompeii. Things started off rather funny when Donna embraced the idea of TARDIS allowing her to understand Latin. Donna's attempts then use Latin on a stallholder had her being mistaken for a Welsh person.

    To prove that Donna isn't the dunce of the classroom, it's her who actually comes up with the deduction of their whereabouts. It's also then The Doctor's first reaction to leg it which under the circumstances was the best thing he could've done. It's just too bad the stallholder Donna had previously tried to talk to in Latin sold the TARDIS.

    However it isn't just the TARDIS being missing that is the source of The Doctor's problems. First off there's a creepy sisterhood who have foretold about the TARDIS' arrival and then there's the fellow who it got sold to that also have to be dealt with.

    One of the things about this show that continues to get better and better is the casting of guest characters and having The Thick Of It's swear master Peter Capaldi in the role of Caecillius is one of many wise casting decisions among this episode.

    Caecillius is a sculpture and someone who is determined to gain further social status but he is also a surprisingly more benevolent guy that I thought he would be. His family then consist of wife Metelia who seems more ambitious, a drifter son in Quintas and more importantly, a psychic daughter in Evelina. All in all, they are significant to the episode and stand out brilliantly as a family in peril.

    It didn't take either Donna or The Doctor to find them and when they do, we get a case of the travellers being mistaken for a couple. I guess using the same name didn't help matter either but I like how Donna seems to irk at the idea of people thinking she's romantically linked to The Doctor in any way. I just hope the writers don't overly emphasise this in later episodes.

    Of course, while The Doctor might be enthusiastic to get the hell out of Pompeii, Donna is determined to warn Caecillius' family about the imminent danger that they are going to face. You can't blame Donna for her reactions and also can I point out that if Rose and/or Martha had this experience in their second episodes, I'm pretty sure that they would react similarly.

    Donna doesn't seem to mind standing to The Doctor on the issue too. We know that he's not being malicious and that it's hard for him to have allow so many people to die because of history but he should understand why Donna isn't going to consider that as a reason not to help.

    Thankfully before the two of them can really get into there's the arrival of Lucius to contend with. Another good piece of casting here with Phil Davis, Lucius is an absolute pain in the arse as a prophet who commissioned Caecillius' to sculpt a circuit for him.

    His stance on women is misogynistic too and he grimaces in disgust when Metelia brags about Evelina being psychic herself. However there is an absolutely stunning moment between the two of them of when both The Doctor and Donna's presence tingles their suspicions.

    In a moment that will obviously be foretelling as the series progress, both Lucius and Evelina are able to predict the death of Gallifrey, Donna's origins and The Doctor's own dark secrets as the promise of a returned girl. In fairness after last week, this could be Rose but Martha is also a viable possibility. However given the creepy way Lucius said, it's most definitely Rose that he was pointing towards.

    Donna meanwhile decides to be assertive in spending time with Evelina. Asking her questions about what she does in her social time is nothing new, nor is Evelina given a response that basically highlights her lack of independence. In "The Unquiet Dead" Gwyneth was happy to serve her employer and here Evelina is content to be promised to the Sibylline Sisterhood.

    Donna is also quick in discovering that not only is the girl suffering with skin irritation that is rock but also that Evelina is unable to actually predict that a volcano is about to engulf Pompeii. If that doesn't raise a question about Evelina's abilities as a seer then what does? However Donna trying to warn the girl about Vesuvius ready to erupt also put her in harm's way. Those creepy sisters are able to eavesdrop on Evelina's conversation and when The Doctor is good and distracted, they snatch Donna for sacrifice. Being nearly killed would be the least of Donna's worries though.

    The Doctor on the other hand has been doing some snooping of his own and proves that Quintas is useful too. He figures with all the circuits that Lucius is making some kind of energy converter and even manages to escape the nutter by pulling off his arm. Like Evelina, Lucius is also rock addled; only with him it meant an entire arm of it.

    After doing battle then with a rock creature and rescuing Donna (who even when she's threatened with is still a mouthy piece of work) from the sisters, The Doctor decided to get some answers from their High Priestess. Unlike the sisters, at least the HP didn't object to a man in the room.

    However just like our previous two sight seers, the High Priestess is just nothing but rocks. I mean the poor bint looks something out of Tales Of The Crypt and she is reluctant to tell The Doctor what she has become. Of course he pushes at her so hard that she ends up screaming that she's a Pyrovile.

    Given that this episode is all about fire, a Pyrovile is an appropriate name for an alien threat on the series. The idea of it using Vesuvius to build a new race through human is an innovative as Donna is convinced that by stopping the Pyroviles, thousands of deaths can be prevented also.

    I can see why she came to the conclusion so the reveal about The Doctor then having to allow everyone die so that the Pyroviles can be defeated certainly packs a punch. Evelina even predicted that The Doctor would have to make a horrible choice and here he really did.

    When the Pyroviles actually did get defeated and Vesuvius erupted, this episode then hit an ambitious scope. Seeing The Doctor and Donna flee the streets only for scared and devastated to perish really hit home. Donna herself hard an incredibly hard time heading to the TARDIS as Caecillius and him family were in danger.

    Which leads to the shocker of the episode Catherine Tate's acting. Yes she's a good comic actress but seeing as I've only seen her in a limited amount of things, the big question was whether or not she would be able to handle the heavy emotional that even a show still dismissed as being childish and silly by some? There's a simple answer Yes!

    Her performance as Donna rages at The Doctor for allowing people to die really impressed me. Talk about knocking out of the ball park. I thought my reservations about Donna dissipated after last week. Now it's like I'm ashamed I ever once doubted Catherine Tate's casting whatsoever. The sickening thing however is that she's probably gonna deliver even stronger performances as the series goes on and still many of the critics who don't like her because she's not Billie Piper or Freema Agyeman probably won't relent. As for David Tennant, he's always good but Catherine really does deserve much praise for this episode.

    We've had it plenty of times that The Doctor can't interfere with the course of history and that he would save his own people if he could. I think Donna did take this on board but her persuasion of him to at least save Caecillius and his family allowed for one small victory without violating history completely.

    Having the catch up later with Caecillius' family was great. One of my friends recently pointed out how much she loathed The Doctor always apologising for events that weren't his fault. I think she raises a good point because volcano day here still wasn't The Doctor's fault.

    I also liked the dynamic with The Doctor and Donna at the end. He more or less admitted last week that he wanted someone in his life and right now, Donna is that person and if this episode is anything to go by, then her influence can only be good for The Doctor.

    Also in "The Fires Of Pompeii"

    Unlike last year's Dalek two-parter, all the actors actually got to go to Rome to film this episode and used the same studio to film one of my favourite shows.

    Caecillius (re TARDIS): "What do you think?"
    Metelia: "You call it Modern Art; I call it a waste of space".

    I noticed the stallholder is Phil Cornwall from Dead Ringers. That show has done some great Doctor Who skits in the past.

    Caecillius: "And who are you?"
    The Doctor: "I am Spartacus".
    Donna: "And so I am".

    Lucius: "The prophecies of women are limited and dull. Only the men folk have the capacity for true perception".
    Donna: "I tell you where the wind's blowing right now mate".

    Another thing that Lucius predicted involved something on Donna's back and the Medusa Cascade. The Master mentioned the latter last season and I'll be interested in finding out what it means exactly.

    Quintas: "Don't tell my Dad".
    The Doctor: "Only if you don't tell mine. Pass the torch".

    Donna: "Then what can you see happening tomorrow?"
    Evelina: "Is tomorrow special?"
    Donna: "You tell me. What do you see?"

    Can I shout out praise to Sasha Behar (aka Mad Maya from Corrie) for her role as the lead sister? I thought she was brilliant.

    Donna: "Listen sister, you might have eyes on the back of your hands but you'll have eyes on the back of your head by the time I'm finished with you. Let me go!"
    Lead Sister (to Donna): "This prattling voice will cease forever".
    The Doctor (interrupting): "That'll be the day".

    High Priestess: "Your knowledge is impossible".
    The Doctor: "You've read my mind. You know it's not".

    The timeslot this season is rather erratic. I don't give a toss about I'd Do Anything; just put this show back into a 7pm slot.

    Lead Sister (to High Priestess): "You lied to us and yet this was meant to be".

    Donna: "How many people died?"
    The Doctor: "Stop it".
    Donna: "Doctor! How many people died?"
    The Doctor: "Twenty thousand".
    Donna: "Is that what you can see, Doctor, all twenty thousand? And you think that's alright, do you?"

    I'm starting to get used to the new theme, I might even start to like and at least the trailers for the next episode are a reasonable length.

    Donna: "You can't just leave them".
    The Doctor: "Don't you think I've done enough? History's back in place and everyone dies".
    Donna: "You've got to go back. Doctor I am telling you, take this thing back. It's not fair".
    The Doctor: "No it's not".
    Donna: "But your own planet. It burned".
    The Doctor: "That's just it. Don't you see Donna? Don't you understand if I could go back and save them I would but I can't. I can never go back, I can't. I just can't, I can't".

    The Doctor: "You were right. Sometimes I need someone. Welcome aboard".
    Donna: "Yeah".

    Some really good but familiar score work from Murray Gold this week. The music was pretty perfect.

    This was certainly a rollercoaster. James Moran made a brilliant impression on Torchwood but with "The Fires Of Pompeii" his impact is a lot stronger. This is a delightful episode that in unafraid at looking at the ethics of the series and not fobbing off the audience with an easy answer. I'm impressed with the way this season has started and next week also looks amazing.moreless

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    7 0
 

Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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  • Trivia

    ADD TRIVIA
    • Pyrovilia, the home world of the Pyrovile is mentioned again in the Series 4 episode "The Stolen Earth" as one of the 27 planets that is transported to the Medusa Cascade. Edit
    • Interestingly enough the day that The Doctor and Donna arrive in Pompeii, August 23rd, is Vulcanalia the feast day of the god Vulcan, the deity which would give its name to the new word in the Roman lexicon, Volcano. Edit
    • Lucius Petrus Dextrus Lucius' full name literally translates from the Latin as Lucius of the Stoned Right Arm. Edit

  • Notes

    ADD NOTES
    • Overnight UK viewing figures for this episode were 8.1 million, with the final viewing figure at 9.04 million. Edit
    • International Air Dates: United States: 2 May 2008 Australia: 13 July 2008 Turkey: 13 February 2011 Edit
    • This is the first episode of the new series to have location filming with principal actors performed outside of the UK. Roman era street scenes were filmed at the Cinecitta studios on the outskirts of Rome. Location filming was done in New York for Daleks in Manhattan, but only for establishing backgrounds, no principal actors were involved. Edit

  • Quotes

    ADD QUOTES
    • (The Doctor saves Caecilius and his family from the volcano; they watch the destruction of Pompeii from afar) The Doctor: It's never forgotten, Caecilius. Oh, time will pass. Men will move on and stories will fade, but one day Pompeii will be found again in thousands of years and everyone will remember you. Donna: What about you, Evelina? Can you see anything? Evelina: The visions have gone. The Doctor: The explosion was so powerful it cracked open a rift in time. Just for a second. That's what gave you the gift of prophecy. It echoed back into the Pyrovilian alternative. But not any more. You're free. Metella: But tell me, who are you, Doctor? With your words and your temple containing such size within? The Doctor: Oh, I was never here. Don't tell anyone. Caecilius: The great god Vulcan must be enraged. It's so... volcanic. It's like some sort of volcano. All those people... Edit
    • Donna: The Pyrovile are made of rocks. Maybe they can't be blown up. The Doctor: Vesuvius explodes with the strength of twenty-four nuclear bombs. Nothing can survive it. Certainly not us. Donna: Never mind us. Edit
    • The Doctor: If I might beg the wisdom of the Gods before we perish? Once this new race of creatures is complete, then what? Lucius: My masters will follow the example of Rome itself. An almighty empire bestriding the whole of civilization. Donna: But if you've crashed, and you've got all this technology, why don't you just go home? Lucius: The heaven of Pyrovilia is gone. The Doctor: What d'you mean, gone? Where's it gone? Lucius: It was taken. Pyrovilia was lost, but there is heat enough in this world for a new species to rise. The Doctor: Yeah, I should warn you it's seventy percent water out there. Lucius: Water can boil and everything will burn, Doctor! The Doctor: Then the whole planet is at stake. Thank you. That's all I needed to know. Edit

  • Allusions

    ADD ALLUSIONS
    • The Tarantella is a couple folk dance of Italy characterised by light, quick steps and teasing, flirtatious behavior between partners. The female dancers carry tambourines during the dance. The music is in lively 6/8 time. The tarantella's name origin is connected with tarantism. It was a disease or form of hysteria that appeared in Italy in the 15th, 16th and 17th century. It was obscurely associated with the bite of the tarantula spider; victims seemingly were cured by frenzied dancing. Edit
    • Lucius: Daughter of London, there is something on your back. Lucius's speech to Donna foreshadows the events of "Turn Left". Edit
    • The Doctor: All the time every waking second: what is, what was, what could be, what must not. That's the burden of a Time Lord, Donna. The Doctor's explanation to Donna is reminiscent of the exchange between Rose and The Doctor in 'Parting of the Ways' when Rose is explaining what she can see as a vessel for the Time Vortex 'I can see everything. All that is. All that was. All that ever could be.' and The Doctor says that's what he sees, all the time. Edit

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