These reviews are based on the UK broadcast of the series, which is several episodes ahead of the US broadcast, so beware of spoilers.
SUMMARY:
The Doctor and Donna arrive in what they believe to be 1st Century Rome, but quickly discover they're in fact in Pompeii on August 23, 79 AD - the day before Vesuvius errupts and destroys the city.
Before they can get away, they find out the TARDIS has been sold to Caecilius, a local marble merchant who mistakes it for 'modern art'. Despite Donna's vehement desire to warn everyone in town of the empending disaster, the Doctor has every intention of leaving until he sees what Caecilius has prepared for Lucius Petrus Dextrus, the city augur - a marble carving in the shape of a printed computer circuit. The Doctor and Donna are further unnerved when Lucius and Evelina, Caecilius' daughter, are able to see into the future and discern things about the time travels they shouldn't be able to know.
With the help of Caecilius' son Quintus, the Doctor breaks into Lucius' home and finds more circuit carvings. The Doctor tries to reason with Lucius, and reveals the augur's entire right arm has turned to stone. Lucius orders his guards to kill the intruders, but the Doctor and Quintus escape, only to find themselves persued by something underground. They make it back to the villa in time for a huge creature made of rock and lava to attack. After it kills a servant, the Doctor attempts to communicate with it to keep it distracted until Quintus and the other servants throw water on it, causing it to fall apart. In the aftermath, the Doctor discovers Donna is missing.
Donna has been kidnaped by the Sybilline Sisterhood, who intend to sacrifice her for her 'false prophecy' of Pompeii's destruction. The Doctor arrives in time to free her and confronts the High Priestess, who's entire body is stone. The Doctor demands that the alien threat reveal itself. They are Pyrovile, beings of stone who fell to Earth and have laid dormant for thousands of years until awakened seventeen years previously after a massive earthquake. The Pyrovile then began to invade the minds of the augurs, soothsayers, and anyone else in Pompeii with latent psychic abilities. Now they have also begun to mutate them, creating a new race of human/Pyrovile hybrids.
After pulling a water pistol out as a bluff, the Doctor and Donna escape through the temple's hypocaust into the volcanic tunnels running under the city. Donna asks if it's okay to change history and save everyone now they know aliens are involved, but the Doctor explains that certain events are fixed, like Vesuvius. Even though he can see this and knows that 20, 000 people will die, he cannot change it even if he wanted to.
They are persued by the Pyrovile until they reach the heart of the volcano where the last remnant of the Pyrovile ship is kept. They are confronted by Lucius who reveals that their home world of Pyrovilia is 'gone', and they plan to follow Rome's example and create a new empire on Earth. The Doctor and Donna lock themselves in the escape pod, where the Doctor discovers the reason why none of the psychics can predict the eruption of Vesuvius - the Pyrovile are stealing it's power. The Doctor can reverse the process, but he tells Donna this will cause the volcano to erupt. He must make a choice - allow the Pyrovile to succeed in their plans, or doom 20,000 people to save the entire world.
The Doctor reverses the controls, causing Vesuvius to erupt and eject the escape pod. As they run through the city, Donna makes several futile attempts to warn everyone not to go down to the beach. They reach the Caecilius family villa and the Doctor tries to depart, but Donna demands he take the TARDIS back to at least save someone. The Doctor gives in, reversing course and rescuing Caecilius and his family. He assures them that one day Pompeii will be found again and everyone will be remembered.
Six months later, the family is living and prospering in Rome, and Quintus is studying to become a doctor. He gives thanks to family's new household gods - the Doctor, Donna and the TARDIS.
REVIEW:
Something Doctor Who has always managed to do well is the 'pseudo-historical', stories with histroical settings mixed with scifi elements such as alien invasion. The Fires Of Pompeii follows in that tradition, and is one of the best examples.
In each season of the new series, they've pushed the historical envelope. Last year's The Shakespeare Code, set in 1599, was the furthest they'd gone. But this time they had a real challenge in setting a story in Pompeii, 79 AD. Fortunately, they were able to film the majority of the episode in Cinecitta Studios in Rome, the first time the new series production team has filmed abroad, and the first foreign filming in the history of Doctor Who since 1985. Cinecitta is the studio where many cinema classics were made, such as Ben-Hur and Cleopatra, as well as TV series like HBO's Rome. In fact, a few sets from Rome were used in the filming of this episode.
This time around we get a genuine alien menace in the form of the Pyrovile, creatures of stone and magma as tall as a two-story house. Their design was tailored nicely to fit the setting, giving them a bit of a Roman look, especially heads that resemble a centurian helmet. The full-body transformation of the Sybilline High Priestess was also well-realized.
The comedy elements of the story were nicely executed:
- Whenever the Doctor and Donna use Latin phrases, they're translated as Celtic to the Roman characters. This is a play on the fact that whenever the companions - and by extension the audeince - hear foreign people or aliens speak, they hear English thanks to the TARDIS' telepathic translation system.
- When the Doctor and Donna enter the Caecilius family villa and are asked who they are: "I'm... Spartacus." "And so am I."
- The Doctor's "Don't get yourselves in a lava", which is admittedly a bad pun, but still manages to work to add a bit a levity during a tense moment, something the Doctor has always been good at.
- Perhaps the funniest moment is during the Doctor's confrontation with the High Priestess, when he whips a water pistol from his jacket and declares, "I warn you, I'm armed!" I have always loved this about his character, how he manages to take advantage of the ignorance of his enemies and also the fact that they are unaware of his abhorance for real weapons. While in Star Trek, Stargate, or other shows you have characters armed with phasers or real pistols and machine guns, the Doctor always relies on his wits to get out of a situation.
Th best scene by far in the story was when Lucius and Evelina are using their psychic abilities to see through time and reveal things about the Doctor and Donna. With each fact, with each cryptic prediction, and with the red lighting and the constant rumble of Vesuvius in the background, the scene just got more and more chilling.
The Caecillius family are a good group of supporting characters, showing that no matter what century the Doctor finds himself in, humans don't change that much. Except for living in 79 AD and blieving in the traditional pantheon of Roman gods, this is a family like any you would find in the modern day. It's a way of connecting Earth history to our current times, preventing the audience from becoming alienated. That family on the TV is just like yours sitting around the TV right now.
That extends to the overall feel of Pompeii. It's like any other city where people work and live. I heard that some criticism was leveled at giving a merchant a cockney accent, complete with English slang terms. But again, this can be contributed as the way Donna is hearing him translated via the TARDIS, and since the companion is meant to be the conduit into the story for the viewers, that's how we're hearing it as well.
In the end, the crux of the story is the looming threat of Vesuvius, and the moral dilemma between the Doctor's view of history and Donna's desire to save everyone. It becomes all the more horrible when the Doctor realizes that Vesuvius will never erupt because of the Pyrovile, and that it was him all along that caused the eruption in the first place. After the end of the Time War, and causing the destruction of the Daleks fleet as well as his home world and everyone he cared about, can he condemn 20,000 people to their deaths, even if it's to save the whole world? Situations like this will be a constant reminder of the blood he already has on his hands.
Fortunately Donna understands that there's more at stake and she lends her support, but even in the face of the inevitable she still tries desperately to save the people of Pompeii. The scene where she tearfully screams at the Doctor and begs him to go back is a powerful emotional moment, once again highlighting Donna's new maturity and Catherine Tate's ability to play pathos as well as comedy.
Donna provides the humanizing element the Doctor needs once in awhile to bring him back down from 'the bigger picture', to salvage some measure of hope, however small, from the depths of tragedy.
BUILDING THE STORY ARC:
It is Lucius who provides all the important clues to the story arc in this episode.
- "Doctor, she is returning." This is generally seen as a reference to Rose.
- "Daughter of London... there is something on your back." Spoken to Donna, and perhaps the most unnerving prediction. It's unlcear yet what this means.
- "The heaven of Pyrovilia is gone... It was taken!" This was an immediate red flag. In the previous episode, Miss Foster mentioned the Adipose had 'lost' their breeding planet. And now another planet is said to have been taken, by whom or what is yet unclear. Next to the return of Rose, this seems to be the most significant element of the story arc. Someone or something out there is taking planets from across space and time.
REACTION:
This episode simply blew me away.
It had the right balance of comedy, drama, tension, emotion. A very successful pseudo-historical adventure than can be placed right up there among the classics.
This is what happens when the series is firing on all cylinders. It also works as a literal and figurative baptism by fire for Donna.
The linguistic puns were also a nice addition, i.e. Lucius Petrus Dextrus = Lucius Stone Hand.
The only thing that ruins it is the fact that the Doctor and Donna would not be able to survive inside the volcano due to the heat and gases, so some suspension of disbelief (more than the usual amount) is required.
