The Fires of Pompeii by: James Moran and directed by: Colin Teague

 

“The Fires of Pompeii” stars David Tennant as the Doctor and Catherine Tate as Donna Noble with Peter Capaldi as Caecilius, Tracey Childs as Metella, Phil Davis as Lucius, Sasha Behar as Spurrina, Francesca Fowler as Evelina, and Francois Pandolfo as Quintus.  It was written by: James Moran and directed by: Colin Teague with Brian Minchin as Script Editor, Phil Collinson as Producer, and Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner as Executive Producers.  It was originally broadcast on Saturday 12 April 2008 on BBC One.

 

Doctor Who is no stranger to filming overseas.  The first instance of this was 1979’s City of Death getting time allocated to film in Paris, which would lead to three more occasions in the original run to Amsterdam, Lanzarote, and Seville before the general budget cuts to the program would make overseas filming impossible.  The revived series only had its first instance of overseas filming in the third series for some establishing shots of New York in “Daleks in Manhattan”, but the fourth series saw Mark Gatiss “The Suicide Exhibition”, a story set in World War II, fall through leading to Russell T. Davies to investigate the possibility of filming in Italy for an episode to bring Ancient Rome to life.  Davies had an idea for “Pompeii” as early as 2004 in the original pitch document for Doctor Who, in the slot that would eventually become “Boom Town”, but the fourth series would allow the use of sets built in Italy for the series Rome.  This would only be approved four months before production was to being without scripts being written so Davies, unable to take on scripting duties himself, turned to James Moran for the request of “The Fires of Pompeii” to have the Doctor in an escape pod that erupts with Vesuvius and having fire monsters involved with the story.  The initial draft included Penny Carter as companion which proved difficult to Moran, though when the switch was made to Donna Noble this became an easier script to write.  Once the scripts were turned in to Davies for final revisions before filming began, trouble was discovered.  “The Fires of Pompeii” and “Partners in Crime”, originally meant to be a single production block would have to be split into to blocks to accommodate the location work and to allow Davies more time to work on “Partners in Crime”, assigning the former to Colin Teague.  A second issue arose when the backlot in Italy caught fire due to an electrical short on August 9, though by September production began in Italy for one week to complete those scenes before production would finish in Cardiff for the temple of the Sibylline order, Caecillus’ house, and the TARDIS scenes.  Broadcast also altered several points during production, though “The Fires of Pompeii” while initially thought to follow “Planet of the Ood” was swapped to air just before as Donna’s first proper trip in the TARDIS.

 

“The Fires of Pompeii” as an episode is one that forces the Doctor to make a choice, to interfere with a fixed point in time.  Much of the drama is understated by Catherine Tate as Donna, arriving in Pompeii the day before Vesuvius is set to erupt and the Doctor cannot do anything to save people.  He is insistent that because it is a fixed point in time, no aspects of events can be changed, only staying because the TARDIS is bought by marble sculptor Caecillus, played by Peter Capaldi.  The Doctor and Donna’s agency in the episode is kind of odd as for the first third of the episode they are just trying to find the TARDIS, the Doctor getting to get away.  The pre-credits sequence of the episode focuses on the Doctor and Donna arriving, revealing the volcano before the credits and the TARDIS being missing after the credits.  It’s quite the extended sequence but it works well to get the characters together and begin to play with the ideas of prophetic oracles not seeing the volcanic eruption coming.  Peter Capaldi of course would eventually be cast as the Twelfth Doctor, but he treats this as his one chance to be in Doctor Who and the way he plays Caecillus is as a caring, but ambitious father.  He plays wonderfully off Tracey Childs, playing his wife Metetlla, and Phil Davis, as augury Lucius: there’s this almost daftness to the portrayal as he is taken in to giving his daughter to the Sibylline order of oracles and ignoring his son’s concerns.  Childs on the other hand is the brains of the family, going along with the plans for their daughter because of the status it will bring to their family.  The two oracle groups of Pompeii are at each other’s throats, Moran playing around with aliens pitting them against each other while using them both to their own ends.

 

The second act of “The Fires of Pompeii” is very fun, with the Doctor and Donna investigating both orders and revealing the alien Pyroviles, magma aliens who have lost their planet, are seeding Pompeii from under Vesuvius, but it’s the third act where the episode is most remembered.  To defeat the Pyroviles, the Doctor must actively make the choice to cause Vesuvius to erupt, demanding the deaths of 20,000 people and being able to do nothing to stop it.  Tennant and Tate play the sequence first as if they are both about to die which is excellent, but the chaotic running through the streets of Pompeii as the ash falls makes for such an effective ending.  Donna is begging the Doctor to save someone, and for the people of Pompeii to go to the hills and not the beach where they will be trapped by the ash.  Moran’s thesis is that even when the Doctor cannot change history, he can still show compassion and save at least one person.  Caecillus and his family are brought along in the TARDIS to the hills, making the Doctor and Donna household gods when they relocate in Rome.  While usually I am against deifying the Doctor, this is one instance, due to it being the extraordinary effect he had on these normal people who couldn’t rationalize it any other way, where it doesn’t actually bother me and fits.  This is also because Donna is included as a god, despite being a normal human being which adds a different layer to things.

 

Overall, “The Fires of Pompeii” is an excellent first adventure that works so well because it is a simple mystery set within a historical backdrop that leads to some amazing character moments as the Doctor and Donna have to make the right choice ending in the deaths of 20,000 people.  Perhaps too simple to allow it to become a perfect episode, Teague’s direction has some odd cuts here and there, but the Pyrovilles are a cool design and the guest cast is all a delight (outside of a young Karen Gillan who is directed to deliver her lines in this oddly stilted manner0, plus the twists of the oracles becoming stone Pyroville larvae adds a general danger above just Pompeii.  It's a great time.  8/10.