(740) The Fires of Pompeii

I said that todays episode would be interesting and that is what it proved to be.

This episode sees Peter Capaldi do a Colin Baker and appear in Doctor Who as a different character before he becomes the Doctor. At this time, Capaldi was appearing as Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It at the time and here plays Caecilius. Ironically he buys the TARDIS thinking its Modern Art. A funny moment comes when Capaldi and Tennant are talking. It’s like when Peter Davison and Colin Baker are face to face in Arc of Infinity. Karen Gillan does a Peter Purves as she appears as Soothsayer. To be quite honest if it weren’t Karen Gillan then I doubt that I would have really noticed her because all Sibylline Sisterhood are pretty much the same really. Tracey Childs also appears in this episode, she has played Elizabeth Klein in the Big Finish audios on and off since 2001. Phil Davis is an actor that I really like cause he’s always capable of delivery a solid performance in whatever he does. He chewing the scenery from the very beginning. Some people are capable of acting like they were from the past but on this occasion, Davis doesn’t quite pull it off.

Something else of interest (to me anyway) is that this story features location footage at the Cinecitta Studios in Rome where the BBC TV series Rome was filmed. It’s some of the finest location filming that the show has seen and it almost overshadows the episode. One of the positive things about this episode is that there is more than a fleeting glimpse of these sets which don’t look like a corridor in a studio set in London.

Like in previous series, the Doctor starts the series taking his companion to somewhere in the past and then in the next episode.

I like how there is a bit of conflict between the Doctor and Donna about warning the people of Rome about what happens when Mount Vesuvius erupts. It’s Donna’s turn to learn the lesson about not changing the course of history. Donna’s attempt to try and humanise the Doctor and it’s a nice twist at the end where they have decide whether to sacrifice the world or Rome. Catherine Tate’s performance in this episode is rather good and really shines in this episode where morality is at the heart of the story.

The Doctor is told that she is coming and Donna is told that she has something on her back. Both of these refer to future episode but I didn’t remember that this is where these references started and its only in hindsight that they carry more importance than they seem.The monster is the Pyrovile who are rock creatures who have lost their planet. The design is rather good although I would like to have seen more of it during this episode because it was such a good idea.  

This was a perfectly decent episode even when you take out of the picture what Peter Capaldi and Karen Gillan become. It’s a rare story where its what you don’t see on screen that makes this story enjoyable. After being slightly disappointed with the previous episode, its good to report that things have improved quite a bit and I am looking forward to tomorrows episode because it features Percy Darling from Blackadder.