Pompeii? Vesuvius? Volcano Day? How could you go wrong?
I would be remiss if I didn’t step outside my normal review pattern and mention that the fourth series as a newly-revamped theme song – seemingly jammed right back into the electronic 1980’s – although, sounding like a band rather than the works of Synthesizer Patel like the Sylvester McCoy version. I’m not really sure if I like it… or more precisely, I’m not sure if I dislike it. It’s hard to ruin a classic. It seemed to grow on me a bit this time.
I’d like to think this isn’t a cynical attempt at driving more music CD sales… The BBC wouldn’t do that, would they?
Synopsis
The Doctor and Donna arrive in Rome… well, Rome inasmuch as the TARDIS ever lands exactly where it is supposed to be… in this case, Pompeii, which, although I’m not going to bother checking on a map is, I’m sure, just a stone’s throw away. (Assuming the stone is pumice.)
When the Doctor realizes his mistake, he, uncharacteristically, runs, tail between legs back to the TARDIS. Whenever the Doctor does that, it can only mean one thing: The TARDIS is missing. This time sold be a street merchant to a gullible citizen with an eye for modern art.
Donna and the Doctor fight, as she wishes to save the people of Pompeii. The Doctor argues that history cannot be changed.
While recovering the TARDIS, the soothsayers in the city astound the Doctor by revealing to him that his is a Time Lord from Gallifrey, and other bits of information they could not have. The city augur also has a curious artifact, which looks like part of a circuit made from marble. He investigates the augur, and discovers that he is being turned into stone. The Doctor escapes, but is chased by a monster made of molten stone. During the fight with the creature, Donna is kidnapped by the Sisterhood of the Syballine, who can also predict the future. Curiously, no one sees the impending eruption of Vesuvius tomorrow.
The Doctor rescues Donna, escapes into Vesuvius and must set into motion the events that will destroy the city and kill 20,000 people. The alternative, the human race will be turned into aliens.
He causes the volcano to erupt, escapes certain death (with Donna) and manages to rescue just one family, while the rest of the city burns.
Analysis
What to say about this episode? I didn’t dislike it, but it wasn’t exactly a stellar episode, but I love the historicals. The pacing was, as is often the case with the new series, too slow, then suddenly too fast. The dialog was at times, noticeably lackluster. Having the Doctor demonstrate to Donna the immense sorrow on the shoulders of the last remaining Time Lord was good, but every time we go into “what can and cannot be done” with time, we stray dangerously into timey-wimey land. It’s just not possible for the writers to maintain a credible position on this issue.
I gather this episode was shot in Italy. What a wonderful vacation for the cast and crew! What a waste of locations! The director completely failed to make the money spent on the trip visible on screen. There was nothing onscreen that justified it. In fact, for a while, I thought the outdoor scenes were shot in the same English quarry as Pirate Planet. Still, if that’s the price they need to pay to keep David Tennant coming back as the Doctor, spend the money.
Finally, this episode gets a slight nod for not quite botching up the eruption.
Vesuvius’ eruption was, at first, and eruption of pumice and ash, which lasted for the better part of the day. It buried Pompeii under nearly 3 meters of material. Later a second eruption, resulting in a pyroclastic flow completely destroyed what life was left.
Now, pyroclastic flows and surges (that link is video of the real thing) are those cool-looking “flows” of seemingly smoke or ash, pouring down the mountain at speeds up to 350 km/h
When the Doctor and Donna got out of the escape pod, my impression was that the eruption cloud they were running from was a pyroclastic flow, which, let’s face it, if one is coming at you, don’t bother running, just bend over and kiss your rear goodbye. So, did the writer get it right and the FX guys decided to make it visually more exciting?
Next week: The Ood. (Well, at least it isn’t the Slitheen again.)