The Fires of Pompeii (TV story)

The Fires of Pompeii was the second story of the fourth series of Doctor Who. Narratively, the story was important for explaining why the Doctor can sometimes change history and at other times cannot. Specifically, it introduced the notion of "fixed points" in time, which would later be the central theme of DW: The Waters of Mars and DW: The Wedding of River Song.

Behind the scenes, it was notable for being the first major shoot outside the United Kingdom since the 1996 telemovie. Moreover, it was the first time a principal photography unit had been outside its country of production since The Two Doctors.

This episode also featured a guest appearance from Karen Gillan, who would later star as the Eleventh Doctor's companion, Amy Pond, in Series 5, 6 and 7.

Synopsis
Psychic powers and stone beasts run riot in old Pompeii, but can Donna dare the Doctor to change established history?

Plot
The Tenth Doctor and Donna exit the TARDIS in what the Doctor claims is 1st century Rome. Donna, noticing the writing is in English, is sceptical until the Doctor explains the TARDIS's telepathic circuits are translating for her. However, he's not so sure it's Rome. He can't see the Colosseum, Circus Maximus, Pantheon or any of the city's famous landmarks. Donna points out there is only one hill and not Rome's famous seven... and it is smoking. When a tremor rocks the streets, the Doctor realises they have arrived not in Rome, but in Pompeii, on 23 August - the day before Vesuvius' eruption.

As they retreat to the TARDIS, Donna tells the Doctor he should help evacuate the city. He says he cannot interfere in established events. On arriving where they left the TARDIS, they find that a nearby stallholder has sold it to local marble merchant Caecilius, as a piece of "modern art".

Meanwhile, a member of the Sibylline sisterhood reports back on the appearance of a mysterious blue box in the marketplace, which they find is a fulfilment of a Sibylline prophecy.

At Caecilius's house, his wife Metella is preparing their prophetically-gifted but sickly daughter Evelina for the arrival of the town's augur, Lucius Petrus Dextrus. The Doctor and Donna arrive before him. When Dextrus arrives, the Doctor and he hold a cryptic conversation that confirms the Doctor's worst suspicions: an alien influence is afoot in Pompeii. Worse, Caecilius unveils a marble plaque he has produced to Dextrus' designs; it is recognisably an electrical circuit. Intrigued, the time-travellers stay but, after the Doctor accidentally insults Roman religion as "official superstition", Dextrus and Evelina "prophesise" truths about the Doctor and Donna, seeing their real names, naming Gallifrey and London as their true homes, mentioning the Doctor's presence at the Medusa Cascade, his status as a "Lord of Time" and Gallifrey's destruction. Evelina also states that his true name is not Doctor but is "hidden". Dextrus warns the Doctor "she" is returning and tells Donna that "there is something on your back".

When Dextrus has gone, Donna investigates Evelina's mysterious skin ailment and finds the young woman's skin is turning into stone. Meanwhile, the Doctor is shown a hypocaust system powered by hot springs from Vesuvius itself and from which emit monstrous sounds from "the gods of the underworld". This system, he is told, was installed after the 62 earthquake on instructions from Dextrus and the other soothsayers. From that time onwards, the soothsayers have been inhaling rock dust from these hypocausts and all their predictions have been uncannily accurate though they have not predicted Vesuvius' imminent eruption.

The Doctor and Quintus break into Dextrus' house to find a stone circuit board like those seen earlier in Caecilius' house. Meanwhile, Evelina gives Donna a stola, and talks about a teenager's life in Pompeii. Donna's hints about Vesuvius' impending eruption are ignored. Donna realises that none of the seers have foreseen it. She tells Evelina about the eruption, which Evelina telepathically passes onto the sisterhood. Their High Priestess and they decide it is false prophecy, and Donna must be killed.

Quintus and the Doctor, meanwhile, have been caught by Dextrus. The Doctor helps him assemble the marble plaques into a circuit board. He asks who instructed him to build this. Dextrus takes this as offence against the gods and threatens to have his guards kill them. The Doctor responds by trying to shake his hand and breaks off Dextrus's completely petrified right arm. Quintus and he escape. Then, hearing underground footsteps going towards Caecilius's house, they return to find Dextrus has summoned a giant, humanoid, stone-and-magma creature from the hypocaust. The Doctor tells Donna to get water while he attempts to reason with the creature, but members of the sisterhood appear behind her and drag her from the room. It is Quintus who throws water on it, causing it to harden and collapse.

The Doctor goes to rescue Donna, who is tied to an altar to be murdered by the sisterhood. He unties Donna with his sonic screwdriver and speaks with their high priestess. She has completely turned to stone. He realises that somehow, the people of Pompeii are turning to stone before the volcano erupts. The Doctor demands to know who she is. The alien, asserting control over the high priestess, declares itself a Pyrovile, one of several aliens who crashed to Earth millennia earlier, awakened by the 62 earthquake. Their adult form is the creature they saw at Caecillus' villa. They are a psychic race and have bonded psychically with some of the local humans. The Doctor cannot find how they are seeing the future with such accuracy. Such an ability is beyond psychic.

Holding off the high priestess with a water pistol, Donna and the Doctor escape into the hypocaust. Dextrus and the high priestess each declare their Pyrovile-induced prophecy of a Pompeiian empire must advance. As they run, Donna tries to convince the Doctor to stop Pompeii's eruption. He again refuses, telling her the eruption is a fixed point in history which cannot be stopped or avoided. Donna asks him how he knows this. He cites his Time Lord ability to see the past, present and all possible futures at once.

Dextrus and the Cult of Vulcan take the circuit boards to the mountain and summon the adult Pyrovile to hunt down Donna and the Doctor. Dextrus, Donna and the Doctor reach the centre of the mountain and Dextrus informs them the Pyroviles intend not to launch a rocket back home via the eruption; their home planet, Pyrovillia, has been "taken". They will stay and conquer Earth, boiling its oceans.

The Doctor and Donna lock themselves in the Pyrovillian ship they have found. They find the Pyrovile are using Vesvuius to set up a fusion matrix to convert millions of humans into Pyroviles. The matrix will bleed off so much of Vesuvius' pent-up energy there won't be enough to trigger the eruption. This is why the soothsayers have been unable to see it. The Doctor can switch off the Pyrovillian circuitry and save the world from conquest, but he will cause the eruption and the deaths of himself, Donna and twenty-four thousand people.

They choose the latter as the lesser of two evils. Vesuvius erupts and the Pompeiian watch in terror as ash falls upon them. Meanwhile, the Pyrovillian escape pod holding the Doctor and Donna is launched into the sky and lands between Vesuvius and Pompeii. The two friends run for the safety of the TARDIS.

The Doctor ignores the Caecilius family's plea for help and de-materialises the TARDIS with himself and Donna on board, but Donna urges him to return and save the city. The Doctor refuses, saying if he could go back, he would, just as he would go back and prevent the destruction of Gallifrey. Donna tearfully pleads with him, if not the city, then one family. The Doctor relents and materialises the TARDIS inside the Caecilus home, where the family are huddled in a corner awaiting death.

The Doctor, Donna, and the Caecilius family watch the eruption from the hills. The Doctor explains why Evelina's visions (caused by a rift in time, akin to the Cardiff Rift, as a result of the explosion) have stopped. He promises that Caecilius and Pompeii will be remembered. Caecilius, awed by the fury of Vesuvius, coins the word volcano. The Doctor and Donna leave, with him acknowledging she was right, that "sometimes I need someone" to stop him.

Six months later--in early 80--the Caecilius family has resettled in Rome. Caecilius has re-established his business. Evelina is a healthy and happy teenager once again and dating, to her father's consternation; Quintus has given up his dissolute ways to train as a doctor; and Donna and the Doctor are worshipped as the family's household gods, with the TARDIS as their temple.

Cast

 * The Doctor - David Tennant
 * Donna Noble - Catherine Tate
 * Lucius Caecilius Iucundus - Peter Capaldi
 * Lucius Petrus Dextrus - Phil Davis
 * Metella - Tracey Childs
 * Spurrina - Sasha Behar
 * Caecilia Evelina - Francesca Fowler
 * Thalina - Lorraine Burroughs
 * High Priestess - Victoria Wicks
 * Quintus Caecilius Iucundus - Francois Pandolfo
 * Soothsayer - Karen Gillan
 * Stallholder - Phil Cornwell

Gallifrey

 * Gallifrey is mentioned by Lucius, and the Doctor is called a Lord of Time.

Individuals

 * When asked of his identity, the Doctor replies, "I am... Spartacus." Donna says, "And so am I." This refers to the famous scene in the film Spartacus, where everyone announces they're Spartacus, to protect the protagonist.
 * The Doctor tells Donna that he can see "all that is, all that was, and all that ever could be."
 * Donna mentions her father, Geoff Noble, only as "dad".
 * This is the second time the Doctor and Donna were mistaken as married in their time together.
 * Lucius tells the Doctor, "She is returning", apparently referring to Rose Tyler's return; he notes Donna has "something on her back", referring to the Time Beetle there during the events of Turn Left.

Locations

 * Donna thinks (at first) that she's in Epcot.
 * The Doctor tells Donna he visited Rome a long time ago and had no part in the Great Fire of Rome before adding, "Well, a little bit".
 * The Doctor uses the phrase "volcano day", first used by Jack Harkness in reference to a con in Pompeii. The Ninth Doctor later used the phrase.
 * When seeing the future, Evelina mentions that the Doctor's name is hidden under the "Cascade of Medusa herself".

Organisations

 * The Doctor mentions the Shadow Proclamation when ordering a Pyrovile using a human host to reveal its species. He also asks for its home planet and galactic coordinates.

Time travel

 * The explosion of Pompeii caused a rift in time allowing an alternate timeline to seep backwards into the Pyrovillian alternative, creating visions.

Toys

 * The Doctor attacks the High Priestess with a cheap, plastic water pistol.

Story notes

 * One of episode writer James Moran's favourite stories is City of Death, so there's a deliberate reference to that when Caecilius buys the TARDIS, thinking it's a piece of modern art. In City of Death, the TARDIS is parked in an art gallery, causing a pair of critics (John Cleese and Eleanor Bron) to discuss its artistic merits. Coincidentally, City of Death was the first episode of the classic series to involve filming outside of the UK, while The Fires of Pompeii was the first episode of the series revival to have major filming done outside the UK.
 * The Pyrovile were originally called Pyrovillaxians. This was shortened to Pyrovellians, then Pyrovile.
 * In the accompanying edition of Doctor Who Confidential (The Italian Job) Russell T Davies confirms that Caecilius and his family were based on characters from a series of Latin text books used in secondary schools.
 * Phil Cornwell (Stallholder) parodied the Ninth Doctor in a sketch for the Christmas 2005 edition of Dead Ringers (Christmas Day at Doctor Who's).
 * BBC4 broadcast three related programmes on the same evening as the original broadcast; "Earth: the Power of the Planet" (an episode about volcanoes) at 2010BST, "Pompeii: the Last Day" at 2110BST, and "10 Things You Didn't Know About Volcanoes" (actually broadcast at 0155BST the following morning). The Radio Times listing for The Fires of Pompeii made reference to "Pompeii: the Last Day".
 * The fountain in this story is used as the cloning vat in The Sontaran Stratagem.
 * The 'Petrus Dextrus' in Lucius Petrus Dextrus translates roughly to 'stone right-hand'. This is a reference to his right arm, which had turned to stone.
 * The Doctor jokes that Donna is from Barcelona, a reference to a running gag in Fawlty Towers. The Ninth and Tenth Doctors also talked of visiting the planet Barcelona. (DW: The Parting of the Ways and Children in Need Special)
 * The episode addresses a long-standing issue of the "gift of translation" the Doctor or the TARDIS bestows upon companions. It is revealed that while the Doctor and Donna hear the Romans speaking colloquial English (with Cockney accents in some cases), the Romans hear them speaking Latin. When Donna and the Doctor actually speak Latin phrases, the Romans hear this as Celtic (as the English language hadn't yet developed).
 * This is Karen Gillan's first appearance in Doctor Who. She would later be cast as the Eleventh Doctor's first companion Amy Pond.
 * Tracey Childs (Metella) previously played Elizabeth Klein in BFA: Colditz and the Figurehead in BFA: Time Works. She would later reprise her role as Klein in BFA: A Thousand Tiny Wings, BFA: Klein's Story, BFA: Survival of the Fittest and BFA: The Architects of History.

Ratings

 * 9.0 million viewers

Studio

 * Upper Boat Studios, Treforrest
 * Cinecittà Studios, Rome

Discounting Doctor Who (1996), which was filmed in Canada, and Daleks in Manhattan, which featured some second-unit photography in New York City but nothing involving the cast, this is the first regular-series episode to be filmed outside the UK since DW: The Two Doctors, which was filmed in Spain in 1984.

Location

 * Mount Vesuvius, Naples
 * Welsh Centre for International Affairs, Cardiff
 * Clearwell Caves, Gloucestershire
 * Morlais Quarry, Merthyr Tydfil
 * Taffs Well Quarry, Taffs Well

Production errors

 * Just before the Doctor finds out that everyone with the 'gift' is breathing in Vesuvius, the Doctor's glasses fog up but in the next shot they are all clear.
 * As the Doctor and Donna enter the TARDIS after watching the destruction of Pompeii from the hills, the front of the TARDIS is facing outward, towards the city. In the very next shot, showing a wide view of the surroundings, the TARDIS has rotated, as shown by the sign on the door now facing approximately 90° to the left. This is purely a CGI error, as the sound of the Doctor and Donna entering the TARDIS can be heard but not seen.
 * In the beginning of the episode, Donna notices a sign on a cart translated by the TARDIS's translation circuit. It says, "Two Amphoras for the Price of One." Technically, it should say, "Two Amphorae for the Price of One."
 * A major error is that once the Doctor breaks off Lucius Petrus Dextrus' right arm, he becomes wider and it is quite obvious by this that the actor's arm is strapped under his toga.
 * The word "BIRTVS" or "BURTVS" can be seen carved into the stone towards the end after the Doctor saved the family, more specifically when Evelina and Quintus are holding hands.

Continuity

 * The Doctor refers to having visited Rome and claims innocence as to his part in the Great Fire of Rome. This makes it the second Roman fire he has been involved in. This occurred in DW: The Romans.
 * The Doctor pulls the arm off one of his adversaries, just like the Auton in DW: Rose.
 * Dextrus says that Donna has something on her back. This will be expanded on in DW: Turn Left.
 * Dextrus says to the Doctor that 'she' is returning, referencing Rose Tyler who will reunite with him in DW: The Stolen Earth, or that Gallifrey will return in DW: ''The End of Time.
 * The Doctor's discussion of time and not interfering harkens back to DW: The Aztecs in which the issue of history and non-interference was covered.
 * The Doctor produces a small spyglass from his pockets, much as he did in DW: Robot.
 * The Doctor also produces a water pistol, which would appear again (and be stolen by a Graske) in DW: Music of the Spheres.
 * The Doctor says it's volcano day, much as Jack did in DW: The Doctor Dances.
 * The Seventh Doctor and Melanie Bush visited Pompeii at the same time and also got involved in time-changing decisions, (BFA: The Fires of Vulcan) whereas an older version of the Seventh Doctor would later return to the same time and place in the company of Ace (PDA: The Algebra of Ice). If the Tenth Doctor has any memory of these events, he gives no indication of it.
 * The destruction of Pompeii was later referenced by the Doctor when he wrestled with abandoning Bowie Base One in DW: The Waters of Mars.
 * According to WEB: whoisdoctorwho.co.uk, the Ninth Doctor told someone that he tried to warn the people of Pompeii.
 * The Sibylline Sisterhood is very similar to the Sisterhood of Karn from DW: The Brain of Morbius.
 * The Doctor's TARDIS was previously mistaken for a work of art (DW: City of Death) and would be again. (WC: The War of Art)
 * Donna calls the Doctor 'spaceman'. (DW: The Runaway Bride)
 * The Doctor previously visited Rome in NSA: The Stone Rose.

Timeline

 * This story takes place after DW: Partners in Crime.
 * This story takes place contemporaneously with BFA: The Fires of Vulcan.
 * This story takes place before DW: Planet of the Ood.

Home video releases

 * This story was released in the Series 4 DVD box set in November 2008 along with the rest of the series.
 * It was also released as Series 4 Volume 1 in a vanilla edition with Partners in Crime and Planet of the Ood.