The Fires of Pompeii
Encyclopedia
"The Fires of Pompeii" is the second episode of the fourth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who
. It was broadcast on BBC One
on 12 April 2008.
The episode takes place during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. In the episode, the Doctor
is faced with a moral dilemma: whether to save any of the population of Pompeii
. The Doctor's activities in Pompeii are impeded by the rock-like Pyrovile, and their allies, the Sybilline Sisterhood, who are using the volcano to convert the humans to Pyroviles.
The episode was filmed in Rome's Cinecittà
studios, and was the first time the Doctor Who production team took cast abroad for filming since its revival. The production of the episode was impeded by a fire near the sets several weeks before filming and problems crossing into Europe.
Critics' opinions regarding the episode were mixed. The premise of the episode—the moral dilemma the Doctor faces—and Donna's insistence that he save a family from Pompeii were widely praised. However, the episode's writing was criticised, in particular, the characterisation of the supporting cast: the dialogue was described as "one-dimensional" and Peter Capaldi
and Phil Davis's dialogue as "whimpering and scowling".
(David Tennant
) and Donna Noble
(Catherine Tate
) arrive in what the Doctor believes to be Rome in the first century AD. After an earthquake and witnessing a nearby mountain begin to smoulder, he realises he has in fact materialised in Pompeii
on 23 August, AD 79, one day before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius
. When he and Donna return to the TARDIS
' location, he is told it was sold to a Lucius Caecilius Iucundus
(Peter Capaldi
), a marble sculptor.
The episode's antagonists are the Pyrovile, giant rock-like creatures resembling golem
s whose home planet was "lost". They operate secretly with the Sybilline Sisterhood as their proxies. They use the Sisterhood, which incorporates a high priestess (Victoria Wicks
) and her acolytes, Spurrina (Sasha Behar
), Thalina (Lorraine Burroughs), and an unnamed soothsayer (Karen Gillan
), to make prophecies while slowly converting them to stone. The Sisterhood is inducting Caecilius' daughter Evelina (Francesca Fowler
) and is allied to the local augur
Lucius (Phil Davis). The Doctor is disturbed by their knowledge of his and Donna's personal lives, and by Lucius' latest commission, a marble circuit board.
The Doctor breaks into Lucius' home and discovers that he is creating an energy converter. He is accosted by Lucius, who sends a Pyrovile to kill the Doctor. The confusion allows the Sisterhood to kidnap Donna briefly. The Doctor quickly rescues Donna and escapes with her into the Sisterhood's hypocaust
system, which leads to the centre of Mount Vesuvius.
Mount Vesuvius
is being used by the Pyrovile to convert the human race to Pyroviles, in an effort to conquer Earth. The Doctor realises the volcano will not erupt if the energy converter is running, and with Donna's encouragement, subsequently switches it off, triggering the eruption of Vesuvius, considering Pompeii's destruction and the death of its population the lesser of two evils. The Doctor attempts to leave, but Donna convinces him to save Caecilius and his family, whom he then takes on board the TARDIS. The family, The Doctor, and Donna then watch Pompeii's destruction from a vantage point. The Doctor assures the family that Pompeii is never forgotten before leaving with Donna. As he watches the destruction, Caecilius comments that "the great god Vulcan
must be enraged", and coins the word "volcano
" to describe it. Afterwards, the Doctor comments that Donna was right: that some times he needs someone to stop him.
The last scene takes place six months later in Rome
. Caecilius' family are shown to be successful: Caecilius is running a profiting business, Evelina has a social life in comparison to her seclusion in Pompeii
(with her arm having fully healed), and his son Quintus (Francois Pandolfo) has given up the wasteful life he led in Pompeii and is training to become a doctor. Before Quintus leaves, he pays tribute to the family's household gods
, whose statues are in the form of the Doctor, Donna and the TARDIS
(stylized with a Roman staircase).
. That episode's position was given to "Boom Town
" and the idea was shelved for three years.
The episode was written by James Moran
, who previously wrote the film Severance
and the Torchwood
episode "Sleeper
"; Moran was requested to write the episode as a consequence of the latter. Moran had difficulty writing the episode, and had to rewrite the Doctor's opening line over twenty times. The Pyrovile were also edited during writing: they were previously called Pyrovillaxians and Pyrovellians.
Moran worked closely with Davies because of the constraints imposed by filming. Davies encouraged Moran to insert linguistic jokes similar to those in the comic book series Asterix
, such as Lucius Petrus Dextrus ("Lucius Stone Right Arm"), TK Maxximus, and Spartacus
; the use of the phrase "I'm Spartacus!" refers to the 1960 film. Moran based the ancillary characters of Metella (Tracey Childs
) and Quintus from Caecilius's family in the Cambridge Latin Course
; the character of Evelina was the only member of the family created by Moran. At the end of Book I of the Cambridge Latin Course, Caecilius and his family perish in Pompeii on the day of the eruption. This episode creates an alternate ending to their story, where they are rescued by the Doctor and move to Rome. The line "You must excuse my friend, she's from Barcelona" was a reference to an apologetic catchphrase from Fawlty Towers
, attributed by the production team to Sybil Fawlty
.
The episode was heavily based on a moral question posed to the Doctor by Donna: whether to warn the population of Pompeii, or to recuse themselves from the situation. Moran also had to deal with the intensity and sensitivity required when writing about the eruption. Davies and Moran both appreciated Catherine Tate
's performance, and cited Donna's ability to humanise the Doctor and help him deal with "lose-lose situations" as the reason the Doctor travels with companions.
The series' story arc was hinted by the Doctor's invocation of the Shadow Proclamation, an intergalactic code invoked in "Rose
", "The Christmas Invasion
", "Fear Her
" and "Partners in Crime
", and referencing the "Medusa Cascade", which executive producer Russell T Davies stated in Doctor Who Magazine would "come back to haunt us" later in the series. Moran also added continuity links independent of the story arc: as a "fun continuity thing", the script includes a scene in which the Doctor admits partial responsibility for the Great Fire of Rome
, as depicted at the end of the 1965 serial The Romans
; and the sale of the TARDIS as modern art refers to the 1976 serial City of Death
, which includes a scene in which the TARDIS is appraised in a similar fashion.
The episode was filmed at the Cinecittà
studios in Rome in September 2007. The filming reused some of the sets from the show Rome
. Other locations suggested were in Malta and Wales, but the size of the project, the biggest since the show's revival, resulted in production taking place in Italy. This was the first time the majority of the episode was filmed abroad and the first time the cast had filmed abroad since 1996; the television movie was filmed in Vancouver
and pick-up shots had previously been made in New York City
for "Daleks in Manhattan
". Cinecittà had accepted the BBC's request in order to promote the studios, despite the show's small budget.
Scenes set at the Temple of Sibyl were filmed at the Temple of Peace, Cardiff
.
Filming an episode abroad had been suggested in 2004, but the episode was the first such occasion. Planning began in April 2007, before Moran had written the script, and continued until the production team travelled to Italy. Several weeks before filming started, a fire disrupted the production. Moving to Rome caused problems for the production team: the equipment truck was delayed for several hours at the Swiss border; the special effects team were delayed for twenty-four hours at Customs
in Calais
. The production team only had 48 hours to film on location. The aftermath of the eruption was filmed on the same night as the location shots. To create the falling ash, the special effects team used a large mass of cork, with a "constant supply of debris raining down".
was viewed by 9.44 million people. The episode was the tenth most-watched programme of the week and received an Appreciation Index
score of 87 (considered Excellent).
The episode received several mixed and positive reviews. Ian Hyland
, writing for News of the World
, said that Tate "was almost bearable this week". He also complimented the "TK Maxximus" joke. He was ambivalent to Donna's reaction to the Doctor leaving Caecilius's family to die: he criticised her acting, comparing her to The Catherine Tate Show
character Joannie "Nan" Taylor
, but said "top again if that was intentional". He closed saying "this week was a hundred times better than that lame opening episode. Scarier aliens, stronger guest stars and a proper adult-friendly storyline involving sisterhoods and soothsayers."
Scott Matthewman of The Stage
said that Donna's insistence to change the past "formed the emotional backbone of this episode, producing some truly heartbreaking performances". He liked the joke about the TARDIS's translating the Doctor's and Donna's Latin phrases to Celtic
, saying it was "subtly played throughout the episode [...] in a way that builds the joke without trampling it into the ground". His favourite part was Donna's attempts to divert the population of Pompeii away from the beach; the scene was "the emotional highpoint of a series of heart rending scenes". However, he criticised Moran's writing, specifically, Quintus's and Metella's dialogue, saying the former "remained pretty much one-dimensional throughout". Alan Stanley Blair of SyFy Portal
also gave a positive review. He was highly appreciative of Tate, saying "[she] moved even further away from her "Runaway" character that initially joined the show." The phrase "TK Maxximus" and the Doctor's use of a water pistol to subdue the Pyrovile was complimented, as was the special effects used to animate the Pyrovile. However, he disapproved of the use of Cockney
colloquialisms in the episode, most notably the Stallholder (Phil Cornwell
) saying "lovely jubbly
".
Ben Rawson-Jones of Digital Spy
gave the episode three stars out of five. His opening said "Fantastic effects and a well developed moral dilemma bolster 'The Fires Of Pompeii', although the episode fails to erupt." Rawson-Jones felt that Moran's script took "too long to actively engage the viewer and tap into the compelling premise of the time travellers arriving in the doomed city shortly before 'volcano day'." and that "the subplots are unsatisfyingly muddled for the majority of the narrative." He also complained about the characterisation of the supporting cast, saying that "Peter Capaldi and Phil Davis [deserved] better". However, he said the moral dilemma the Doctor faced was "compelling" and the Doctor's use of the water pistol "adds a pleasing sense of fun to counterbalance the impending stench of death and harks nicely back to the Tom Baker era of the show." Overall, he appreciated the premise of the episode, but thought the episode "deserved better writing".
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. It was broadcast on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
on 12 April 2008.
The episode takes place during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. In the episode, the Doctor
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
is faced with a moral dilemma: whether to save any of the population of Pompeii
Pompeii
The city of Pompeii is a partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Along with Herculaneum, Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning...
. The Doctor's activities in Pompeii are impeded by the rock-like Pyrovile, and their allies, the Sybilline Sisterhood, who are using the volcano to convert the humans to Pyroviles.
The episode was filmed in Rome's Cinecittà
Cinecittà
Cinecittà is a large film studio in Rome that is considered the hub of Italian cinema.-History:The studios were founded in 1937 by Benito Mussolini and his head of cinema Luigi Freddi for propaganda purposes, under the slogan "Il cinema è l'arma più forte"...
studios, and was the first time the Doctor Who production team took cast abroad for filming since its revival. The production of the episode was impeded by a fire near the sets several weeks before filming and problems crossing into Europe.
Critics' opinions regarding the episode were mixed. The premise of the episode—the moral dilemma the Doctor faces—and Donna's insistence that he save a family from Pompeii were widely praised. However, the episode's writing was criticised, in particular, the characterisation of the supporting cast: the dialogue was described as "one-dimensional" and Peter Capaldi
Peter Capaldi
Peter Dougan Capaldi is an Academy Award and BAFTA award winning Scottish actor and film director. In 1995, his short film Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life won the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film...
and Phil Davis's dialogue as "whimpering and scowling".
Synopsis
The DoctorDoctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
(David Tennant
David Tennant
David Tennant is a Scottish actor. In addition to his work in theatre, including a widely praised Hamlet, Tennant is best known for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, along with the title role in the 2005 TV serial Casanova and as Barty Crouch, Jr...
) and Donna Noble
Donna Noble
Donna Noble is a fictional character played by Catherine Tate in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A secretary from Chiswick, London, she is a companion of the Tenth Doctor, appearing in one scene at the end of the final episode of the 2006 series,...
(Catherine Tate
Catherine Tate
Catherine Tate is an English actress, writer, and comedian. She has won numerous awards for her work on the sketch comedy series The Catherine Tate Show as well as being nominated for an International Emmy Award and four BAFTA Awards...
) arrive in what the Doctor believes to be Rome in the first century AD. After an earthquake and witnessing a nearby mountain begin to smoulder, he realises he has in fact materialised in Pompeii
Pompeii
The city of Pompeii is a partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Along with Herculaneum, Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning...
on 23 August, AD 79, one day before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius
Mount Vesuvius
Mount Vesuvius is a stratovolcano in the Gulf of Naples, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is the only volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last hundred years, although it is not currently erupting...
. When he and Donna return to the TARDIS
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
' location, he is told it was sold to a Lucius Caecilius Iucundus
Lucius Caecilius Iucundus
Lucius Caecilius Iucundus was a banker who lived in the Roman town of Pompeii around 20 - 62 AD. His house still stands and can be seen in the ruins of the city Pompeii. It was partially destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79...
(Peter Capaldi
Peter Capaldi
Peter Dougan Capaldi is an Academy Award and BAFTA award winning Scottish actor and film director. In 1995, his short film Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life won the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film...
), a marble sculptor.
The episode's antagonists are the Pyrovile, giant rock-like creatures resembling golem
Golem
In Jewish folklore, a golem is an animated anthropomorphic being, created entirely from inanimate matter. The word was used to mean an amorphous, unformed material in Psalms and medieval writing....
s whose home planet was "lost". They operate secretly with the Sybilline Sisterhood as their proxies. They use the Sisterhood, which incorporates a high priestess (Victoria Wicks
Victoria Wicks
Victoria Wicks is a British actress best known for her television work playing Sally Smedley in Drop the Dead Donkey, Mrs Gideon in The Mighty Boosh, Harriet Lawes, the Head of Roundview College in Skins, and for her work with Howard Barker's theatre company, The Wrestling School...
) and her acolytes, Spurrina (Sasha Behar
Sasha Behar
Sasha Behar is a British actress, known for portraying Maya Sharma in ITV1 soap opera Coronation Street.-Background:...
), Thalina (Lorraine Burroughs), and an unnamed soothsayer (Karen Gillan
Karen Gillan
Karen Sheila Gillan is a Scottish actress and former model who is best known for her current portrayal of Amy Pond in the British science fiction series Doctor Who.-Early life:...
), to make prophecies while slowly converting them to stone. The Sisterhood is inducting Caecilius' daughter Evelina (Francesca Fowler
Francesca Fowler
Francesca Fowler is a British actress, best known for her appearance in the 2007 thriller movie Straightheads alongside Gillian Anderson and Danny Dyer; she is also recognised for her appearances in Rome HBO, and various BBC TV series.-Career:Fowler made her acting debut in the British TV movie,...
) and is allied to the local augur
Augur
The augur was a priest and official in the classical world, especially ancient Rome and Etruria. His main role was to interpret the will of the gods by studying the flight of birds: whether they are flying in groups/alone, what noises they make as they fly, direction of flight and what kind of...
Lucius (Phil Davis). The Doctor is disturbed by their knowledge of his and Donna's personal lives, and by Lucius' latest commission, a marble circuit board.
The Doctor breaks into Lucius' home and discovers that he is creating an energy converter. He is accosted by Lucius, who sends a Pyrovile to kill the Doctor. The confusion allows the Sisterhood to kidnap Donna briefly. The Doctor quickly rescues Donna and escapes with her into the Sisterhood's hypocaust
Hypocaust
A hypocaust was an ancient Roman system of underfloor heating, used to heat houses with hot air. The word derives from the Ancient Greek hypo meaning "under" and caust-, meaning "burnt"...
system, which leads to the centre of Mount Vesuvius.
Mount Vesuvius
Mount Vesuvius is a stratovolcano in the Gulf of Naples, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is the only volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last hundred years, although it is not currently erupting...
is being used by the Pyrovile to convert the human race to Pyroviles, in an effort to conquer Earth. The Doctor realises the volcano will not erupt if the energy converter is running, and with Donna's encouragement, subsequently switches it off, triggering the eruption of Vesuvius, considering Pompeii's destruction and the death of its population the lesser of two evils. The Doctor attempts to leave, but Donna convinces him to save Caecilius and his family, whom he then takes on board the TARDIS. The family, The Doctor, and Donna then watch Pompeii's destruction from a vantage point. The Doctor assures the family that Pompeii is never forgotten before leaving with Donna. As he watches the destruction, Caecilius comments that "the great god Vulcan
Vulcan (mythology)
Vulcan , aka Mulciber, is the god of beneficial and hindering fire, including the fire of volcanoes in ancient Roman religion and Roman Neopaganism. Vulcan is usually depicted with a thunderbolt. He is known as Sethlans in Etruscan mythology...
must be enraged", and coins the word "volcano
Volcano
2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...
" to describe it. Afterwards, the Doctor comments that Donna was right: that some times he needs someone to stop him.
The last scene takes place six months later in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. Caecilius' family are shown to be successful: Caecilius is running a profiting business, Evelina has a social life in comparison to her seclusion in Pompeii
Pompeii
The city of Pompeii is a partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Along with Herculaneum, Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning...
(with her arm having fully healed), and his son Quintus (Francois Pandolfo) has given up the wasteful life he led in Pompeii and is training to become a doctor. Before Quintus leaves, he pays tribute to the family's household gods
Lares
Lares , archaically Lases, were guardian deities in ancient Roman religion. Their origin is uncertain; they may have been guardians of the hearth, fields, boundaries or fruitfulness, hero-ancestors, or an amalgam of these....
, whose statues are in the form of the Doctor, Donna and the TARDIS
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
(stylized with a Roman staircase).
Writing
Executive producer Russell T Davies originally planned to include a serial set in Pompeii in the first new series of Doctor Who, after seeing the documentary Pompeii: The Last DayPompeii: The Last Day
Pompeii: The Last Day is a 2003 dramatized documentary that tells of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on 24 August 79 AD. This eruption covered the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in ash and pumice, killing all those trapped between the volcano and the sea. The documentary portrayed the...
. That episode's position was given to "Boom Town
Boom Town (Doctor Who)
"Boom Town" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on 4 June 2005. The Doctor, Rose and Jack travel to modern-day Cardiff and meet up with Rose's boyfriend, Mickey...
" and the idea was shelved for three years.
The episode was written by James Moran
James Moran (writer)
James Moran is a British screenwriter for television and film, who wrote the horror-comedy Severance. He works in the horror, comedy, science-fiction, historical fiction and spy thriller genres.-Breaking in:...
, who previously wrote the film Severance
Severance (film)
Severance is a British comedy horror film, written by James Moran, directed by Christopher Smith, and starring Danny Dyer and Laura Harris. In 2009, media interest in the film was revived following the alleged copycat murder of a UK teenager.-Plot:...
and the Torchwood
Torchwood
Torchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. The series is a spin-off from Davies's 2005 revival of the long-running science fiction programme Doctor Who. The show has shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect its growing audience, moving from...
episode "Sleeper
Sleeper (Torchwood)
"Sleeper" is the second episode of the second series of British science fiction television series Torchwood, which was first broadcast by BBC Two on 23 January 2008. A specially edited pre-watershed repeat was shown the following day.-Synopsis:...
"; Moran was requested to write the episode as a consequence of the latter. Moran had difficulty writing the episode, and had to rewrite the Doctor's opening line over twenty times. The Pyrovile were also edited during writing: they were previously called Pyrovillaxians and Pyrovellians.
Moran worked closely with Davies because of the constraints imposed by filming. Davies encouraged Moran to insert linguistic jokes similar to those in the comic book series Asterix
Asterix
Asterix or The Adventures of Asterix is a series of French comic books written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo . The series first appeared in French in the magazine Pilote on October 29, 1959...
, such as Lucius Petrus Dextrus ("Lucius Stone Right Arm"), TK Maxximus, and Spartacus
Spartacus
Spartacus was a famous leader of the slaves in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic. Little is known about Spartacus beyond the events of the war, and surviving historical accounts are sometimes contradictory and may not always be reliable...
; the use of the phrase "I'm Spartacus!" refers to the 1960 film. Moran based the ancillary characters of Metella (Tracey Childs
Tracey Childs
Tracey Childs is an English actress, best known for playing Lynne Howard in the 1980s drama series Howards' Way. More recently, she has appeared in Born and Bred as Linda Cosgrove and as Patty Cornwell in Hollyoaks....
) and Quintus from Caecilius's family in the Cambridge Latin Course
Cambridge Latin Course
The Cambridge Latin Course is a series of textbooks published by Cambridge University Press, used to teach Latin to secondary school students. First published in 1970, the series is now in its fifth edition, and has sold over 3.5 million copies...
; the character of Evelina was the only member of the family created by Moran. At the end of Book I of the Cambridge Latin Course, Caecilius and his family perish in Pompeii on the day of the eruption. This episode creates an alternate ending to their story, where they are rescued by the Doctor and move to Rome. The line "You must excuse my friend, she's from Barcelona" was a reference to an apologetic catchphrase from Fawlty Towers
Fawlty Towers
Fawlty Towers is a British sitcom produced by BBC Television and first broadcast on BBC2 in 1975. Twelve television program episodes were produced . The show was written by John Cleese and his then wife Connie Booth, both of whom played major characters...
, attributed by the production team to Sybil Fawlty
Sybil Fawlty
Sybil Fawlty is a fictional character from the BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers. She is played by Prunella Scales. Her age is listed as 34 years old as seen on her medical chart in the 1975 episode "The Germans", thus presumably indicating that she was born in 1941...
.
The episode was heavily based on a moral question posed to the Doctor by Donna: whether to warn the population of Pompeii, or to recuse themselves from the situation. Moran also had to deal with the intensity and sensitivity required when writing about the eruption. Davies and Moran both appreciated Catherine Tate
Catherine Tate
Catherine Tate is an English actress, writer, and comedian. She has won numerous awards for her work on the sketch comedy series The Catherine Tate Show as well as being nominated for an International Emmy Award and four BAFTA Awards...
's performance, and cited Donna's ability to humanise the Doctor and help him deal with "lose-lose situations" as the reason the Doctor travels with companions.
The series' story arc was hinted by the Doctor's invocation of the Shadow Proclamation, an intergalactic code invoked in "Rose
Rose (Doctor Who)
"Rose" is the first episode of Series One of the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by show runner Russell T Davies and directed by Keith Boak, the episode was first broadcast on 26 March 2005....
", "The Christmas Invasion
The Christmas Invasion
"The Christmas Invasion" is a 60-minute special episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is Christmas, but there is little cause for celebration as planet Earth is invaded by aliens known as the Sycorax...
", "Fear Her
Fear Her
"Fear Her" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on 24 June 2006.The episode takes part on the day of the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, almost exclusively on a fictitious cul-de-sac named after the British athlete...
" and "Partners in Crime
Partners in Crime (Doctor Who)
"Partners in Crime" is the first episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 5 April 2008. The episode reintroduced comedienne Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, who previously appeared in "The Runaway Bride"...
", and referencing the "Medusa Cascade", which executive producer Russell T Davies stated in Doctor Who Magazine would "come back to haunt us" later in the series. Moran also added continuity links independent of the story arc: as a "fun continuity thing", the script includes a scene in which the Doctor admits partial responsibility for the Great Fire of Rome
Great Fire of Rome
The Great Fire of Rome was an urban fire that occurred beginning July 19, AD 64.-Background:According to Tacitus, the fire spread quickly and burned for six days. Only four of the fourteen districts of Rome escaped the fire; three districts were completely destroyed and the other seven suffered...
, as depicted at the end of the 1965 serial The Romans
The Romans (Doctor Who)
The Romans is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from January 16 to February 6, 1965. The story is set during the era of the Roman Empire in the reign of Nero.-Plot:...
; and the sale of the TARDIS as modern art refers to the 1976 serial City of Death
City of Death
-Pre-production:Writer David Fisher had contributed two scripts to Doctor Whos sixteenth season – The Stones of Blood and The Androids of Tara – and was asked by producer Graham Williams for further story ideas...
, which includes a scene in which the TARDIS is appraised in a similar fashion.
Filming
Cinecittà
Cinecittà is a large film studio in Rome that is considered the hub of Italian cinema.-History:The studios were founded in 1937 by Benito Mussolini and his head of cinema Luigi Freddi for propaganda purposes, under the slogan "Il cinema è l'arma più forte"...
studios in Rome in September 2007. The filming reused some of the sets from the show Rome
Rome (TV series)
Rome is a British-American–Italian historical drama television series created by Bruno Heller, John Milius and William J. MacDonald. The show's two seasons premiered in 2005 and 2007, and were later released on DVD. Rome is set in the 1st century BC, during Ancient Rome's transition from Republic...
. Other locations suggested were in Malta and Wales, but the size of the project, the biggest since the show's revival, resulted in production taking place in Italy. This was the first time the majority of the episode was filmed abroad and the first time the cast had filmed abroad since 1996; the television movie was filmed in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
and pick-up shots had previously been made in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
for "Daleks in Manhattan
Daleks in Manhattan
"Daleks in Manhattan" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 21 April 2007, and is the fourth episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series. It is part one of a two-part story, concluded in "Evolution of the Daleks"...
". Cinecittà had accepted the BBC's request in order to promote the studios, despite the show's small budget.
Scenes set at the Temple of Sibyl were filmed at the Temple of Peace, Cardiff
Temple of Peace, Cardiff
The Welsh National Temple of Peace and Health, as known as the Temple of Peace, is a non-religious civic building in the civic centre of Cardiff, Wales. It was designed by the architect Sir Percy Thomas.-Location:...
.
Filming an episode abroad had been suggested in 2004, but the episode was the first such occasion. Planning began in April 2007, before Moran had written the script, and continued until the production team travelled to Italy. Several weeks before filming started, a fire disrupted the production. Moving to Rome caused problems for the production team: the equipment truck was delayed for several hours at the Swiss border; the special effects team were delayed for twenty-four hours at Customs
Directorate-general of customs and indirect taxes
The Directorate-General of Customs and Indirect Taxes is a French law enforcement agency responsible for levying indirect taxes, preventing smuggling, surveilling borders, and investigating counterfeit money...
in Calais
Calais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
. The production team only had 48 hours to film on location. The aftermath of the eruption was filmed on the same night as the location shots. To create the falling ash, the special effects team used a large mass of cork, with a "constant supply of debris raining down".
Broadcast and reception
Overnight figures estimated the episode was watched by 8.1 million viewers, with a peak of 8.5 million viewers. The consolidated figure was 9.04 million. The episode was the second most watched programme on 12 April; Britain's Got TalentBritain's Got Talent
Britain's Got Talent is a British television talent show competition which started in June 2007 and originated from the Got Talent series. The show is produced by FremantleMedia's TalkbackThames and Simon Cowell's production company SYCOtv. The show is broadcast on ITV in Britain and TV3 in Ireland...
was viewed by 9.44 million people. The episode was the tenth most-watched programme of the week and received an Appreciation Index
Appreciation Index
The Audience Appreciation Index is a score out of 100 which is used as an indicator of the public's appreciation for a television or radio programme, or broadcast service, in the United Kingdom. Until 2002, the AI of a programme was calculated by BARB, the organisation that compiles television...
score of 87 (considered Excellent).
The episode received several mixed and positive reviews. Ian Hyland
Ian Hyland
Ian Hyland is an English television critic.-Journalism career:Hyland wrote a column for the Sunday Mirror from 2000 to 2005. Until 2011 closure of the newspaper, he wrote for the News of the World. He currently writes for the Daily Mail...
, writing for News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
, said that Tate "was almost bearable this week". He also complimented the "TK Maxximus" joke. He was ambivalent to Donna's reaction to the Doctor leaving Caecilius's family to die: he criticised her acting, comparing her to The Catherine Tate Show
The Catherine Tate Show
The Catherine Tate Show is a British television sketch comedy written by Catherine Tate and Aschlin Ditta. Tate also stars in all but one of the show's sketches, which feature a wide range of characters. The Catherine Tate Show airs on BBC Two and is shown worldwide through the BBC...
character Joannie "Nan" Taylor
Joannie Taylor
Joannie "Nan" Taylor is a fictional character in The Catherine Tate Show. She is one of the main characters of the show and is portrayed by Catherine Tate.-The Catherine Tate Show:...
, but said "top again if that was intentional". He closed saying "this week was a hundred times better than that lame opening episode. Scarier aliens, stronger guest stars and a proper adult-friendly storyline involving sisterhoods and soothsayers."
Scott Matthewman of The Stage
The Stage
The Stage is a weekly British newspaper founded in 1880, available nationally and published on Thursdays. Covering all areas of the entertainment industry but focused primarily on theatre, it contains news, reviews, opinion, features and other items of interest, mainly to those who work within the...
said that Donna's insistence to change the past "formed the emotional backbone of this episode, producing some truly heartbreaking performances". He liked the joke about the TARDIS's translating the Doctor's and Donna's Latin phrases to Celtic
Celtic languages
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
, saying it was "subtly played throughout the episode [...] in a way that builds the joke without trampling it into the ground". His favourite part was Donna's attempts to divert the population of Pompeii away from the beach; the scene was "the emotional highpoint of a series of heart rending scenes". However, he criticised Moran's writing, specifically, Quintus's and Metella's dialogue, saying the former "remained pretty much one-dimensional throughout". Alan Stanley Blair of SyFy Portal
SyFy Portal
Airlock Alpha, formerly SyFy Portal, is an entertainment news website focusing on science-fiction, fantasy and comic book television series and films.-History:...
also gave a positive review. He was highly appreciative of Tate, saying "[she] moved even further away from her "Runaway" character that initially joined the show." The phrase "TK Maxximus" and the Doctor's use of a water pistol to subdue the Pyrovile was complimented, as was the special effects used to animate the Pyrovile. However, he disapproved of the use of Cockney
Cockney
The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...
colloquialisms in the episode, most notably the Stallholder (Phil Cornwell
Phil Cornwell
Phil Cornwell is an English comedian, actor, impressionist and writer. He is probably best known as being part of the Dead Ringers television and radio series...
) saying "lovely jubbly
Del Boy
Derek Edward Trotter, better known as "Del Boy", is the fictional lead character in the popular BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses and one of the main characters of its prequel, Rock & Chips...
".
Ben Rawson-Jones of Digital Spy
Digital Spy
Digital Spy is a British entertainment and media news website. According to Alexa Internet traffic statistics, as of February 2011, Digital Spy is the 93rd most popular website in the United Kingdom, with an overall Alexa ranking of 2,088....
gave the episode three stars out of five. His opening said "Fantastic effects and a well developed moral dilemma bolster 'The Fires Of Pompeii', although the episode fails to erupt." Rawson-Jones felt that Moran's script took "too long to actively engage the viewer and tap into the compelling premise of the time travellers arriving in the doomed city shortly before 'volcano day'." and that "the subplots are unsatisfyingly muddled for the majority of the narrative." He also complained about the characterisation of the supporting cast, saying that "Peter Capaldi and Phil Davis [deserved] better". However, he said the moral dilemma the Doctor faced was "compelling" and the Doctor's use of the water pistol "adds a pleasing sense of fun to counterbalance the impending stench of death and harks nicely back to the Tom Baker era of the show." Overall, he appreciated the premise of the episode, but thought the episode "deserved better writing".