Plot

Cast

• 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....
  
   — Sylvester McCoy
  Sylvester McCoy
  Sylvester McCoy is a Scottish actor. As a comic act and busker he appeared regularly on stage and on BBC Children's television in the 1970s and 80s, but is best known for playing the seventh incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who from 1987 to...
  
  
• Mel
  Melanie Bush
  Mel, also sometimes referred to as Melanie, is a fictional character in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A computer programmer from the 20th Century who is a companion of the Sixth and Seventh Doctors, she was a regular in the programme from 1986 to 1987...
  
   — Bonnie Langford
  Bonnie Langford
  Bonita Melody Lysette "Bonnie" Langford is an English actress, dancer and entertainer. She came to prominence as a child star in the early 1970s then she subsequently became a companion of Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy's Doctor Who and has appeared on stage in various musicals such as Peter Pan:...
  
  
• Professor Scalini — Anthony Keetch
• Captain Muriel Frost
  Muriel Frost
  Muriel Frost is a fictional character who appeared in the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. An officer in the British Army, she worked for UNIT , an international organisation that defends the Earth from alien threats...
  
   — Karen Henson
• Tibernus — Robert Curbishley
• Popidus Celsinus — Andy Coleman
• Valeria Hedone — Nicky Goldie
• Murranus — Steven Wickham
  Steven Wickham
  Steven Wickham is a British actor known largely for his roles in Big Finish Productions audio dramas as well as guest appearances in Red Dwarf, Casualty, The Bill, Eastenders and Doctor Who in a career which began in 1984.-Career:...
  
  
• Eumanchia — Lisa Hollander
• Aglae — Gemma Bissix
  Gemma Bissix
  Gemma Bissix is an English actress. She has been acting since the age of 9. Her most prominent roles have been in soap operas, as Clare Bates in EastEnders and Clare Devine in Hollyoaks ; she was awarded with two British Soap Awards for the latter role...
  
  
• Priest — Toby Longworth
  Toby Longworth
  Toby Longworth is a British actor who has appeared on film, radio and television. He is originally from Somerset, where he attended King Edward's School, Bath...
  
  
• Roman Legionary — Robert Curbishley

Continuity

• The cause of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius turns out to be the Tenth Doctor
  Tenth Doctor
  The Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...
  
   in the 2008 TV story The Fires of Pompeii
  The Fires of Pompeii
  "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 archaeologist and UNIT officer in the first and final scenes are named Professor Scalini (after an Italian restaurant that Steve Lyons used to live over) and Captain Muriel Frost (after a character from the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip).
• The names and roles of all the named characters in the play were taken from real life, mostly from graffiti found in Pompeii when it was excavated (with the exception of Tibernus, a made up character name).
• The character Murranus was only added to provide a subplot to keep the Doctor busy during the third episode. Steve Lyons did not originally want to include a clichéd gladiator at all.
• The TARDIS was also covered in lava in the opening scenes of the 1968 TV story The Mind Robber
  The Mind Robber
  The Mind Robber is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in five weekly parts from September 14 to October 12, 1968...
  
  , where it didn't cope as well as it does here.

External links

• Big Finish Productions - The Fires of Vulcan

Reviews