The Fires of Pompeii (2008)

Episode 2 saw a nice improvement on the opener. Not in terms of enjoyment but more in terms of quality of script. Fires of Pompeii has to be one of the most ambitious stories that has ever been attempted for new-who and it pays off. With visually stunning settings and special effects Fires of Pompeii is the best historical story just ahead of Tooth and Claw and The Shakespeares Code. When they made the Shakespeare Code they managed to make it look realistic by filming in The Globe Theatre and in streets around Warwick. This helped create the atmosphere for the story which is why it went down well its this attention to detail that helped Fires of Pompeii. They filmed on the sets that were used for the HBO/BBC drama 'Rome'. Being a fan of that series they looked really familir but the sets and location only tell half the story.

The plot was a really good one because in a way there were two strands. The first being of the sisterhood and the rock creature taking over the world and the second was the conflict between the Doctor and Donna on whether to change history by telling people about the impending doom or not. Its the latter that stood but to me the most after the episode had finished.

Its always been a big dilemma in Doctor Who 'Should the Doctor change history to help people survive'. Well you start to enter a grey area on this ground because if the Doctor can then why doesn’t he go back to Gallifrey and save the Timelords? The scene between Donna and the Doctor in the TARDIS was a well written and well acted moment. It was at that point that Donna became a proper companion to me. She stood up to the Doctor and made him stand up to his decisions. The fact that Donna doesn’t fancy the Doctor or admire him though that may change.

There was one part of this episode that I thought let it down. The first was the Donna was slightly annoying in the first part of this episode. She did bear a horrible resemblance to her character Lauren the Teenager and I did start to feel sorry for David Tennant for being lumbered with Tate. About halfway through the episode she just stopped being annoying and became really good and lets hope she continues with this. A very good episode that was let down by an annoying Donna in the first 25 minutes but great special effects and a great plot.