NuWho Rewatch: Fires of Pompeii
Mar. 1st, 2015 08:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
purplecatThe Fires of the Pompeii was the story that definitively sold Donna to me. It came as a bit of a surprise to discover Tame Layman had no recollection of it at all and so was persuaded to watch it with us. I don't think it really converted him to Donna, but at least he didn't complain about her at all while it was on.
"The Father in my Latin textbook is called Caecillius" NLSS Child said almost immediately and then proceeded to be delighted by the appearance Metella and Quintus and puzzled by Evelina. Neither Tame Layman nor I had ever been exposed to the Cambridge Latin Course at school but I said I had heard that the characters were based on those in a school textbook. We then wondered if the textbook explained why the only son, and presumably second child, was called Quintus. All that said, I think NLSS Child was more delighted by the appearance of Peter Capaldi than she was by the fact he was playing a character from one of her textbooks.
The bit I loved, and still loved, is when the Doctor is faced with the choice between saving Pompeii and allowing the Pyroviles to invade. I suspect I like it quite so much since I read an awful lot of Virgin New Adventures in which the Doctor was forced to pick the lesser of two evils and is then berated about his choice by the companion (one way or another) so it was something of a pleasant surprise to see a companion, grasp the choice, and immediately back the Doctor up. I also liked the fact that, once the choice has been made, Donna refuses to allow the Doctor to wallow in his sense of guilt but insists that he continue to do as much as he can to help.
James Moran and Russel T. Davies have always been, not exactly coy, but certainly a little contradictory about who wrote how much of this. On several occasions they have both claimed that it is virtually all Davies' work give or take a line or two, but I note that wikipedia presents it as a close collaboration and attributes most of the jokes, as well as the inclusion of the family from the Cambridge Latin Course to Moran. It does feel different from a lot of Davies' output, and is more tightly plotted at the nuts and bolts level in which the Doctor must follow clues and deduce matters. On the other hand I've not really rated any of Moran's other work on either Torchwood or Primeval, so it doesn't seem particularly reminiscent of his style either.
I think this is my favourite episode of this season, and my favourite Donna episode over all. I think part of my fondness may derive from extrinsic factors (particularly over-exposure to the NAs dark seventh Doctor), but even putting that aside, I think this is a pretty well put together episode, that has clear central moment that is important to both the main characters as well as a surrounding plot that is rather better constructed than many of the plots in Davies' run... and, as mentioned above, Tame Layman at least forbore from complaining about Donna for the duration.
"The Father in my Latin textbook is called Caecillius" NLSS Child said almost immediately and then proceeded to be delighted by the appearance Metella and Quintus and puzzled by Evelina. Neither Tame Layman nor I had ever been exposed to the Cambridge Latin Course at school but I said I had heard that the characters were based on those in a school textbook. We then wondered if the textbook explained why the only son, and presumably second child, was called Quintus. All that said, I think NLSS Child was more delighted by the appearance of Peter Capaldi than she was by the fact he was playing a character from one of her textbooks.
The bit I loved, and still loved, is when the Doctor is faced with the choice between saving Pompeii and allowing the Pyroviles to invade. I suspect I like it quite so much since I read an awful lot of Virgin New Adventures in which the Doctor was forced to pick the lesser of two evils and is then berated about his choice by the companion (one way or another) so it was something of a pleasant surprise to see a companion, grasp the choice, and immediately back the Doctor up. I also liked the fact that, once the choice has been made, Donna refuses to allow the Doctor to wallow in his sense of guilt but insists that he continue to do as much as he can to help.
James Moran and Russel T. Davies have always been, not exactly coy, but certainly a little contradictory about who wrote how much of this. On several occasions they have both claimed that it is virtually all Davies' work give or take a line or two, but I note that wikipedia presents it as a close collaboration and attributes most of the jokes, as well as the inclusion of the family from the Cambridge Latin Course to Moran. It does feel different from a lot of Davies' output, and is more tightly plotted at the nuts and bolts level in which the Doctor must follow clues and deduce matters. On the other hand I've not really rated any of Moran's other work on either Torchwood or Primeval, so it doesn't seem particularly reminiscent of his style either.
I think this is my favourite episode of this season, and my favourite Donna episode over all. I think part of my fondness may derive from extrinsic factors (particularly over-exposure to the NAs dark seventh Doctor), but even putting that aside, I think this is a pretty well put together episode, that has clear central moment that is important to both the main characters as well as a surrounding plot that is rather better constructed than many of the plots in Davies' run... and, as mentioned above, Tame Layman at least forbore from complaining about Donna for the duration.
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Date: 2015-03-02 03:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-03-02 03:29 pm (UTC)