Doctor Who: Fires of Pompeii

[purplecat]

The more I think about this episode the more I think it was actually very good indeed.


To get the less good parts out of the way quickly. Some of the acting left something to be desired. The Time Rift hand-wave was just that, a hand-wave. Most seriously the details of the Vesuvious and volcanic eruptions in general were wrong (and I do think you should make the climatic event of your story, especially one as famous as this, as accurate as reasonable), but not, I think seriously so. Honestly, I can forgive the Doctor and Donna out-running a pyroclastic flow on the grounds of dramatic convention - though it was stretching my forgiveness almost to breaking point.

On the other hand this is so how I hoped Donna would turn out. I hoped it but never actually believed the production team could pull it off. Gone was the slap-stick comedy gurning and stupid ignorance and instead we got some who behaved like an adult and challenged the Doctor when he needed challenging. And then, in a moment I never expected at all, she supported him through the decision to destroy Pompeii. One of the less attractive traits of the Virgin New Adventures novels was the companions' tendency to blame the Doctor for making hard choices when often he really didn't have a choice, so it was a hugely refreshing change to see a companion take that choice on board and back up the Doctor's decision. I could squee about Donna some more but I was genuinely won over I just hope this characterisation survives the rest of the series.

The story wasn't as flashy as a Moffat, Cornell or Shearman script but it had heart and intelligence. It wouldn't surprise me if it stands the test of time better than its more self-consciously clever stablemates.

Comments

[wyrdo.livejournal.com]

Do you not think she was seconds away from saying, "Not bothered" throughout the scripting though?

[purplecat]

Err... no. But then I've never seen the Catherine Tate show. I'd never even heard of Catherine Tate until The Runaway Bride.

[wyrdo.livejournal.com]

Ah. The people who like CT as a companion fall into that category. I'm yet to meet someone who knows the show who likes Donna.

I can be won over, though. I'm not hard headed. It's just not looking good, though.

[iriswildthyme.livejournal.com]

Ah well, I know - and loathe - the Catherine Tate Show, but love Donna to pieces. Tate's turne dout to be a good actress (far better than Freema and slightly better so far than Billie).

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Surely that's spelt "bovvered"!

You'll have to have me as an exception to that rule - I like both Donna as a companion and Catherine Tate as a comedy actress. (Having said that, the Catherine Tate show isn't consistently funny, but I think it has its moments, especially the posh mum and Lauren the chav.)

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

When liking Doctor Who, it sometimes helps to be scientifically ignorant, I find... though I admit that it doesn't help much in other circumstances.

[purplecat]

Yes and no. My information about pyroclastic flows stems from my fondness for disaster movies and, of course, all those cheap documentaries of the "Ten most dangerous volcanos in the world" variety.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

"When mountains attack!!!"

[purplecat]

I'm always much more interested when its the scenery that is attacking than when it is animals :-)

Don't know why.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

I agree with you - I thought this was a really good story, and it bodes very well for Donna as a companion. I can't find the comment, but I replied to someone else's post that Donna's hero-worship of the Doctor was over-the-top. I reckoned that this was a set up for the Pompeii episode where the Doctor would inevitably not be able to save people because of changnig history. And I was mostly right.