The Fires of Vulcan

The Fires of Vulcan

Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Mel), Gemma Bissix (Aglae), Anthony Keetch (Professor Scarlini), Karen Henson (Captain Muriel Frost), Robert Curbishley (Tibernus/Roman Legionary), Andy Coleman (Popidius Celsinus), Nicky Goldie (Valeria Hedone), Steven Wickham (Murranus), Lisa Hollander (Eumachia), Toby Longworth (Priest)

Two thousand years ago, a volcanic eruption wiped the Roman city of Pompeii from the face of the Earth. It also buried The Doctor’s TARDIS.

Arriving in Pompeii one day before the disaster, The Doctor and Mel find themselves separated from their ship and entangled in local politics. As time runs out, they fight to escape from the shadow of Mount Vesuvius. But how can they succeed when history itself is working against them?

• The Fires of Vulcan was the twelfth monthly Doctor Who audio story produced by Big Finish Productions. This was the third full story to feature Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor but the first audio story to feature Bonnie Langford as Melanie Bush, a role which she last played in the non-canonical Children in Need sketch Dimensions in Time in 1993.
  
• This story was originally released on both CD and cassette.
  
• An illustrated preview for this story appeared in Doctor Who Magazine issue 295 with art by Lee Sullivan.
  
• Muriel Frost becomes the first character created for the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip to be featured in an audio drama. She will later be followed by Frobisher, Izzy Sinclair, Maxwell Edison and others.
  
• Although this was the first audio drama to feature Mel in terms of release date, it is her final chronological appearance in the main range.
  
• This audio drama was recorded on 11 and 12 March 2000 at the Moat Studios.
  
• An older version of the Seventh Doctor would later return to Pompeii in August 79 in the company of Ace (The Algebra of Ice), as would the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble (The Fires of Pompeii) and his future travelling companion Captain Jack Harkness, on multiple occasions (The Doctor Dances).
  
• The Seventh Doctor is unaware that the eruption of Mount Vesuvius was triggered by his tenth incarnation in order to kill the Pyrovile. (The Fires of Pompeii)