The Tenth Doctor tries taking Donna Noble to ancient Rome for her first trip in the TARDIS, but seems to have miscalculated. Instead of seven hills, they find a single mountain billowing smoke – Vesuvius. They’re in Pompeii, 23 August 79 AD: the day before”Volcano Day”. However, something else is horribly wrong. The Soothsayers’ predictions seem to always be correct… So why can’t they see tomorrow’s disastrous events, the eruption of Vesuvius, the death of their city?
What is blocking their perception, and will the TARDIS team be able to walk away from a fixed point in time, saving no one from certain doom? Well, Donna has something to say about that!
NOTES
Karen Gilan played a Soothsayer, she went on to play Amy Pond
Donna mentions The Doctor saving the world in 2008. However, it is unclear what event she is referring to.
One of episode writer James Moran’s favourite stories is City of Death, so there’s a deliberate reference to that when Caecilius buys the TARDIS, thinking it’s a piece of modern art. In City of Death, the TARDIS is parked in an art gallery, causing a pairof critics (John Cleese and Eleanor Bron) to discuss its artistic merits.
Coincidentally, City of Death was the first episode of the classic series to involve filming outside of the UK, while the Fires of Pompeii was the first episode of the series revival to have major filming done outside the UK.
The Pyrovile were originally called Pyrovillaxians. This was shortened to Pyrovellians, then Pyrovile.
Phil Cornwell (Stallholder) parodied the Ninth Doctor in a sketch for the Christmas 2005 edition of Dead Ringers (Christmas Day at Doctor Who’s).
BBC4 broadcast three related programmes on the same evening as the original broadcast, “Earth: the Power of the Planet” (an episode about volcanoes) at 2010BST, “Pompeii: the Last Day” at 2110BST, and “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Volcanoes” (actually broadcast at 0155BST the following morning). The Radio Times listing for the Fires of Pompeii made reference to “Pompeii: the Last Day”.
The fountain in this story is used as the cloning vat in The Sontaran Stratagem.
The ‘Petrus Dextrus’ in Lucius Petrus Dextrus translates roughly to ‘stone right-hand’. This is a reference to his right arm, which had turned to stone.
The episode addresses a long-standing issue of the “gift of translation” The Doctoror the TARDISbestows upon companions. It is revealed that while The Doctor and Donna hear the Romans speaking colloquial English (with Cockney accents in some cases), the Romans hear them speaking Latin. When Donna and the Doctor actually speak Latin phrases, the Romans hear this as Celtic (as the English language hadn’t yet developed).
The Tenth Doctor names the Shadow Proclamation, which was last mentioned in Fires of Pompeii. Also mentioned in that episode and continued here is the idea of a planet going missing.
