|
The Fires of Pompeii Format Reviewed: TV Review The Fires of Pompeii continues the fourth series in the new televsion adventures of Doctor Who. It is worth remarking on the new version of he theme tune that has been used for this series. New versions have been used throughout the new series, but this one is the most different and I personally believe it is a step backwards from the previous versions which came accross as more dramatic. Murray Gold has done some excellent work for the series, but this is not his finest hour. The Doctor takes Donna to ancient Rome, only to find themselves in Pompeii on volcano day. Donna wants to save the population, but The Doctor says it is a fixed point, something that must happen. In Pompeii, there are a group of sooth sayers and local luminaries who can also see the future. None however can see the volcano errupting, and all of them are turning to stone. The leader of the female sooth sayers is forced into revealing that they are being turned into Pyroviles who are a magma based life form by The Doctor. They are attemtping to use the power created for the volcano eruption, and convert it which in doing so will destroy the Earth. The Doctor is then forced to chose between stopping the Pyroviles and so destroying Pompeii, or letting the whole Earth be destroyed. The power converters are then stopped by The Doctor, and Versuvious errupts. Donna then forces The Doctor to rescue a wealthy family from Pompeii who eventually resettle in Rome. When a project on the scale of the destruction of Pompeii is undertaken, it has the potential to be dire, superb or anything in between. Generally, the effects will be the making or breaking of a story like this, and here is where The Fires of Pompeii really comes into its own. The whole story is fantastically well realised, as you might expect from a visit to studios in Rome for the location footage. The set designers and effects team really performed miracle with that excellent base though, and the story is beautiful from start to finish. Everything on location, particularly the street scenes, are so well detailed that it builds so much more realism into the story. Developing their relationship as The Doctor and Donna Noble are David Tennant and Catherine Tate. There is a fractious dynamic between the two, and Tate stil appears to be trying too hard a little, but they are very different together than anything that has come before in the new series, so it is certainly something that is welcome for me. The guest cast is quite large for this story, and is headlined by Caecilius played by Peter Capaldi, Francesca Fowler as Evelina and Phil Davis as Lucius. All the guest cast contribute well, and none stand out as being bad orover the top. The main focus though is on The Doctor and Donna, so the guest cast is less important here. Given the wonderful realisation of the Pompeii scenario, it is therefore somewhat disappointingthat the story itselfwas a little bit of a damp squib. The whole point of this story appears to be a revisiting of the morality of time travel, why The Doctor can save some and not others, something that has been done before ad infinitum. We also have the usual start of a companions journey when the same old questions are asked and asnswered, again. It really did seem to rely too heavily on the setting, and a weak story really leaves you a little disappointed. This episode could have been brilliant, instead it became OK, but at least it was propped up by the sets and effects, otherwise it would have been a disaster. Overall, The Fires of Pompeii is a beautifully realised historical event, that the crew really have done a formidable job creating. The story however lets down the look and feel, and makes the story a little hollow. Therefore, the story leaves you feeling it could have been so much more, but at least it wasn't a disaster it could have been if it hadn't been propped up by the locations and effects. Rating:  |