Rate & Discuss 4.2: The Fires of Pompeii

[chalkie]

i'll jump the gun & put up the thread to discuss the pompey ep
btw anyone else laugh out loud when the ep trailer said " volcano day" no? just me & wifey then? i'll shut up...

[Si Hunt]

Don't we need the main discussion thread for each story to be a poll?

Si.

[Lord President]

Happy Volcano day for Saturday everyone. I wonder how many Volcano Day cards I'll get!

[Dave Tudor]

I never get anything for Volcano Day - not even so much as a lump of pumice stone.

[Si Hunt]

I always get a hot coal but it's usually from my Mum.

Si.

[Wayne]

I'm gigging on Volcano day. It's the Sunday repeat for me this week.

[WhiteCrow]

I just hope the Doctor manages to get through the prologue - something which is very hard to do in Pompei ...

[Larry]

well from the trailer this certainly looks like being a HOT episode..

[Andrew Curnow]

Due to a bit of bad scheduling on my part (I actually forgot Doctor Who would be on, good grief!) Little Miss has got a pre-birthday sleepover Saturday evening, from 7 onwards. So there'll probably be a lot of excitable arrivals during Volcano Day!

Thank goodness for BBCi Player!

But that aside, a Merry Volcano Day to you all at home.

[Pip Madeley]

Psychic powers and stone beasts run riot in old Pompeii, but can Donna dare the Doctor to change established history?



As usual, don't vote until you've seen the episode!

[Wayne]

Due to a bit of bad scheduling on my part (I actually forgot Doctor Who would be on, good grief!) Little Miss has got a pre-birthday sleepover Saturday evening, from 7 onwards. So there'll probably be a lot of excitable arrivals during Volcano Day!

Thank goodness for BBCi Player!

No BBC3 then Andrew? There's a repeat on Sunday & Friday.
Something which i'm gonna be grateful for over the next couple of weeks, as it saves faffing about with timers & recording devices.

[chalkie]

I just hope the Doctor manages to get through the prologue - something which is very hard to do in Pompei ...

any bets on whether the doctor , or indeed the ep will actually reference either him or it, after all they did reference HP in shakespear code

[Andrew Curnow]

No BBC3 then Andrew? There's a repeat on Sunday & Friday

I'm just impatient, Wayne! I don't think I could wait until Sunday to watch it (although I suppose now I'll discover that it doesn't go on the iPlayer until Sunday anyway)!

[Lord President]

I'm just impatient, Wayne! I don't think I could wait until Sunday to watch it (although I suppose now I'll discover that it doesn't go on the iPlayer until Sunday anyway)!

That's what Videos, DVD Recorders, Sky+ are for!

[MacNimon]

I'll be using mine as well. I'm working back shift for the next two Saturdays...

[Larry]

I'm just impatient, Wayne! I don't think I could wait until Sunday to watch it ()!

well you could always watch it when all the little kiddies have gone to bed..

[Matthew T]

It's the iPlayer for me too, hopefully late on Saturday night, as I'm working through the first showing and all the repeats, and I don't have a video anymore!

[Dirk Gently]

Excellent stuff! Far superior to last weeks. I've given it 8/10 but to be honest I can't actually see how they could have made it better. Probably deserved a 9 & might get upgraded at the end of the series.

The sets were superb & the effects faultless (on first viewing anyway). This is Doctor Who working well & definitely one to watch again.



P.S. I didn't see Mel or 7th Doctor, they must have been on the other side of city.

[Stephen Morgan]

WOW!!!! That was HOT
I'm giving that a 10 for sheer, breathless enjoyment, I'd defy ANYBODY to find any criticism in that one. It had the right balance of comedy and seriousness I thought. I felt Donna's pain about the survival of the townsfolk, and the Doctor not able to do anything, and her heartfelt pleading for him to save someone, anyone. I am willing to admit I was wrong about the casting of Tate, if she brings this kind of pathos to the part of Donna then I'll be glad to see it, she was great, and I think this episode was all about Donna, on her first proper trip in the TARDIS, and seeing the Doctor's dilemma.
I loved the Celtic jokes too, nice to see a rise taken out of the Welsh, there's lovely.

[chalkie]

8/10 i'm spartacus , i'm spartacus...
tonight's special guest star ( drum roll please ) the balrog!!!
& phil davies who . in quadrophenia played a character called .....chalkie!!!
some nice freaky bits as well

[Captain Tancredi]

Actually I thought the Spartacus joke was the one line that didn't work- his revolt was BC rather than AD, so it's a bit like walking into the Ministry of Defence and introducing yourself to the receptionist as Napoleon Bonaparte.

But apart from that- pretty much faultless. If anybody had told me a year ago that they'd revisit one of the themes of 'The Aztecs' with Catherine Tate in Barbara's role- and that she'd carry it off so well- well, I'd have thought they'd been breathing in the vapours.

[Pip Madeley]

Well it's gone down well here at HaRpi Towers - I can't believe Tim missed the absolutely sublime connection to The Romans!

[Dirk Gently]

Oh, and I did guess that the new 'house gods' at the end would be the TARDIS & crew as soon as it was mentioned before it was revealed.

[Paul Clement]

Historical episodes have generally been amongst my favourites in Doctor Who, at least until the New Series began. Unquiet Dead, Tooth and Claw and Shakespeare Code had a lot to commend them, but they never really hit the highlights I expected of them. Fires of Pompeii managed to do it on every level.

Every aspect of the production worked for me. The sideways nod to 'The Romans' was nicely added in. Catherine Tate was in stellar form, brining great believability to her character's response to the situation. There were some good comedy moments that polished the story, and worked as an excellent counterpoint to the dramatic empathy laden scenes. Although not visually excellent, the Pyroviles are the first New Series monster I'm hoping will return to the show in the future. I adored the closing scene with the Doctor, Donna and the TARDIS becoming the house gods of the family.
There was some great perfomances in this episode fromt he guest cast, and a few lines of dialogue that were very intriguing, especially the bit with Donna having 'Something on her back'. I'm curious to know what that means.

10/10 for me.

[Dino]

And another reference to a lost home planet...
Full marks for this one.