Doctor Who Series 4 “The Fires of Pompeii”

I was hoping this would have been later in Donna’s run with The Doctor, but here we are. This is why I don’t like Donna’s character. The whiplash you get from her first three episodes is like listening to my music playlists. Yeah, you might like Nina Simone, Marilyn Manson, BABYMETAL, Kesha, Beethoven, Paramore, Madness, The Pretty Reckless, Selena Gomez, Wolfmother, N.W.A, Pink, Miley Cyrus, Eric B. & Rakim, Gwen Stefani, Halestorm, the Bee Gees, Mozart, Run The Jewels, Shania Twain, the Talking Deads, MIKA, Foo Fighters, and so on. However, if you listened to all of that back-to-back, you’d lose your mind. In these three episodes: she’s been a mardy (sulky) madame, a right annoying Antoinette, and here, a caring Carrie.

Ok, as tortured as that might have been to get all three to have the same letter, it is even more agonizing looking at Donna’s character. As I said last week, in her first episode she was not someone you wanted to be around, so she was softened quite a bit. In “The Fires of Pompeii,” she is turned from being the comedic character to the one with all the compassion, the care, and the sympathy for those in distress. Yes, she keeps a few lines, she’s a bit gobby when she’s put in distress, but it is a whole new Donna. I’m not complaining too much about her compassion; I’m moaning that in three episodes, she’s had more change than she’ll have in the rest of her run.

I like this more compassionate, toned down, and calm Donna. There are even a few lines I found humorous, “Do you go hanging about ’round the shops? TK Maximus?” but the writing is just a bit flat otherwise. I have a history of moaning about the supernatural, the mythical, and the blandus-characterus nature of sci-fi that isn’t at least grounded in something that grabs me. Rome, Pompeii, and the Mediterranean about 80 CE is a fascinating era of history. However, it is history that is tread on for Europeans a lot.

By the time the Papal state was worried about the Ottoman’s seizing Constantinople (Istanbul) for themselves, Italy and Rome were the last of the Christian-Catholic powers near to “the Holy Land.” The history of the Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, and a bit of Greece, along with Germany’s recent antics, is the history schools try to teach. At least in the UK, the Ottoman empire is nearly ignored. Meanwhile, it was an empire that began almost 200-years prior to that of the British. My point is, history such as Menelik II of the Ethiopian Empire isn’t spoken about, at least as much as this time in Italian/Roman history.

Honestly, if you don’t understand what Pompeii is in history, you are three-years-old or stupid. It sounds like an interesting setting, but there is nothing you can really do with such a fixed point aside from a bit of mythology. It is dull mythology at that. However, since April 3rd, 2010, two years following the airing of “The Fires of Pompeii,” the episode has never been about Donna, The Doctor, Pompeii, or anything featured in the episode other than two actors.

One of which is a very red-haired woman from Inverness, though I doubt she’s acted in anything big of late. The other is a grey-haired boney Glaswegian who used to be in a band with America’s best late-night host, who was also Scottish. Other than being that weathered bloke for Arnmondo Iannucci’s dark political comedy, I doubt he’s done much since then as well. Wait, they were back in Doctor Who again years later? As The Doctor and The Doctor’s companion no less? What kind of madness is this? Yes, years on, it isn’t “that episode about Pompeii,” it is that episode Karen Gillain and Peter Capaldi showcased in before taking up the lead roles of the show.

The thing about the episode is that looking back at it, there is very little to say about it. The dialogue is a bit flat and dimensionless, the setting isn’t much you could work with, and two of the actors draw attention because they later return in different roles. Of course, there is a later moment in series 9 episode 5, “The Girl Who Died” where Moffat ties up Capaldi’s piece with a messy bow. It isn’t an episode that is begging for a rewatch when I’m going through the show again. If anything I’d be skipping it normally. It is part of a problem I have with a lot of Donna’s run, it is mostly forgettable or dull if you can remember them.

The next couple of episodes serve as an example. I enjoy the Ood plot, but I can’t for the life of me think of too many moments of “Planet of the Ood.” I remember Tennant’s playfulness in “The Sontaran Stratagem” and “The Poison Sky,” otherwise I’m not excited to go back to that double-bill. For episode 6, I’ll be talking about Tennant’s wife, again. In episode 7, I’ll be bored to death; and 8 and 9, Oh, that’s what I’m most excited about this series. As for 10, “Midnight,” I can’t remember a single scene from that one, and I can only hope it is an episode I’ve not seen.

“The Fires of Pompeii” isn’t a bad episode. It is just a bit on the fence of what I’d prefer with a companion I don’t like all that much. I’ve already said it, I’d be skipping this one in a heartbeat, there is just something about it that doesn’t have a bite. Unless you enjoy this Donna a lot or the setting a little too much, there isn’t much to pull you in otherwise. It is Who at its blandest. Even the “monster” isn’t all that bothersome.