Sunday, April 13, 2008

Doctor Who S04E02-The Fires of Pompeii

The Doctor and Donna land in Pompeii for a look at Roman history. Turns out though, they're arrived the day before the disasterous erruption of Mt. Vesuvius, or as The Doctor calls it "Volcano Day". Tracked by a mysterious off world occult and menacing, lava blooded foot soldiers, The Doctor and Donna have face a far greater and deeper dilema. Will The Doctor follow his instincts and let history take its inevitable course? Or will he listen to Donna and try to change the fate of 20,000 innocent people?

Before going into things, right off the bat, the production and set design crews must be given a huge round of applause. This isn't some skimmpy, quickly thrown together set of quarries, but a fully fleshed out visualization of Pompeii we are looking at on screen. And some of the architecture we are seeing on screen is on par with that of the sets in Gladiator. Just goes to show us once again that Russell T. Davies and crew are doing their absolute best to keep us interested in the worlds we visit. And that effort shows more than ever this time around.

While this episode did seem to lose some steam in parts, the real meat of this story is not in the wacky action, but The Doctor and Donna's growing relationship. Donna seems to be reminding me more and more of Rose with every second of this episode. While yes, she is still loud and a bit annoying, she is pure of heart and actually challenges The Doctor on what to do about the erruption of Pompeii, something it's citizens are oblivious to. This episode showed Donna at her most serious and you can definitley sympathize with her feelings. Still, The Doctor does have to think about reprocutions of changing the timeline and the bigger picture of what could happen. After all, if he could go back and save his fellow Time Lords from burning to death, he would. This episode just highlighted just how terrible the curse of the Time Lords can be.

The Doctor and Donna, although I would never have found myself saying this back in July when I heard they were hooking up again, make a pretty fantastic team. Donna has kept true to her promise to keep The Doctor's tendency to overdo things in check and The Doctor is learning to listen to those around him. It's a perfect match, rivaling that of The Doctor and Rose, and it will be amazing to see how the writers continue to develop their unique relationship.

And, it has to be said, The Doctor fighting lava soldiers and rock solid seers with a water pistol was one of the most hilarious moments of Doctor Who EVER!!!! Silly, yes, but nonetheless a great spectacle to keep instilled in our heads that this show is simply fun and never 100% serious, a la Torchwood.

Next Week: The Ood are back. Are they possessed? Why are they being targeted by men with really big guns? And will there be another marker indicating the inevitable return of an old friend? So exciting, isn't it?

Rating-8/10

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