Doctor Who: "The Fires of Pompeii"
Monday, April 04, 2011
"The Fires of Pompeii," I distinctly recall, didn't feel particularly important the first time through. As it would turn out, however, it's arguably the turning-point of the fourth season. The episode ushers in a new dynamic in the Doctor/Donna relationship and hammers home what will be revealed as the season's themes: the meaning of fate and the important of agency - and, significantly, the consequence of individual acts of kindness in the face of an immovable and uncaring future. (Spoilers for the episode follow.)
The Doctor takes Donna to ancient Rome, but in one of the significant "accidents" of place that apparently define the TARDIS' landing-points, winds up instead in Pompeii. "And it's volcano day," the Doctor realizes. Knowing the future, the Doctor is more conscious than anyone, is not a blessing but a curse, a form of imprisonment rather than freedom. Such is the lesson Donna will learn as she spends the episode futilely trying to save the city's population from a doom only she and the Doctor are aware of... despite the fact that Pompeii boasts a robust population of soothsayers, not one of whom seems to have prophesied that their city is about 18 hours away from ashy catastrophe. Donna begs the Doctor to do something, but his hands are tied - Pompeii is a fixed point in time and the cataclysm can't be averted, no matter what the scope of the tragedy.
Of course, the truth is significantly more complicated. Pompeii's fires are being stoked by an alien race of lava-creatures hoping to use the explosion to propel themselves and their craft back into space. If they're successful, the Doctor realizes, they'll destroy the planet. Pompeii's destruction is merely the collateral damage of their failure. Pompeii's devastation truly is inevitable - the question becomes whether the Doctor will take responsibility for its demolition by foiling the lava-alien plans, or stand by without doing anything and allow the entire planet to go up. Donna ultimately steps forward to help relieve some of small portion of his burden by pressing the button that will destroy Pompeii with him, but she still doesn't believe in herself enough to think she can save anyone, opting instead to force the Doctor to do what little he can. Donna's journey over the course of the season is coming to realize that she's not unimportant - that no one is meaningless, not even her. But her journey begins here, by forcing the Doctor to save a single life (or, more accurately, four lives) when he'd have left without saving anyone. Donna's initial concern about the Doctor, way back in "The Runaway Bride," was that he would was too hard and alien without a companion, that his self-imposed separation made him unfeeling. He comprehends here, finally, that he does need someone - a realization that will become deeper and more profound as the season progresses, and make his ultimate isolation all the more tragic.
"The Fires of Pompeii" particularly stands in contrast to the first season episode "The Doctor Dances." There the Doctor's jubilant celebration at the episode's climax comes at his realization that, just once, "everyone lives." Here, knowing that Pompeii and all its citizens are doomed no matter what his efforts, the Doctor turns away from his companion as she begs for his intercession. What's the point, is his unspoken question. On volcano day, everyone dies. "It's not fair," Donna tells him, very quietly. But that's his fate, and his tragedy: he will always know when it's volcano day, and he'll always understand why that knowledge represents not freedom but the most isolating prison imaginable.
If the sets look familiar, they should - "The Fires of Pompeii" was filmed on what remained of Rome's sets after the Italian studio where the show was filmed was struck by fire. Soothsaying daughter Evelina, played by Francesca Fowler, should look familiar too - she's also a Rome alum. And I hope you recognize Lucius Caecilius Lucundus as well, though from a slightly different context - the actor plays the brilliantly foul-mouthed Malcolm Tucker from The Thick of It and In the Loop.