Doctor Who Series 4 - The Fires of Pompeii
‘The Fires of Pompeii‘ was episode 2 of Doctor Who Series 4 and showed an interesting side to the Doctor’s personality; the burden of a Time Lord.
Upon realising that the TARDIS has landed in ancient Pompeii one day before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD, Donna insists the Doctor begins an evacuation to save the population which numbers 20,000 or so. The Doctor explains that the destruction of Pompeii is a fixed and necessary point in time, he seems to be bound by some kind of Time Lord Non-Intervention Oath.
This it seems is the burden of a Time Lord, not to interfere in the natural development of a culture. The eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii appear to be natural events in human history so the Doctor refuses to change anything. Donna becomes enraged at the man who she has always seen as a travelling hero and cannot fathom this lack of compassion or his coolness about the deaths of 20,000 people.
The Doctor however, seeing all that was, all that will be and all that could be throughout time knows that the destruction of Pompeii is something he should not change. However it quickly becomes clear that there is alien involvement in the eruption of Versuvius: a group of stranded Pyrovile’s, creatures composed of living magma.
The Pyroviles have possessed many of the towns population and with the aid of a energy converter carved out of marble they’re trying to change the population of the entire planet into Pyroviles and create a new Pyrovilian homeworld.
The Pyroviles became stranded beneath the Earth’s crust when their ship crashed escaping the destruction of their homeworld Pyrovilia.
Armed with only a water pistol the Doctor prevents the Pyroviles from using the energy converter but must now allow the destruction of Pompeii rather than risk the entire planet.
As the doctor prepares to leave, Donna begs him to save a family who gave them shelter. Despite the Doctor swearing the family to secrecy we see at the end of the episode they have errected a shrine to the Doctor and Donna in their new home and worship them as household gods.
I thought ‘The Fires of Pompeii‘ featured some excellant special effects and characterisation. I enjoyed seeing how this policy of non-intervention is indeed a burden upon the Doctor. His is seemingly all powerful, compassionate and heroic much of the time, but bound by an Oath and haunted by his inactions for the rest of it.
I think this story echoes back to the classic Doctor Who episode ‘Genesis of The Daleks‘. In Genesis of the Daleks we see the fourth Doctor, played by Tom Baker, agonising over the decision to destroy the Daleks before they were ever created.
The Doctor knew that in the future many races will become allies because of the Dalek threat and that because they evolved in a relatively natural manner (without alien interference or time-travel) he feels he has no right to prevent that.
Next week’s Doctor Who is entitled ‘Planet of the Ood‘.
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