With Peter Capaldi's first series as The Doctor in full swing, I will analyse his first Doctor Who outing from all the way back in 2008 'The Fires of Pompeii' before he was even the Doctor... or was he... (apparently his previous Doctor Who related outings (Fires of Pompeii and Children of Earth) are going to be mentioned in a small way). The setting of Pompeii is realised quite well, things like the market street and Soothsayers temple look brilliant but I think the actual volcano, Mount Vesuvius created with CGI or some wizardry looks a bit naff, it looks good in the fleeting scenes you see it in but if you actually pause it and look, you see it doesn't look particularly believable. Same goes for the monsters, alien molten rock creatures that can be beaten by a water pistol also created using CGI. These monsters are of course the Pyrovile who were turning people into them as well as giving them psychic powers. These people were the Soothsayers who wore red robes and practiced sacrificing, most notably on Donna. As I've said their temple looks fantastic creating an air of Mystery with the smoke and the ghostly chanting reminding me of the classic story 'The Brain of Morbius' with the Sisterhood of Karn. One of the Soothsayers was played by Karen Gillan who of course would go onto be the 11th Doctor's companion just two years later. In the end the Doctor basically faces a moral dilemma he must either let the Pyrovile carry on meaning the whole world would be turned into them, or set off Mount Vesuvius destroying Pompeii. This leads to some amazing acting by everyone particularly Donna who managed to get the Doctor to save someone, a scene where we see Donna change from a gobby annoying person to a caring, kind person. This brings us onto Peter Capaldi's character, Caecilius, a sculptor/merchant who buys the TARDIS leading the doctor to him. Caecilius is a nice man who obviously wants the best for his family, and his family is the only one that survives the eruption because of Donna. There is a nice scene at the end where they give thanks to the household Gods which are now The Doctor and Donna carved onto stone. Overall a nice story with a few flaws but the acting makes up for it, mainly from Catherine Tate (Donna) and Peter Capaldi (Caecilius).
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A very strong story to start off the Sarah Jane Adventures last full series (although they didn't know that at the time), a really brilliant series however it doesn't quite live up to the previous one (series 3). It's also significant as it set up the departure for Luke with this basically being the entire plot. We start the story the same way the previous one finished, with a countdown and a Slitheen exploding over them covering them in some rather disgusting green gloop. This allows for a tense yet comedic opening and I love the way it starts in the middle of an adventure, it also sets up the story we would be watching with Luke telling Sarah Jane he might be going to University a year early. The plot revolves around Luke worrying about going to University which would be quite relatable to people watching such as if you were starting High School or something the people it's aimed at would be doing. This worry then causes him to have nightmares about for example Sarah Jane replacing him with another boy. This then causes the Nightmare Man to manifest it's self to make the entire population of Earth have nightmares. This story I thought was quite dark for Sarah Jane, in the nightmares we have Sarah Jane, Rani and Clyde burning his picture. The Nightmare Man himself was incredibly creepy, played by Julian Bleach who also played Davros has an excellent voice and the sort of fairground music that accompanies him is very scary. The scenes of Rani and Clydes nightmares are also quite dark yet incredibly funny. We have Rani becoming a news reader and telling the world of Sarah Jane, then we have Clyde working in a burger shop, one of the best scenes in Sarah Jane history is her coming into the burger shop in an electric scooter with a nasty voice and a little bit crazy and unhinged played excellently here by Lis Sladen, she had an incredible likeness to Catherine Tate's ' swearing Nan' Finally an excellent resolution with K9 and Mr Smith joining forces to get Rani, Clyde and Luke working together in their dreams to get them out - some excellent music and writing here. And The Nightmare Man get's trapped with Sarah jane in here electric scooter in a burger shop saying "Come and sit down! And I'll tell you all about my brilliant son! His name's Luke Smith, and he's going to live happily ever after!" Finally we end on Luke driving off, although he would return in the finale and the next series... |
About this areaThis area will be where I write reviews on Doctor Who DVD's classic and new. The area is split up into episodes of the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and new who to make it easier for me and you to see them. Enjoy! Archives
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