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).
6 Comments
Handbot10
12/10/2014 10:03:48 am
Email isn't working so... here:
Reply
14/10/2014 09:22:15 am
Still getting other peoples emails, don't know what it is...
Reply
Handbot10
14/10/2014 09:41:24 am
Well it is your idea, can't argue with that. The idea was to not include 3,4,5,6 at all. Just because it takes too much time.
Reply
Handbot10
14/10/2014 09:42:47 am
Actually, this is just an idea but my birthday is on the 1st of Dec so maybe I could do like a minisode or something. I was also thinking of doing a doctor who extra type thing with each episode. That might be nice. 14/10/2014 12:07:26 pm
(sorry, had to post here, wouldn't work above for some reason)
Reply
Handbot10
15/10/2014 10:08:23 am
Glad we've got that sorted out! An upcoming teaser trailer coming soon! Which will probably be the last until a full trailer featuring actual footage, the problem is that it is all on my camera but I just need to import it!
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
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
October 2015
Categories
All
|