Doctor Who: The Fires of Pompeii

[butterfly]

If you speak Latin while using the TARDIS translator circuits, you sound Welsh.

I love this show. I love Donna for noticing that the sign was in English and then asking what would happen if she spoke Latin. I just... absolutely adore Donna to pieces.

"Doctor... she is returning."

Three guesses as to who that's about.

*squees despite how freaked out the Doctor is*

Also -- freaking wow. That was an incredibly powerful scene between the two soothsayers. Wow.

Oh, poor Donna. They're there to make sure that Pompeii gets blown up, aren't they?

"You fought her off with a water pistol. I bloody love you."

Hee! Have I mentioned that I love Donna?

Oh, yes. The Doctor explaining the way he sees the universe. So cool. "Every waking minute, I see. What is, what was, what could be, what must not."

Pyrovilia is lost. Like the breeding planet of the Adipose.

Like Rose? Did it slip through the Void?

Once again, it's all about the breeding. Twice now, it's about creating a new species because the old one is lost (like Gallifrey? As Donna would say "How do you mean lost?").

"Nothing can survive it. Certainly not us."
"Never mind us."

Echoes of Aliens in London and "What are you waiting for?" Right to our heroes surviving in something small. But all those people -- this time, he had to choose to kill twenty-thousand in order to save the world and history. Oh, Doctor.

It's Pompeii. And there isn't a happy ending in that story.

Like Rose, Donna gets to see and understand the agony of the Doctor losing his people and planet right from the start.

But this time... unlike with Gallifrey, this time he does save someone. Because of Donna. Only one family but... not everyone dies. Not this time.

Sometimes, out of destruction and pain, there can be a new start. A happy beginning (I love this show).

"You were right. Sometimes I need someone. Welcome aboard."

Very satisfying!

Comments

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

That's one thing that hit me right away. We didn't get that with Martha. I can get why, but I love this season with the same squee I did in season one, because it hits so many of the same buttons in new ways.

I may have to write up a compare-contrast, because I really do get the sense that Donna is getting to serve a purpose with the Doctor that Rose served but Martha didn't -- moral voice. Martha never really speaks against the Doctor's actions the way that both Rose and Donna have shown themselves able to do. Martha never had the 'What are you turning into?' moment that Rose had in Dalek (instead, that moment was given to Joan in HN/FoB) and she didn't face up against the Doctor for reasons of ethics in her early historical, as Rose did in The Unquiet Dead (regarding giving the Gelth corpses to live in) or Donna did here.

YES YES YES. RTD looked up hope in the dictionary last season.

And the Adipose babies got reunited with their parents at the end of the last episode, as well. There's a 'family' subtheme going on.

But mostly I adore Donna. For the "Never mind us" and her snipping at the Doctor when he was like I'M IN CHARGE and for pushing him to save one family and for the hug in the beginning.

It's kinda fascinating, how her friendship with the Doctor reminds me a lot of S1 Doctor/Rose, only without the simmering UST. All of those things are things that I can picture Rose doing fairly easily.

[a-white-rain.livejournal.com]

I wonder why Martha didn't. I guess they needed to divorce the two of them utterly to take such a dark path. But it wasn't as fun to watch.

There's a 'family' subtheme going on.
It's totally the running theme of reconnection in this series. AND THE COMPANIONPOLUZA THAT EQUALS THE DOCTOR'S FAMILY.

how her friendship with the Doctor reminds me a lot of S1 Doctor/Rose, only without the simmering UST
Yeah, exactly. There are some differences, Donna brought Donna into it like Rose brought Rose into it. But it still has some of the same outlines. And it's still fresh because Donna is different from Rose and the Doctor has changed in the past several years.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I wonder why Martha didn't. I guess they needed to divorce the two of them utterly to take such a dark path. But it wasn't as fun to watch.

Martha's kinda an object lesson in why companions need to see the Doctor screw up early on. Because, often, the one-off guest stars are left with the impression that the Doctor is somewhat godly (like the family here) and that doesn't tend to affect his view of himself much. But if his companion views him that way, then the breaks that Rose and Donna have shown themselves able to put on his behavior are missing (and the Time Lords are no longer there, in the back of his mind, influencing his choices). And Martha doesn't really understand that until the very last episodes.

For all his power and knowledge, the Doctor is fallible. He'll do things like promise to take care of and protect one of the most dangerous men in the universe because he's lonely.

[a-white-rain.livejournal.com]

Ah I never thought of it that way. I like that.