Doctor Who: Series 4, Episode 2 – “The Fires of Pompeii” (2008)

Whovian that I am, I’ve of course seen this episode before. The first time around, PC was still a Hey!-It’s-That-Guy (from In the Loop), and he had the good fortune to be part of my favorite episode from series 4. (Yes, I know that this came out first, but I came late to the Who party.)

Three guesses as to where and when the Tenth Doctor and Donna end up in “The Fires of Pompeii.” It’s the eve of Volcano Day, and Donna gets her first dose of the age-old time traveler’s problem: thou must not change established time lines. Amid prophecies, creatures of stone, and plenty of Latin, the Doctor and Donna butt heads over saving anyone in the doomed city.

A well-to-do merchant family serves as the human face of Pompeii, headed by PC’s Caecilius. A purveyor of granite, Caecilius is an ordinary man trying to keep the gods happy while balancing the demands of work and family. But all the prayers in the world won’t stop the rumbling from the mountain, and the two chatty, strangely-appareled strangers who’ve dropped in on him seem to know more than they’re telling.

This is a nice role – not especially flashy, but well-rounded in a gentle way. The Davies era of Who is a feast of likeable, easy-to-connect-with supporting characters, and Caecilius fits the bill. Despite his single-episode appearance, I feel like I get him – what he’s about, what’s important to him, and how he cares about his family. He’s not a perfect or important man, just one of many at the mercy of the volcano, but you can’t help but hope he’ll be saved.

I especially love Caecilius’s reactions to the recurring joke that the Doctor and Donna’s comments in actual Latin are rendered into Celtic by the TARDIS translation circuit. It’s one of my favorite bits in the episode, and Caecilius’s slightly awkward “not that there's anything wrong with that!” acknowledgment of it is always good for a laugh.

Accent Watch

RP, not bad. Some of those R’s sounded pretty Scottish, though!

Recommend?

In General – Most definitely! I adore this episode – I’d go back in time just to recommend it again.

PC-wise – Yes. PC covers plenty of ground with this fairly simple character. Decidedly worth seeing.

Warnings

Light swearing maybe, and some dark themes.