I’ve been seriously overlooking this story for years. In my memory ‘The Fires of Pompei’ was just an incredibly mid episode with a nice end note, when Donna pleads with the Doctor to “just save someone”. But on this rewatch I found this to be a very strong episode.

To be fair to past me, the whole Pyrovile plotline is incredibly mid. In fact for most of the episode I didn’t really understand what the hell they were even up to, or why they could see the future. They do through in a few lines of dialogue towards the end to explain what I wasn’t getting, but it’s not the most compelling storytelling I’ve ever seen.

In ‘Partners in Crime’ I didn’t think the plot was anything special either, but that was ok because the plot mostly served as a fun framework for the character dynamics of our leads to hang within. The plot here may not be that successful on its own, but again, it gives The Doctor and especially Donna the means and the space to show some real character depth and development.

Donna truly gets to stand out in this episode. Upon hearing that they’re in Pompei, a day before Vesuvius is due to erupt and kill everybody, Donna’s immediate response is to try and save as many people as she wants. The Doctor refuses to help, telling Donna that this is a fixed point in time. Donna’s having none of this though, and repeatedly tries to save as many people, despite the Doctor telling her she mustn’t.

It’s important for the show to remind viewers every now and then of both the dangers of meddling in time, and of the flexible moral relativism that this show needs just in order to function. The rules for the show may be somewhat arbitrary, at times changing depending on the story being told or the showrunner in charge. But if there are no rules, then the Doctor as a character and the show as a whole may not work. It wouldn’t make sense that the Doctor will move heaven and earth to save a single strangers life in some stories, but the rest of the time is unwilling to lift a finger to stop, say the Holocaust.

Sometimes in the world of Doctor Who, doing what seems to immediately and obviously be the right thing, may not in fact be so. This is a lesson that Donna has to learn here. Donna was obviously aware that there would be dangers involved with travelling with the Doctor, but it appeared as though she thought it would mostly be a fun adventure through time and space. Here she and the Doctor have the fate of an entire city (really the world) in their hands. But there are no easy choices to be made.

Through her sheer force of will and seemingly limitless empathy, she has a real impact on the events, and the Doctor in this story. It’s her empathy that really hit me the hardest here, not just for the people who she wants to save, but even with the Doctor. She may have argued with him a lot in this episode, but when the Doctor realises that the reason he can’t stop Vesuvius erupting, is not because of its historical significance, but in fact because he has to be the one to make it happen. The Doctor has to sacrifice Pompei to save the world. Donna empathises with the Doctor having to make this decision, a decision so obvious yet so impossible to make. Donna instinctively knows to take his hands so that he doesn’t have to push the button alone.

It’s a lovely character moment for Donna, in an episode full of lovely character moments for Donna. Catherine Tate is amazing in the role. There are moments like this, and of course the “just save someone” moment at the end that I found incredibly moving. I didn’t remember this episode being so emotionally powerful. But, through the acting excellence of Tate and also Tennant, I found myself more emotionally invested here, than I do in almost all other Doctor Who episodes.

So yes this episode has its flaws, and honestly, I might be overrating it a little. The Pyrovile stuff takes up a lot of the episode and it’s nothing special. But if an episode moves me this much, and does this  much good work with its characters then I’m probably going to love it.