Doctor Who – The Monthly Adventures

#012. The Fires of Vulcan ~ 7/10

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◆ An Introduction

Pompeii is a fascinating place, and its destruction is a fascinating yet tragic event. Most people will have seen the story where the Tenth Doctor and Donna visited and fought off the volcanic Pyroviles… but the Doctor had been there once previously too, in what is a far more depressing story than his latter visit.

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◆ Publisher’s Summary

Two thousand years ago, a volcanic eruption wiped the Roman city of Pompeii from the face of the Earth. It also buried the Doctor's TARDIS...

Arriving in Pompeii one day before the disaster, the Doctor and Mel find themselves separated from their ship and entangled in local politics. As time runs out, they fight to escape from the shadow of Mount Vesuvius. But how can they succeed when history itself is working against them?

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◆ The Seventh Doctor

Sylvester McCoy delivers an amazing performance in ‘The Fires of Vulcan’. This incarnation would become much darker and more melancholic as time went on, but this story seems to be where that personality change began.

Upon discovering the date, the Doctor becomes evasive and melancholic. He’d hoped for a while longer; time to prepare before his last trip. He knows they have a habit of attracting trouble, and wants nothing more than for him and Mel to go rushing off back to the TARDIS. The Doctor claims that nothing is wrong: events are proceeding precisely as he knows they should… which isn’t exactly good news for him, or his companion. He critiques what Mel is wearing – claiming that it’s indiscreet – but she tells him that question mark pullovers are hardly the height of discretion. The Doctor can’t understand why humans have such an obsession with money. He believes that it’s a great idea to go gambling with a gang of gladiators, but ends up getting strangled when he loses the game! By the end of this adventure, the Doctor’s want to save himself and his companion has returned, and it’s all thanks to Mel.

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◆ Mel Bush

Bonnie Langford made her audio debut in this adventure, and she really hit the ground running. An absolutely marvellous performance.

Upon discovering that they’ve landed in Pompeii, Mel recalls making a papier mâché model of Vesuvius in primary school: she had red liquid coming out of the top to look like lava. She claims to be a messenger from the Egyptian goddess, Isis, which causes her a great deal of trouble in the long run! When Aglae asks if she does sexual favours for the Doctor, she is unsurprisingly shocked and appalled. Mel doesn’t believe that Aglae should need to work in a brothel. The local creep makes a beeline for her, so she decides to hide within the local brothel: talk about giving someone the wrong idea! Mel feels awful, knowing that all these innocent people are going to die, and asks the Doctor if there is anything they can do. She doesn’t think that time is very fair; now she wants nothing more than to leave Pompeii. Mel wants nothing more than to interrupt the ritual sacrifice, and she doesn’t think it fair at all to slaughter an innocent animal. Later in the story, Mel finds herself locked up as an apparent jewel thief, but she is adamant that she could never steal anything.

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◆ Story Recap

Pompeii, 79AD.

The Doctor and Mel have arrived on the 23rd of August… a day before Mount Vesuvius will erupt, carpeting the city in a blanket of molten rock, pulverized pumice and hot ash. The thermal energy would be so powerful that it would be a hundred-thousand times worse than that released by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki!

The Doctor knows that this is to be his last journey, as he was told by UNIT in his Fifth incarnation, that the TARDIS had been discovered underneath all the ash of the mountain.

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◆ Companion Course Correction

Season 24 has always been something of an outlier in the McCoy era, often being dismissed as nothing more than cheap slapstick, accompanied by the ear-grating screams of Bonnie Langford! Personally, I really enjoy that entire season: ‘Paradise Towers’ has long been one of my comfort stories.

I remember being completely floored when I first listened to this adventure, because it was such a departure from that light-hearted tone. The Seventh Doctor is melancholic and sombre throughout, as he comes to terms with the fact Pompeii is almost certainly where he will die; buried under the ash alongside the his ship and his companion.

Speaking of his companion, ‘The Fires of Vulcan’ is a real course correction. Mel never screams once in the whole story! She interacts with the natives of Pompeii and makes intelligent observations, and she feels like a fully formed character. Steve Lyons is one of my favourite writers for this incarnation – which will become evident when I start discussing the Klein stories – but I’m astonished at how different Mel seems here. It’s a change for the better.

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◆ In the Shadow of Vesuvius

“Hey Palin, can you tell us about the world-building in this story?”

But of course I can, dear reader! Pompeii is beautifully fleshed out in Lyons’ script: we spend a great deal of time getting to know the inhabitants of the lost city, their beliefs and their customs. The Doctor and Mel initially claim to be messengers from of the Egyptian goddess, Isis, which attracts the attention of a rather nasty woman named Eumachia.

A priestess of the Capitoline Triad – who worshipped the deities Jupiter, Juno and Minerva – Eumachia was convinced that our dynamic duo were liars, and was prepared to go to great lengths to prove it. She even had Mel framed as a jewel thief, which caused a fair amount of trouble for her and the Doctor! Eumachia is a thoroughly believable villain, motivated by the religious superstition of her age.

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◆ Sound Design

Pompeii is a bustling metropolis. Busy citizens of the Roman Empire walk through the street of plenty, while farmyard animals can be heard in the distance. Valeria’s tavern is filled to the brim with punters. Vesuvius rumbles as the eruption draws near. Hearing a religious sacrifice of an innocent animal genuinely made me feel sick. Flowing water in a fountain. People screaming in fear as molten rock and fire rains down from the mountain.

Alistair Lock has done an excellent job with the soundscape, conjuring vivid images of this ancient, cosmopolitan society.

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◆ Music

A score that perfectly fits the adventure, Alistair Lock provides some soft and sombre music to accompany the destruction of Pompeii.

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◆ Conclusion

“This happened a long time ago, Mel. We can’t change it.”

Volcano Day is rapidly approaching, but the Doctor and Mel find themselves trapped in the lost city of Pompeii. While the Time Lord seems to have accepted his fate, his companion refuses to lose hope.

You can’t change established events. That’s been one of the major rules of time travel in this franchise, and nothing has been changed in this script. It puts the Doctor and Mel into a situation where certain death is looming over them, and where all hope seems lost… but not really. McCoy and Langford both deliver phenomenal performances here.

One of the most depressing monthly adventures, but one that managed to kick-start the redemption of the most despised Classic era companion. ‘The Fires of Vulcan’ was truly marvellous.