When I realised this was a pure historical early on I was very excited to see where it went. The side characters were easy to route for, and felt pretty believable. This is a very Mell focussed story, and it was interesting to see her react to the situation her and the doctor were in, as well as the situation of Roman society as a whole.

Unfortunately I didn’t find the antagonists all that interesting. Their motivations were spelled out explicitly in a way that made them feel pretty one note.

For the first half of the story at least, the doctor is very defeatist about the situation which can be a downer.

Also I’d say (vague spoiler) the ending it pretty predictable and anticlimactic. But I suppose how they get out of the situation isn’t really the point of the story.

The problem with predestination stories in Doctor Who is that there tend to be not satifying way to resolve them without feeling like a copout. The Fires of Vulcan is pleasant enough. The setting of Pompeii is nice and it has enough going for it.  it was everything else that was going on that just took me out of it. Just like the last one it's a story that would be much better as live-action due to relying so much on visual representation. Performances were fine with the exception of one actor being way too over the top but other than that. The plot went in circles and the subplots along with the villains were utterly useless.

An emotive, captivating, well-realised and well characterised pure historical. Exploring an interesting sci-fi concept, and the framing of the story, is fantastic, and works really hard to build the setting. The in depth exploration of the characters of Pompeii is fascinating, lending a real sense of peril as the story unfolds, and feeling for those involved. The Seventh Doctor and Mel work really well, especially in developing the character of an underutilised and often one-dimensional character, and beginning to add a greater depth.

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: Delta and the Bannermen

A pure historical? With 7 and Mel? With implications about the consequences of time travel? Sign me right up. This is fantastically simple yet engaging story which manages to hold your attention in a way no lazy sci-fi explanations or poorly modulated alien voices ever could. The central conflict of this story being the Doctor giving up because he believes he's destined to die at Pompeii is a really good one, albeit I think it was resolved a bit lazily.

It's funny that there's two stories out there featuring Scottish actors playing the Doctor alongside a redhead companion set in Pompeii that deal with changing established events titled "The Fires of [something]". Makes me wonder if one inspired the other but I think the similarities are mostly surface level.

Overall a really good story, the final part being a mad dash back to the TARDIS with both Mel and the Doctor seperated was particularly good in my opinion. Really tense and dramatic stuff.

Next Story: Bad Day in Tinseltown

I am still surprised how much I enjoyed this Story. I think the first 50 releases (at least the ones I listen to so far) are a totally mixed bags, with some excellent ones and some more meh ones. This one on the other hand is wonderful.
Not every joke, that they make here, works, but it’s nice to see the S24 Tardis Team in a more dramatic Story rather than the campy ones, we got in S24.
While I prefer Mel and Six as a team, I think this one is a pretty good Outing for Mel and Seven, maybe not a favorite but pretty good!