by Iseult Murphy

Created on: April 29, 2008

If you could travel back in time to the day before a natural disaster, what would you do?

This is the question posed in the second episode of the fourth series of Doctor Who. The Doctor and new companion Donna, played by comedienne Catherine Tate of The Catherine Tate Show' fame, travel back to ancient Pompeii to the day before Mount Vesuvius erupts and destroys the town killing many of the people resident there.

This is a gripping episode with one of the best speeches of the series since it returned to our screens as a soothsayer announces to the Doctor that his name is hidden in the stars. You are a lord, a lord of time' she proclaims before fainting dramatically. It also puts a very human face on the hapless victims of one of the most famous volcanic eruptions in history, who are probably better known for their ash covered remains.

After arriving in the town, the Doctor and Donna are taken in by a friendly merchant and his family whose daughter is a novice in a sisterhood of soothsayers that have startlingly accurate visions of the future. As Vesuvius rumbles in the background, getting ready for its ultimate eruption, the Doctor begins to realize that other things than seismic disturbances are at work in the Roman countryside. At the same time Donna feels compelled to help the doomed residents of the town, especially the merchant's family and her pleas to the Doctor set him a conundrum what do you do to help people whose deaths are already a fixed point in time?

There is also plenty of action in this episode with beautifully rendered cgi lava beasts although they are rather too easily vanquished and do look like they would be more at home in a Transformers computer game than in Doctor Who. Creepiness abounds with the sisterhood of petrified soothsayers and humor is also present in this episode, most notably when Donna tries to speak Latin to the Romans and is mistaken for someone from Wales.

Historical inaccuracy aside, this is a strong episode with plenty to keep you entertained and lots of tantalizing hints of things to come in future episodes she is coming, the auger warns the Doctor and Donna is told there is something on her back. With such high quality episodes starting the new series, I look forward to seeing what the rest of series four has in store.

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