In the early years of the 21st-century Doctor Who reboot, it became something of a tradition for the Doctor to take his latest companion on a quick trip back into the past before hurtling off into the future or to some far-flung alien planet. In Series 4, for example (screened back in 2008… how is that even possible??) David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor, reunited with the gobby, opinionated Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) in the previous story, takes her on a flying visit to ancient Rome just to prove his credentials as a time traveller. At least, that was the plan. On emerging from the TARDIS into a busy, bustling marketplace, it quickly becomes apparent that they’ve actually arrived in Pompeii in AD79. It’s Volcano Day…
Scriptwriter James Moran’s first novel, the latest in the BBC’s occasional Target Books range, is a nippy, confident and hugely readable affair. It’s a fairly straightforward retelling of the story as seen on TV but Moran has seized the opportunity to add some welcome background to his characters. We learn more about the background of fussy marble trader and collector Caecilius (whose face the Doctor takes a particular liking to) and his very 21st-century family, the ambitious and calculating Lucius, ultimately a hapless pawn to the villains of the piece and the hand-waving, robed Sibylline Sisters and their High Priestess. We’re even given a handy introduction to the alien Pyrovile creatures who crash-landed on Earth centuries ago and slowly waited and evolved and adapted to their new environment until the moment arrived which would allow them to unleash a force ferocious enough to begin the conversion of the Earth into a new world suitable for their kind. The eruption of Pompeii is just part of that plan…
The Fires of Pompeii is in many ways a very traditional, almost old-school Doctor Who story; the Doctor arrives, recognises a dangerous situation involving a hostile alien intelligence, runs around and puts it right. Job done. Moran is clearly having great fun turning his story into prose and the added detail and a few additional bits of dialogue add some welcome light and colour. Although there’s a strong vein of tongue-in-cheek and often wilfully anachronistic humour running throughout the story, Moran excels at depicting Donna’s agony and despair at the fate awaiting the unwitting people of Pompeii and her inability to understand why the Doctor won’t get involved and save thousands of lives as Pompeii is, he explains, a fixed point in history and can’t be changed. The Fires of Pompeii is a snappy, witty, and occasionally quite poignant adaptation of one of the sometimes-overlooked great stories of the tenth Doctor’s era and it’s a terrific addition to the very welcome new range of new series Target novelisations.
Doctor Who: The Fires of Pompeii is out now.
