Fires of Pompeii Review

The new series has reached ground breaking new levels. The production team as well as the animators must go through hell to create completely new original planets. In a sense it does cheapen the original series which isn’t really a good thing. However, the series looks stylish and more brilliantly robust than ever.

The Doctor & Donna dematerialize on the ‘Ood-Sphere’, which is funnily enough the home planet of the Ood. ‘The Impossible Planet & the Satan Pit’ were two of the scariest ever episode of Doctor Who. So, ‘Planet of the Ood’ may feel rather odd at first (excuse the pun it was going to come up sooner or later) for its entirely different style. The crazed chained up Ood add to the serious tone of the story.

The story’s main central theme of slavery gives this story the depth it requires. The moment were the Ood are huddling together in the darkness while encaged is almost sad to watch. Well depends how soppy you are really but it is a very touching episode.

David Tennant is a man you cannot fault and is simply effortless as the Doctor. Catherine Tate does overact a little in this story but I can’t imagine how she could have done it any differently especially with the teary-eyed scenes.

The moment when Solana betrays the Doctor is an excellent little scene. The antagonist of the episode is played by Tim McInnerny who does rather underplay his character. The moment he transforms may remind you of the chilling ‘are you my mummy’ scene in the ‘The Empty Child’. The standard of acting is much higher than the previous story.

The scene where Tennant is chased by a giant claw, rather reminiscent of the old arcade style game, is incredibly fun to watch. And I must admire the poor actors who have to imagine things that aren’t there as well as work with green screen stuff.

The story has a wonderful happy ending, with some beautiful music by Murray Gold. We may never see the Ood again after this episode, but at least they went out with a bang. Despite this story’s flaws; it is a lovely episode filled with some strong themes better suited for an adult audience.

Season 4 started off a little rough but finally found its feet and with Planet of the Ood this season has started to kick off.

Third time lucky?

5/5