Yep…Donna is pretty awesome. I’ll just say that right away, it’s been two episodes and I already like her more than Martha… but then again, Martha had a fantastic start and then ended up deteriorating into two dimensional bullcrap. So with this episode, we got one thing hammered in. Donna.Is.Freken.Awesome!
The entire concept is pretty cool as well, visiting a city like Pompei. I’m not sure if I totally buy the “we arrived here on its day of destruction” cliché… but that’s something this show does so often, I can hardly get mad at that. I liked the way CGI was implemented within the show, and once again, the set-pieces were quite marvelous when you think about it.
Last episode we saw some weird schlocky “Fat” CGI, here we see big badass fire monsters breaking out of the ground. This is a step in the right direction! Although the show has proved, time and time again, that it’s at its best without overly exhuberant CGI effects, and more down-to-earth stories such as Blink, I still couldn’t help but enjoy this aspect in this episode.
We also got to see a creepy rock-infestation disease thingy that infected you if you breath in the dust that came out of the vulcano. Was I the only one who was thoroughly creeped out by that? It just had that odd image to it that stuck with me. Apart from that, the main human villian in this episode was not given much room to actually be explored, so he ended up falling pretty flat. As well as the plot with the aliens.
However, what i found fantastic was the emotional context of the episode. Especially with the Doctor saving those people, whether it was right or wrong of him to do so, it was still a significant change within him. This change, of course, brought into this world by Donna.
In a way, this is the introductory episode for Donna, truly showing her character, and what a fantastic character that is!
Grade: B+
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The Timelords used to keep an eye on the timelines making sure that the fixed points in time occur as they’re supposed to, hence the Doctor having to let the volcano explode. Because of this the TARDIS automatically locks onto anything that seems about to knock the fixed points out of line and redirects there for the Doctor to help set it back on course. She also homes in on distress calls, thus explaining away how the Doctor always ends up in the middle of conflicts, a bit like Sunnydale being built on a hell mouth to explain why so many vamps and demons turn up there for Buffy to fight 😉
Donna is great, and she does get better as a companion. She has the right amount of heart and she has believable intelligence, as in the times Donna shows brilliant deduction it ties in with her presented character and doesn’t seem to come out of no where.
This episode had good atmosphere and I think the thought of being slowly turned to stone by the air you’re breathing sticks with you because it’s not a monster you can really see or fight back against, it’s already there, inside of you.
Back to Donna, I liked that she dressed the part and her attempt at Latin fell flat due to the TARDIS translators 😀
Thanks for the explanation!
I can’t watch this episode due to well..
This episode contains a future companion playing a role I won’t mention, as well as the 12th Doctor.
My brain cant quite get over that.
woooow… such spoilers are unheard of.
Not mentioning the actors, plus both are playing completely different characters, so it’s more of a tease than anything.