A planned trip to Ancient Rome instead sees the time travellers land in Pompeii, AD 79. The Doctor realises that he and Donna have arrived on the eve of Mount Vesuvius' eruption but, before they can retreat to the TARDIS, it's sold as an objet d'art. Pursuing his vessel to the home of a marble trader named Caecilius, the Doctor becomes aware of strange developments in the city. Seers like the enigmatic Sibylline Sisterhood are exhibiting extraordinary flashes of precognition -- even as they slowly turn to stone. Soon it appears that the destruction of Pompeii may not be a natural occurrence at all, but the work of the molten Pyroviles.

When executive producer Russell T Davies began developing his revival of Doctor Who, one of his earliest ideas was an adventure based around the cataclysmic eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which engulfed the Roman city of Pompeii in AD 79. Davies had long been intrigued by the historical disaster, and his interest was piqued again after watching the docudrama Pompeii: The Last Day in October 2003. The eleventh episode of Season Twenty-Seven was briefly assigned the functional working title of “Pompeii” but, when it became clear that this would have to be a budget-conscious installment, Davies instead wrote Boom Town. He did not forget about the Mount Vesuvius idea, however, and it reemerged as a possibility for Season Thirty. At an early stage, that year's third episode was intended to be Mark Gatiss' “The Suicide Exhibition”. However, Davies had grown concerned about its Second World War setting, given that the same time period had featured prominently in 2005's The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances. In late April 2007, he began to contemplate the replacement of Gatiss' script with an adventure set in Pompeii.

To this end, Davies requested an appraisal of the logistics of recreating the Roman Empire on a Doctor Who budget. It became clear that the best option was to make use of the extensive sets built for the BBC/HBO co-production Rome, which were located at Italy's historic Cinecittà Studios in Rome itself. Amongst the most renowned production facilities in Europe, Cinecittà had been co-founded by Benito Mussolini, then the country's fascist Prime Minister, in 1937. Over the years, it had housed legendary productions such as Quo Vadis (1951), Ben-Hur (1959), and many films by Federico Fellini such as La dolce vita (1960). It transpired that Cinecittà was very eager to market itself as an attractive destination for British productions, and was therefore willing to do whatever it could to accommodate Doctor Who's financial limitations. This was all the encouragement that Davies needed and, at the end of April, “The Suicide Exhibition” was dropped from the schedule.

With only four months before recording at Cinecittà Studios, a writer was needed who could develop the script quickly

With only four months before the Pompeii episode was due to be recorded at Cinecittà, Davies knew that he needed a writer who could develop the script very quickly. He turned to James Moran, who had recently impressed Davies with his work on Sleeper for the second season of the spin-off series Torchwood. The executive producer felt that Moran was a talented writer who could handle the task of shaping the early drafts of the Mount Vesuvius story, but who was also new enough to the profession that he wouldn't mind handing the script back to Davies for polishing into its final form. Moran was formally offered the job on May 9th. Amongst the plot points requested by Davies were the presence of fire monsters dwelling within Mount Vesuvius, and the Doctor's escape from the volcano via a spherical travel capsule.

During the summer, Moran's adventure became known as The Fires Of Pompeii. An element of the assignment he found particularly challenging was writing for the Doctor's new companion, Penny, who would be introduced at the start of Season Thirty. These struggles were a matter of some concern, because Davies wanted to emphasise the conflict that was ignited when Penny realised that the Doctor's determination to preserve recorded history meant leaving a city full of people to die. Fortunately, Moran's difficulties were eased when he learned that Penny was being replaced by Donna Noble, with Catherine Tate reprising the role she had originated in the 2006 Christmas special, The Runaway Bride.

To help convey the moral quandary to viewers, Davies took inspiration from the prominent involvement of a regular Roman family in the events of René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo's 1971 Astérix comic book serial Les lauriers de César (known in English as Asterix and The Laurel Wreath). With the exception of Evelina, the family in The Fires Of Pompeii was drawn from the first book of the Cambridge Latin Course, originally published in 1970. It focussed on a Pompeiian banker named Lucius Caecilius Iucundus, his wife Metella and his son Quintus. Meanwhile, Moran had developed the fire monsters into aliens called the Pyrovillaxitrians, from the Greek word “pyr” meaning “fire”. He gradually shortened the name to Pyrovillaxians and then Pyrovellians, before Davies further truncated it to Pyroviles.

In early August, Davies decided to move The Fires Of Pompeii up one position in the Season Thirty running order, swapping places with the original second episode, Planet Of The Ood. In part, this was because he felt that the planned shoot at Cinecittà deserved to be showcased as early in the year as possible. Around this time, however, Davies was mired in the depths of a scripting crisis: not only was he was rewriting The Fires Of Pompeii, but he was also meant to be at an advanced stage of developing the season premiere, Partners In Crime. In reality, he was making little progress with either one. This was highly problematic because the two episodes were intended to form the year's third production block, and therefore had to be ready at about the same time. Assigned to direct was Colin Teague, who had been responsible for the Season Twenty-Nine finale, The Sound Of Drums / Last Of The Time Lords.

For a time, Russell T Davies contemplated dropping The Fires Of Pompeii and restoring The Suicide Exhibition

For a time, Davies contemplated dropping The Fires Of Pompeii and restoring “The Suicide Exhibition” in its place, enabling him to focus on the season premiere. Finally, it was decided to separate The Fires Of Pompeii and Partners In Crime into their own recording blocks, with the latter forming Block Four under director James Strong. This meant that Davies could concentrate on completing The Fires Of Pompeii, since the delivery date for Partners In Crime could now be pushed back. Davies' additions to the Roman adventure at this stage included the soothsayers and their state of petrification. The Cambridge Latin Course had also featured an unpleasant soothsayer called Lucius Marcius Memor, and he inspired Lucius Petrus Dextrus -- “Petrus Dextrus” alluding to the revelation that the Chief Augur's right arm had turned to stone.

Yet another calamity nearly struck The Fires Of Pompeii on August 9th. This was the date of one of the periodic visits which producer Phil Collinson and production manager Tracie Simpson had been making to Cinecittà throughout the summer, as they worked to ensure that everything would be ready for the planned filming dates. During their stay, however, they were alarmed to learn that part of the Roman backlot was on fire. The conflagration was the result of an electrical short; tragically, it caused the deaths of four people and considerable destruction before it was extinguished. Nonetheless, the area of the backlot to be used for The Fires Of Pompeii remained undamaged, and so work on Doctor Who was able to proceed as planned.

Meanwhile, the production team had been busy assembling the cast for The Fires Of Pompeii. Only a small number of performers would be making the trip to Italy, including an actress to play the unnamed Sibylline Sister who spotted the Doctor and Donna shortly after their arrival. This part went to a young actress named Karen Gillan, who had been acting professionally for only a couple of years; she would return to Doctor Who in 2010 as the Eleventh Doctor's companion, Amy Pond. Even more significantly, the key guest role of Caecilius would be portrayed by longtime Doctor Who fan Peter Capaldi, a highly-regarded actor who had also won an Academy Award as the writer and director of the short film Franz Kafka's It's A Wonderful Life. When Capaldi's involvement with The Fires Of Pompeii was announced on August 17th, it was particularly notable at the time because of the great attention he was attracting with his role as the foul-mouthed political operative Malcolm Tucker in The Thick Of It. Little could anyone know that, six years later, Capaldi would be revealed as the Twelfth Doctor.

On September 15th, David Tennant visited the ruins of the real Pompeii

The arrival of Tate and David Tennant in Italy on September 12th marked a milestone for twenty-first-century Doctor Who. Although plate shots had been recorded in New York City for 2007's Daleks In Manhattan / Evolution Of The Daleks, the making of The Fires Of Pompeii was the first time that the principal cast of Doctor Who had recorded material overseas since Canada had served as the production base for the Doctor Who (1996) telefilm. In terms of international filming during a full season, the gap extended to more than two decades, with the last example having been Spain for 1985's The Two Doctors. Work at Cinecittà took place on September 13th and 14th, covering all of the material in the streets of Pompeii. On the 15th, Dave Houghton of effects house The Mill captured plate shots at Mount Vesuvius itself. Meanwhile, Tennant visited the ruins of the real Pompeii, accompanied by a camera crew from the documentary series Doctor Who Confidential.

The production then shifted back to Cardiff, where scenes in the Sibylline shrine were taped at the Temple of Peace on September 18th and 19th. Next to be recorded were the sequences in Caecilius' home, which was constructed at the more familiar studio facilities in Upper Boat, Doctor Who's regular production home. This work spanned September 20th to 25th, with a day off on Sunday the 23rd. On the 22nd, Evelina actress Francesca Fowler persevered through a bout of food poisoning to perform the necessary material. Part of the 25th was devoted to action in the TARDIS, during which the villa set was redressed to serve as Evelina's bedroom. It was then repurposed two more times over the next two days. On the 26th, the set became Caecilius' new dwelling in the city of Rome, while Teague also shot scenes in the Pyrovile sphere. For the 27th, it was transformed into Lucius' abode, and some additional footage in Evelina's bedroom was also completed. Amongst the sequences recorded this day was the revelation of Lucius' stone arm, which the script indicated the Doctor should smash on the floor. Tennant objected to what he deemed to be an act of excessive cruelty, and the alternative business of the Doctor throwing the arm back to Lucius was conceived instead.

On September 28th, Clearwell Caves in Clearwell, Gloucestershire provided the rock tunnel leading to the Pyroviles' lair. Teague also taped the point-of-view shots of the Pyrovile in the hypocaust. After the weekend, recording resumed on October 1st at Morlais Quarry in Merthyr Tydfil, for all of the scenes on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. This left only the material set under the mountain, which was filmed at Taff's Well Quarry in Taff's Well on the 2nd. The final shot required for The Fires Of Pompeii was an insert of the Doctor firing his water pistol; it was taped at Upper Boat on October 20th.

The Fires Of Pompeii was broadcast on April 12th, 2008. BBC One's Spring line-up continued to take shape, with Doctor Who now preceded by The Kids Are All Right -- hosted by John Barrowman, who played Captain Jack Harkness on both Doctor Who and Torchwood -- instead of Weakest Link. As a result, The Fires Of Pompeii was scheduled for 6.45pm, nearly half an hour later than Partners In Crime the week before.

• Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition #20, 19th November 2008, “Episode 2: The Fires Of Pompeii” by Andrew Pixley, Panini Publishing Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Complete History #58, 2017, “Story 190: The Fires Of Pompeii”, edited by Mark Wright, Hachette Partworks Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale by Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook (2008), BBC Books.