C'est lui! A Pompeii! Docteur...Qui?

While I await all of series 4 delivered right into my hands by the single biggest Doctor Who fan I've ever met (hi Ian!), I'll just watch it every Friday on CBC like the rest of you. And so, last night, I set the kitchen timer to make sure I didn't miss it, and was well rewarded.

Last night had the Doctor and Donna attempting to visit ancient Rome, but miscalculating/getting pulled to (? this wasn't clear) Pompeii instead, twenty-four hours before its historically scheduled destruction. This was exactly the kind of bold move I've come to expect from David Tennant's run. Why bold? For one thing, because the Doctor doesn't put himself in fixed events that his interference could harm. Because this time, the Doctor had to stop an invasive alien race so that thousands of humans could die - his care for the human race required him to sacrifice people in order to preserve our history and timeline. For reasons that you can go watch yourself, the presence of the aliens came to negate the volcano. And so it began. Of course, it was also full of brilliant running jokes like the Doctor defeating fire-based aliens with one of those ubiquitous little clear fluorescent water pistols.

Only thing I didn't like was how the writer dealt with Donna's response to this necessity. Donna is rare amongst the Doctor's companions in that she isn't a contrast - their personalities and characters are very much alike, which has opened up a new door of interest, and jives with the Doctor's desire to have a companion with whom he can just be friends. I have big hopes for this friendship. Last night, though, as they made their escape after ensuring Pompeii's destruction, Donna freaked out and kept railing about how horrible it was and couldn't they just save one person and was this really necessary, while the Doctor continued about his work suffering silently. I realise there have only been two episodes and the Christmas special featuring Donna, but it still seemed to contradict her given set-up. A true kindred spirit to the Doctor would accept that he was in fact suffering greatly by being forced to play a part in this destruction - last night, I was hoping for some good exposition interaction time at this point in the show instead of the same rote reaction of every single other companion he's ever had.

That being said, the afore-mentionned Ian - who has seen every single episode of Doctor Who (no, literally, every), owns a sonic screwdriver laser-tage game, pays an exorbitant amount for the U.K. published fan mag, and watched all of series 4 as soon as it aired on the BBC, has promised me that the last four episodes of the season encompass one story arc, and are the best Doctor Who ever made. I think I'll trust his judgment on this one.

Crazy aside: according to Ian, David Tennant's run as the Doctor is the single-most watched program in British history, and Tennant has been offered 20 million pounds to return for series 5. Yes, you read that right. Pounds. Twenty million of them.

Well, he is extraordinary.