10 Doctor Who Episodes Where Everybody Dies

9. The Fires Of Pompeii

The Caves Of Androzani Fifth Doctor Peri
BBC

2008's The Fires of Pompeii saw the Tenth Doctor and Donna arrive in the doomed city - on volcano day. With Mount Vesuvius about to erupt, the Doctor has to make a decision. Does he let the Pyroviles - the hostile race invading Pompeii - live to conquer the world, or does he blow up the volcano - ensuring both the Pyroviles' and Pompeii's fate?

Desperate not to mess with history, the Doctor dooms Pompeii but stops the Pyroviles. In the chaos, 20,000 citizens of Pompeii and supporting characters met in the adventure, such as the Soothsayers and Lucius Petrus Dextrus, are horribly killed.

When Donna intervenes and manages to convince the Doctor to save someone, he takes a quick trip in the TARDIS to rescue Caecilius and his family - the only survivors of this apocalyptic event. Instructed to lay low, their previous lives are effectively ended when the Doctor changed the fix-point in time.

Death Toll: 20,000 minus Peter Capaldi and family, plus all the Pyroviles.

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Eden Luke McIntyre is a Scottish writer, editor and script consultant, with an MA in TV Fiction Writing. He writes content for TV, radio, stage, and online, and was appointed as a BBC Writers Room Scottish Voice in early 2020. Eden can usually be found rambling about Doctor Who, The Beatles, and obscure things that no one cares about.