Doctor Who: 14 Cool Details James Moran Just Revealed About The Fires Of Pompeii

4. Donna Helping The Doctor Push The Lever Was A Late Addition

Doctor Who The Fires of Pompeii David Tennant Catherine Tate Donna Noble
BBC/Twitter: @jamesmoran

At the end of the episode, the Doctor is faced with a devastating realisation: if he wants to stop the Pyrovile and save the world, then he has to make the volcano erupt.

Even for someone like the Doctor - who is used to awful situations - this is an awful situation to be in, but on the plus side, he doesn't have to act alone: Donna is there, and she helps him push the lever that blows up Vesuvius and kills thousands of innocents.

On Twitter, Moran stated that Donna's decision to share the responsibility wasn't added until late in the outlining stage of development.

It's hard to imagine the episode without this bit - it's a great moment between Doctor and companion that, like we previously mentioned, demonstrates why the Doctor should never travel alone.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.