8. Escaping Pompeii
Episode: Fires Of Pompeii After just realizing that he's the reason for the Pompeii disaster, the Tenth Doctor is already in a not-so-happy place. With with the eventual death of an entire city soon to be on his conscience, Ten rushes back to the TARDIS with Donna. With the TARDIS still in Caecillius' home, the two time travellers come across the petrified (not literally, yet) Roman family. At this point, the Doctor ignores their cries for help and disappears into the TARDIS, leaving a delirious Donna to scream for him to come back. By the end of the episode, we know that Donna eventually changes the Doctor's mind, and he breaks one of his rules to save the family. But there are two interesting points to consider. The first being that he initially leaves Donna with the family as the walls come crumbling down. A bewildered Donna just stares at the TARDIS, hoping the Time Lord will eventually come out and either save Caecillius' family or at least check up on her. But nothing happens. And then when the TARDIS' breaks noise goes off, fans finally get to see the first time Donna is reminded of the Doctor's dark side. We don't know if the Ten would have actually left her there, but if Donna didn't go running into the TARDIS to save herself, who knows what would have happened. Secondly, Doctor Who is typically a show that involves a nicely developed character arc, regardless of the importance of the character. A character is usually better off because of the Doctor, or at least has shown growth because of the relationship established with the Time Lord. In this scene, Caecillius' family is finally united, and it doesn't phase the Doctor to see them die.