No, that shouldn’t have been ‘when in Rome’, because it refers to a certain country-hopping Time Lord filming an episode of season four of Doctor Who in the Eternal City. The episode, filmed in the Cinecitta studios in Rome, sees the Doctor and Donna travel back to AD79 – those with a half-decent Classical history education will guess from that date that our time-travellers are about to encounter a very famous volcanic eruption: Pompeii. I think I’m right in saying that this is either the second time the series has filmed abroad (City of Death set partly in Paris during the Tom Baker era and guest-starring a certain John Cleese being the first) or the third if you are counting the Paul McGann telemovie. (source: the BBC’s official Doctor Who site)
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September 26th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
If I remember correctly, there’s also: Peter Davison’s “Arc of Infinity”, which was filmed in Amsterdam; “Planet of Fire”, filmed on Lanzarote; and Colin Baker’s “The Two Doctors”, filmed in Spain.
Last year’s “Daleks in Manhattan” featured some second unit work filmed in New York (although the principal cast never left Cardiff).
September 26th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Now I can be two kinds of nerd!
Doctor Who nerd: In addition, The Two Doctors was filmed in Spain, Planet of Fire was filmed in Lanzarote, and there was some location filming in New York (not involving the principal cast) for Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks.
Annoying pedantic nerd: strictly speaking, it was Vesuvius that erupted, not Pompeii.
Are the Who team doing a Carry On Cleo and filming on someone else’s sets? Apart from the Doctor and Donna, the BBC’s photo looked awfully like HBO’s Rome, which was also filmed at Cinecitta.
September 26th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
You know, you’re totally right, no idea why those episodes slipped my mind – I mean how can I forget Planet of Fire with Nicola Bryant on a Lanzarote beach in a pink bikini??!?!?!
No idea about the set, but I strongly suspect you are right, Steve, more than likely making use of those existing facilities, which would make sense since they have them already built. Location filming on the actually sites would probably be a bit tricky, not just because of the historical significance but because sections are a bit worse for wear these days and crumbling away since being exposed to the air once more.