The Fires of Pompeii...

... were ignited by none other than -- well, continue reading if you really want to find out before seeing it on TV. In the second Doctor Who story of this season, we get to walk the streets of Pompeii hours before its volcanic burial. We get treated to a sisterhood whose priestesses' skin turn to stone the more they make prophecies, and Jim Davila has even apprehended the false (??) one about the "blue box" in the Sybilline Oracles. Three years ago Jim covered the eruption of Vesuvius, noting that the only firsthand evidence of the event has been from two letters of Pliny the Younger. But thanks to scriptwriter James Moran, we now know the truth: our Time Lord hero blew it up, intentionally killing the Pompeiians. Though I suppose I'd have done the same, given the alternative.