By my own reckoning, somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 various forms of media (books, television shows, movies) have been done about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in ancient Pompeii, Italy. Whatever the count actually is, add one more to it because Ridley Scott will be producing a miniseries about the famous eruption for Sony Pictures Television and Germany's Tandem Communications.

The story is described by the people involved as a thriller love story set against the backdrop of a historical disaster. In other words, it's a thematic duplicate of the movie 'Titanic.' The miniseries will be based on the book 'Pompeii' by Robert Harris, which was originally intended to be developed into a film directed by Roman Polanski (who suddenly became unavailable due to his arrest).

When a major historical event has been covered in an episode of 'Doctor Who,' you know it's been overdone. Hopefully Ridley Scott and company can put a unique spin on the tale. Has anybody read the book? Do you think it could be made into a good miniseries?

(S04E03) The Doctor and Donna land in ancient Pompeii, and it's Volcano Day (a phrase used by Christopher Eccleston a few seasons ago to describe when Mount Vesuvius erupted). As usual with Doctor Who, a race of aliens are involved and this time they're called the Pyrovile. They are trying to harness the power of the volcano for their own nefarious needs and are turning local humans into creatures like them as a side-effect.

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