Vesuvius Mount Vesuvius , or simply Vesuvius , was a volcano located in Italy . On 24 August 79 , Vesuvius erupted , destroying the Roman city of Pompeii . ( TV : " The Fires of Pompeii " ) Two incarnations of the Doctor , the seventh ( AUDIO : " The Fires of Vulcan " ) and the tenth , ( TV : " The Fires of Pompeii " ) were present in Pompeii during the eruption , though they avoided meeting . Also present were two young brothers from the future named Peter and David . They had been chasing a Dalek through time , but had lost it in the lava thrown out by Vesuvius . The boys imagined it might be possible for people to one day find a Dalek at the bottom of the ruined Pompeii . ( PROSE : " Timechase " ) In an alternative timeline , Vesuvius took much longer to erupt and the people of Pompeii evacuated in their boats . ( PROSE : " The Algebra of Ice " ) The rocklike Pyrovile s used a hollowed - out chamber in the mountain as part of their plan to terraform the Earth into a rocky wasteland to replace their lost homeworld , Pyrovillia . They used the energy from the volcano to power their operations , which cancelled the eruption . This presented the Doctor with a moral dilemma : by stopping the Pyroviles he would trigger the eruption , saving the world but at the cost of Pompeii and 20 ' 000 of its inhabitants . With the support of his companion , Donna Noble , he reversed the process and Vesuvius vengefully erupted and destroyed the Pyroviles . The explosion was as powerful as twenty - four nuclear bomb s . The force of the blast cracked open a rift in time which lasted for a second . Its effects rippled backward in time , allowing the people of Pompeii to see the future . The eruption also destroyed the Pyroviles . Although almost all of the residents of Pompeii perished , one family was saved by the Doctor . This was a fixed point in time , though the Doctor was unaware he had caused it at first . ( TV : " The Fires of Pompeii " ) The Dalek s once stole the Mark One model of a time machine called the Time - Conveyor , which was built by Peter and David ' s uncle . They hoped to reverse - engineer their own time machine from it . Peter and David pursued them through time in the Mark Two . They finally recovered it in Pompeii during the eruption of Vesuvius , having defeated the Daleks one - by - one along the way . ( PROSE : " Timechase " ) Captain Jack Harkness claimed to have used the eruption as part of one of his cons against the Time Agency on multiple occasions , though he would never stay for " Volcano Day " . ( TV : " The Doctor Dances " ) The Seventh Doctor ' s companion Melanie Bush made a replica of Mount Vesuvius out of papier mâchè while in primary school . ( AUDIO : " The Fires of Vulcan " ) Behind the scenes . " The Fires of Pompeii " s corresponding " Confidential " episode , " The Italian Job " , showed a camera crew actually visiting Vesuvius for some shots . David Tennant himself chose to come as well to tour the mountain and the excavated ruins of Pompeii and remarked that Vesuvius still being active to this day lent a bit of intrigue and excitement to things . Both Tennant and the camera crew could still see smoke and steam issuing from vents .