Sister of the Sibylline

Oct 31

Written By

The Doctor Who historical episodes are generally my favorites—"Vincent and the Doctor" made me bawl both times I saw it, and I watched the opening scenes of "The Shakespeare Code" (in which a trio of witches devour a hapless young man) as I was beginning to write Petty Magic. And when I saw "The Fires of Pompeii," I knew I needed to be a Sister of the Sibylline for Halloween. The Sisters of the Sibylline are a nefarious cadre of soothsayers with eyes painted on their hands, and when they hold their hands to their (actual) eyes, they can communicate with each other across distances.

I guess I could have gone all out with the jewelry and red dress, but I like that the costume feels more or less complete with just a red cape and some black-and-white face paint.

I sewed the cape out of some cheap polyester (from Sew Low Fabrics in East Cambridge) using a free and easy pattern from FleeceFun.com. Intended for fleece, obviously, but it worked for my purposes just fine. I lopped off the pointy cape end, and finished it in a morning. Got so lazy that I didn't add any ribbon ties though—safety pins work just as well, haha!

The plot of this episode is somewhat convoluted, but if you forget about the aliens and just focus on the human interest element, it's quite poignant. Donna and the Doctor have gotten to know a particular middle-class Pompeii family, and when the volcano erupts and everyone is running wild with panic, Donna is stricken to find them huddled together and preparing to die. The Doctor is about to leave, and Donna begs him: "Not the whole town. Just save someone."And he does.