Eruption of Souffrier was a Turner painting which the First Rani had copied on a room-divider screen hiding her TARDIS. As the name suggested, it was a portrait of a volcano erupting, depicted in sultry ambers and vivid scarlets. Were an unauthorised person to approach, mustard gas would spew out of the top of the painted volcano.
Upon encountering the painted screen, the Sixth Doctor commented that the painting was an odd choice for the Rani, because it was "too passionate for the Rani's sterile tastes". Affixing a string to the top of the volcano, he and Peri stood back from the painting while he gave it a gentle tug. This tripped the Rani's trap, and the volcano erupted, momentarily incapacitating the time travellers with its deadly gas. (PROSE: The Mark of the Rani)
According to a different account, a different Turner painting decorated the Rani's screen. (TV: The Mark of the Rani)
Behind the scenes[]
- Whereas the novelisation of The Mark of the Rani specifically identified the painting as "in the style of Turner's Eruption of Souffrier", in the serial it was clearly based on J. M. W. Turner's 1817 Vesuvius in Eruption instead.
- In the real world, the full name of the painting is The Eruption of the Souffrier Mountains in the Island of St. Vincent, at Midnight, on the 30th April 1812, from a Sketch Taken at the Time by Hugh P. Keane, Esquire.