Doctor Who (2005) 2-09: The Satan Pit

Episode:

719

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Serial:

174

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Writer:

Matt Jones

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Director:

James Strong

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Air Date:

10-Jun-2006

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching the second half of the second two-parter of the second series of Doctor Who, The Satan Pit. Just in time for its 20th anniversary today.

Both parts were written by Matt Jones, and this turned out to be his only work for the series. On the plus side, this meant he never wrote a bad story. In fact if you average his IMDb scores he's one of the best writers Doctor Who ever had with 8.7! He's right up there with Paul Cornell (8.8), Steven Moffat (8.4), Phil Ford (8.2), Neil Gaiman (8.1) and Jamie Mathieson (8.0).

(If you're curious, Russell T Davies averages 7.7 for his Doctor Who episodes and Chris Chibnall has 6.4.)

Speaking of ratings, this episode apparently had the lowest viewer count of the Russell T Davies era, and wasn't beaten for 9 years, until The Witch's Familiar, when the series' ratings finally began falling for whatever reason. Other low points for viewing figures include: Bad Wolf, Blink and the Silence in the Library two-parter. Seriously.

I heard a pretty convincing explanation for why this happened though: they all aired around the same point in June, the same time that I'm publishing this in fact. So it was probably a really nice day outside.

Okay, there will be SPOILERS below, but nothing for later stories. In fact I can't even remember what episodes came after this! Hang on, I remember what they are now. Oh no.

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Previously, on Doctor Who:

The Doctor and Rose arrived on a nameless world in an impossible orbit of a black hole and found a team of astronauts drilling to get at the mysteries at its core. They seem like decent enough people but the visit became less pleasant when the TARDIS was lost in an earthquake, Toby was possessed and flushed Scooti into space, and the Ood slaves began chanting in unison. On the plus side, the drilling finished, so the Doctor and Ida were able to take 10 mile trip down into the planet, where they found an ancient pit.

As the pit opened, Toby became possessed by evil again, the planet began to fall into the black hole and the Ood started to kill people with their translator orbs. It would not be overly dramatic to describe the current situation as 'a crisis'.

And now, the conclusion:

The episode begins with Mr Jefferson and his surviving sidekick solving the immediate Ood situation by just shooting a bunch of them with the guns they're holding. Damn, they finally found a Doctor Who monster who is vulnerable to bullets! It's a shame the gunfire looks terrible, due to the muzzle flash being added on in post production (prop guns that fire ammo cost a lot more). Also they apparently had to edit the footage due to epilepsy concerns which left it looking even worse.

The resolution to the 'planet falling into a black hole' problem is even more anti-climatic, as it's solved with the line "We're stabilising, we've got orbit". No reason given.

Unfortunately the Ood situation quickly becomes un-solved, as the heroes open a door and sidekick #2 is immediately electrocuted by a translation ball. We never even learned her name! Though a lot of the audience probably saw this coming, seeing as it was given away in the trailer.

With guns actually being effective, Mr Jefferson has an unusual problem for Doctor Who: he's running low on ammo. Plus the emergency bolt gun Zack finds on the command centre wall only has a single bolt in it for some reason.

It seems like they're ruling out hand to hand combat as an option, so they're moving up to 'strategy 9'.

Unfortunately they can't get in contact with the Doctor and Ida... for like 5 seconds, and then they can. Yay, another problem solved! Zack orders them both to return, so I guess Ida was wrong last episode and turning back was an option. But then she switches off her radio so she doesn't have to listen to him!

Now Ida and the Doctor have to decide what they're going to do about this big pit that's opened up.

Ida thinks they should ignore orders and go down there, which is kind of reckless! Though it gives David Tennant a chance to deliver a whole monologue about the impulse to jump. The mad little voice saying "Go on, go on." It's a great performance I reckon, Tennant really nails it.

But they're fighting an entity that uses temptation, so Doctor decides that for once he's going to ignore the urge to rush into danger and recommends they retreat. Funny thing is, they couldn't have gone down there anyway as they don't have another rope.

10 miles up, Mr Jefferson decides to remove another threat by shooting Toby, though Rose stops him, pointing out that the infection's moved into the Ood instead. It's nice to see Rose doing something heroic in the episode, instead of being entirely focused on being reunited with the Doctor. Jefferson decides to compromise, saying he'll shoot him the first time he shows any sign of evil.

Meanwhile, the others are heading back to the lift. Ida explains to the Doctor that strategy 9 involves getting everyone somewhere safe and opening up all the airlocks to flush the Ood out. So the two of them have that to look forward to when they make it back to the surface.

The Ood start chatting to the crew on the screen, and it becomes very clear that those bars on the monitor aren't helping. They're covering up the door number!

Zack responds, saying "This is Captain Zachary Cross Flane of Sanctuary Base Six, representing the Torchwood archive. You will identify yourself." Plot twist, they're working for Torchwood! That fits the mention last episode that they're here to get a power source for 'the Empire', as Queen Vicky was fond of her British Empire.

Oh, he's back on their screens again, the Beast. That's actually a great looking 3D model, nice work there. Though the way it looks here reminds me of those hologram pictures, so I'm a bit disappointed that my screencap doesn't have any depth to it.

The Ood speak for the Beast, saying that he's all the devils from every religion, chained in the pit for all time by the Disciples of the Light. He claims to be from before time, which the Doctor thinks is impossible. So the Beast asks if that's his religion. Damn, the episode's getting into what the Doctor believes, that's different.

The Beast's getting very psychological on the crew here, mentioning the things that torment them. He's getting them scared. Making them panic. He doesn't get any of them praying though, which feels like it's worth noting.

But the Doctor is the other voice in their ear, telling them how awesome they are for getting on a space rocket and flying to a black hole. He's the force of good in opposition to the Beast's force of evil.

Unfortunately in this case evil has the power to telekinetically snap lift cables, so the Doctor and Ida will not be returning to Sanctuary Base Six. The folks up there can't even lower cable down for them as it snapped at the very top. They really should've brought some spare cable as it doesn't take up as much space as you'd expect.

That's 10 miles of cable lying on the rocks over there, enough to reach across the length of Manhattan Island.

Incidentally, I'm still loving these cavern shots. I don't know where that light in the background is coming from, but it doesn't matter. It's a weird alien planet with amazing technology that's been functioning for eons, it's not a stretch to imagine that one of those alien devices could be a light bulb.

Well the bad news is that they can't get back up, but the worse news is that they only have 55 minutes of air left in their suits. They don't mention that the Doctor could really stretch that out as he's great at holding his breath, and that doesn't help Ida anyway. I suppose he could try hypnotising her, like in Terror of the Zygons...

Anyway, the characters back up on the Sanctuary Base have even fewer minutes to live as the Ood are cutting through the door bolts and they're apparently out of ideas. Or maybe they're just too shaken by what the Beast told them to think straight.

So Rose steps up and does what the Doctor would do, identifying what they need to solve the problem and getting the others to help. The Ood have wrecked the base's generators, but Zack can reroute power from their rocket. Not enough for strategy 9 but it'll get the lights on.

Danny comes up with a plan to disrupt the Ood's telepathic field and knock them out. He's going to use a brainstorm (which is a term Rose already knows from the Age of Steel). Unfortunately it can only be done from Ood Habitation.

Jefferson realises that they do have a way to get there, as there are maintenance tunnels running under the base. They're a lot like air vents except without the 'air' part, though Zack can take care of that problem from the control centre.

It's a bit strange how the maintenance tunnels are actual tunnels under the planet's surface, which don't follow the shape of the corridors sitting on the ground above. I suppose they had reasons for doing it like that.

I like how the episode's plausibly put Rose in charge right now. In another episode there might have been an argument about that, but Mr Jefferson is very pragmatic and Zack doesn't think of himself as much of a leader, so they're receptive to her instructions.

Meanwhile, in the caverns far beneath them, Ida has come up with a plan to use the fallen cable to go down into the pit. It relies on them being able to gather 10 miles of cable and get it on a spindle with time to spare, so they'll need to go at least 20 miles an hour, but the Doctor likes the idea. The only thing he'd change about her plan is that he'll be the one to go down.

We're finally getting to see another set! Though it's a bit cramped.

Plus they have to stare at each other's asses as they're getting around. There's a joke here about Rose not being impressed by Danny's backside... and Toby admiring his view of Rose.

The tension in this sequence comes from the fact that Zack has to move the oxygen around to the next area before he can open the door, so they have to wait as the Ood get closer and closer.

Also they can't see the Ood on the sensors because they're not designed to detect them. The episode's not making a big deal about how the Ood are treated in this society and whether people should be doing better, but we do get hints.

This very in the maintenance tunnels reminds me of The End of the World, when poor Raffalo crawled into one and was attacked by evil robot spider things. Though the tunnel was built practically this time, no CGI, so we get proper reflections as their translator orbs light up the walls.

Mr Jefferson isn't keen on Ood crawling up and killing his team however, so he decides to stay behind to shoot them.

The fake muzzle flash also lights up the walls, so I've got to give them credit for that, but it still looks like the actor was just shaking a prop gun. Also I guess the 'stock 15' ammo he's firing is much quieter than modern ammo, as otherwise he'd be deafened in here.

Jefferson wasn't lying about being low on ammo and soon his pistol's empty too. Unfortunately it's a bit of a Dalek situation, where the person controlling the doors can't wait for people to catch up, and Jefferson was just a little too slow.

With no way out and Ood crawling after him, he decides that he'd rather suffocate than get electrocuted. It just seems a bit more natural to him, going out like a fucking boss I mean. Man, you know you're having a bad day if those are your only two options. Still, it could be worse I suppose. At least he's not claustrophobic, that we know of.

Zack grants him his last wish and notes in the log that he is deceased, with honours. Then Danny asks that his respects be added to the record as well. Man, these guys are all so likeable.

Aww no, Toby, you were supposed to be okay now! All the evil letters flew off onto the Ood and that meant you were freed from the Beast's possession. At least, that's what Rose assumed, and she doesn't know how wrong she was. It turns out that he's just giving them a reason to run and making their escape look good.

Rose is actually doing pretty well though otherwise, without any help from the Doctor. With the Ood surrounding them and the situation looking grim, she finds an exit leading up into a corridor and leads them to safety. After five and a half minutes of extreme crawling around they're finally out of the vents and back into the other two sets!

The Ood burst in through Zack's door, but Danny's where he needs to be to send out out the signal and shut down them all down in the nick of time. I'm so glad that the psychic attack wasn't painful for me to listen to, I hate it when series do that.

It's also nice that Zack's finally out of the control room so he can interact with other cast members again! Incidentally, that is a proper looking sci-fi gun he's holding! And he gets to keep hold of it because he hasn't fired its single shot yet. 

The Ood crisis is over now so the pace can slow down and the Doctor can get a bit contemplative. The episode's not doing a Star Trek: Discovery, where people are chatting about their issues during a countdown.

This isn't not very Doctor Who either though, as it's rare for the Doctor to actually stop for a while and talk about himself and what he believes. He's still processing the idea that this Beast could be the source of the concept of the devil. An idea making its way into everyone's mind.

Speaking of ideas in everyone's mind, I think a lot of viewers suspected by this point that the TARDIS is down there. But it's fine, the episode still works regardless.

The conversations the Doctor has with Ida in this episode feel more real to me somehow than what we usually get out of him, and he's got some great dialogue.

"I believe, I believe I haven't seen everything, I don't know. It's funny, isn't it? The things you make up. The rules. If that thing had said it came from beyond the universe, I'd believe it, but before the universe? Impossible. Doesn't fit my rule. Still, that's why I keep travelling. To be proved wrong."

But when it comes to giving Ida a last message to pass on to Rose, he's got nothing. He can't say it.

He's at the end of his rope right now, literally, 20 miles deep into the planet with no idea of how far the pit continues to go. My guess would be some precise multiple of 5 or 10 miles, though he's hoping for 30 feet. Like Mr Jefferson he's faced with two choices, though he doesn't pick suffocation.

He disconnects the cable and falls into the black void. And falls. And falls. Until he disappears into darkness. It was probably a little further than 30 feet then.

It was kind of a reckless move, but seeing as the other option was 'do nothing and die' I think this is the most Doctory thing he could've done. And the effect of him falling into the black looks so much better than the similar shot in The Hand of Fear.

Just then Ida is able to get back in touch with the others! There's no way they can save her, so Zack has decided that they're going to leave and make sure no one else ever comes here again. Even if it means they'll never solve the mystery.

Now it's Rose's turn to make a choice, and she decides that she's going to stay and wait for the Doctor.

But Zack takes decisive captain action and has Danny and Toby hold Rose so he can give her a sedative. He's determined not to lose anyone else. So that feels like a bit of an arc for him, he's become a real leader. Interestingly the episode's playing the same sad music that we got in part 1 when they found Scooti's body floating outside, even though this time he's able to save the young woman.

We know that she's right and the Doctor is still alive; even if he's fatally injured in the fall he'll just regenerate. But having seen the whole episode, I think Zack just saved Rose's life here. Waiting in the Sanctuary Base is pointless and it's better for everyone that she stays with the others.

So now Rose is ascending, while the Doctor descends deeper into the depths.

Man, I thought Idiot's Lantern went over the top with scenes of brightly lit characters in dark rooms, but this is taking it to another level

Oh, it turns out that the Doctor survived the drop! Though his helmet visor didn't. Fortunately the air cushion that broke his fall is also breathable, so suffocation is not an immediate concern. For him at least. Ida's still on a countdown.

Meanwhile the others have all gotten into their very retro looking rocket and are ready to be somewhere else.

Hang on, this whole base came out of that one tiny rocket? I'm not sure there's even enough room in that thing for 50 Ood, not that any of them have been invited. They're all still lying on the ground after being brainstormed, though they are waking up a bit.

Hey it's another set! I'm assuming this isn't all the seats they have on this space rocket, as they had twice as many people with them when they came here.

I've read that they had the set at an angle to make it look like they were accelerating, but I can't see anything that gives it away. I believe them though when they said it was tinted in post production because it was too yellow.

The Doctor explores a bit and discovers that this advanced race which had immense power over gravity, was also fond of cave paintings. Fair enough, if that's what they were into. The art reminds me of Mike Mignola's work on the Hellboy comic, with all the heavy blacks and reds. And the demon.

I guess the aliens couldn't risk leaving any writing here, as their language has a nasty habit of flying off and turning people evil. But there's enough information in the art for the Doctor to figure out that there was a big battle and the aliens won, imprisoning the Beast. He's telling us this out loud because he's hoping that Ida can hear him. I guess the microphone wasn't in the helmet he took off.

The art also shows two jars sitting on pedestals.

A lot like these two in fact.

It's all very low tech and mythological, and actually kind of weird. The epic climax of this two-parter is about two vases that have been sitting in a cave for eons, and if you're struggling to get behind that then you'll have problems with the whole ending.

This was actually filmed in a real cave by the way. Star Trek was fond of using its cave set with a suspiciously flat floor, and it was a very nice set I thought, but this is 100% legit. And probably just as cold as the quarry, knowing how their location shoots went.

But you can probably tell that this guy is 100% computer generated.

Surprise, the Beast is actually exactly as he appeared in the hologram in part 1! There's no subversion! He's also a very traditional looking demon, of the 'Tim Curry in Legend' variety, aside from the scale. I could imagine him showing up on the cover of a Diablo game or as the last boss in a Doom sequel. It works though, I reckon. There have been a few CGI monsters this season, like the werewolf and the Krillitanes, and this guy's at least as good.

The producers were originally thinking that they'd have to go with something more surreal and considerably cheaper, like a little girl, a massive eye, or an old man in a chair, but they moved some money from another scene and were able to do it properly. You'll have to wait a few more years for Doctor Who to do the 'something surreal on a chair' twist.

Now David Tennant has someone to talk to again! Though the Beast is mostly just growling back, so the scene is basically just the Doctor thinking out loud, figuring out what's actually going on here.

Basically, the planet is an incredibly sophisticated cage, and in the case of an emergency a visitor can drop onto the air cushion, smash the urns and send the whole thing into the black hole. It seems like the people who made this place had strong views about executing prisoners. Basically they thought they'd let someone else come along and do it.

Unfortunately without the planet, Rose's rocket won't have a gravity tunnel to escape the black hole, and he apparently can't wait a couple of minutes for her to get clear.

Look at that shiny rocket, it's like something from an old magazine cover.

The Doctor finally reveals what he has faith in, and it's the same as in the classic serial The Curse of Fenric: he has faith in his companions. So he smashes the urns and trusts that Rose will find a way out of the situation he's put her in.

Well it turns out that Rose can't find a way to escape a black hole, that's not really part of her skill set. But she has figured out that their escape was too easy. The Beast could've killed them in all kinds of ways, so weaponising the Ood translator orbs was strangely inefficient. It got them scared though and made them want to evacuate.

The Beast is aware of what the Doctor did and freaks out, so now everyone knows who they're bringing home with them. There's some nice lighting there by the way, it's a much more convincing effect than the muzzle flash.

Rose reacts fast, grabbing the bolt gun and... shooting out the window!

I wish they'd given Toby a line here about how he can't be killed by their mortal weapons, or that he'll just jump to one of their bodies, or something. I get that Doctor Who companions can't just shoot the bad guy in the head, but Rose does choose to kill him, she just does it in a way that'll likely kill them all, and I could've used some justification for that.

They did do some proper set up for this scene though. Way back in part one, Scooti was blasted out into space when the Beast shattered a window, so the viewer already knows what happens. Plus Rose was concerned about Mr Jefferson's gun puncturing a wall. And the bolt gun with one bolt was written into the story specifically for this moment.

Rose unfastens the Beast's seat belt, sending the ancient being from before time who inspired all the universe's mythological devil figures flying out of the window. Fortunately there's a lot of air in this tiny cockpit, and either way they've still got a while before they pass out from a lack of oxygen. Enough time for Zack to get the emergency shield in place.

Meanwhile Toby gets to bathe in the black sun some more.

Here's a nice combination of techniques for you. The spaceship in the background is CGI, while Toby is the actual actor filmed in a water tank. The effect isn't flawless, but it looks a lot better than going full CGI would've done.

Something that's notable about what Rose did is that it's entirely selfless. Rose's actions throughout the rest of the episode have all been about keeping the group alive during the Ood crisis so they can rescue the Doctor. (Well aside from stopping Jefferson from shooting Toby earlier, and man things would've worked out differently if she hadn't). But when she shoots out the window, that's her stepping up and being a big damn space hero, just because it's the right thing to do. She had no reason to believe that she'd survive it.

And the Doctor had no reason to believe he'd survive smashing the urns either.

But then he finds the TARDIS in the cave! (The reveal isn't quite as dramatic when you're scrolling down instead of up.)

This does feel like a bit of a supernatural act, putting the TARDIS right where he needed it, so that fits the themes of faith. But it's also exactly where he said it would be, down at the heart of the planet. I don't know how low this actually is, but the aliens who built this place had control of gravity so he really could be down at the core. If he's in the middle of the planet, then anything that falls down far enough will end up exactly here.

Though I reckon the triumphant music would've been more earned if he'd done something clever to find it.

The Doctor arrives to save the rocket from falling into the black hole, as it turns out that the TARDIS also has a power source capable of countering the gravitational pull.

He gets in contact with the others and brags that his people practically invented black holes. Which is true, kind of, as Omega turned a star into a black hole to give the Gallifreyans the power to time travel. That's how they became Time Lords.

Plus the Doctor even saved Ida! So that's a nice surprise.

He didn't have time to save the Ood though, which is a bit weird seeing as he has a time machine, but I guess the logistics of it just didn't work out. It's nice that he thought about them though, and the episode hasn't just forgotten them.

Also if he couldn't have saved the Ood, then he couldn't have saved Rose either if she'd stayed behind, so Zack really did save her life.

So the two legendary figures are happily reunited. For now.

Rose is still a bit concerned about what the Beast said to her earlier, as he predicted that she would die in battle. The Doctor says he lied, but is he right? Did the Beast ever lie to them? Well he also said "You will die here. All of you. The planet is your grave", so he got that wrong.

But this was apparently the last time David Tennant and Billie Piper were filming together this season. Once they were done everyone went for a drink or whatever, and they started tearing the sets down so they could move them from Unit Q2 to their new home at Upper Boat Studios in time to film the Runaway Bride Christmas special.

They didn't start taking them down right away however, as Tennant was dragged back to the TARDIS to do one last secret scene to add onto the series finale.

The episode ends with the three survivors of Sanctuary Base Six heading home, and Zack continuing his job of reporting the dead. 

First he mentions Toby, and then he continues by listing all the Ood. It's nice that he's finally showing them a bit of respect and giving them the same honours as the other crew. Well, except for Mr Jefferson's security sidekicks, no honours for them.


CONCLUSION

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The Satan Pit had one job, which is to have a pit with Satan in, and I've got to say that it did it successfully. There is a pit, there is a fairly typical-looking devil figure at the bottom of it, good work guys. It doesn't really tempt anyone into committing evil, it just snarls a bit, but that's because its brain is off trying to engineer an escape attempt by scaring the crap out of a bunch of astronauts. Great voice performance by Gabriel Woolf, pretty good CGI too.

The pit itself though is just a black void, which I think was the correct choice. The image of the Doctor hanging there miles down, inexplicably lit up brightly like all the actors are in this episode, is fantastic. Plus the scene does something really rare for Doctor Who, as it finally puts him somewhere with nowhere to run and nothing to distract him, and gives him a moment to reflect on what he believes, what his faith is. And I think the script does a good job of having him really stop to think about it, without contradicting his nature as a rational scientist.

I don't like it when they put the supernatural in my Doctor Who, and the Doctor's clearly not comfortable with it either based on how he acts in this. The episode's not committing to saying who they fought, because he's not committing to it. Was the creature the reality behind the myth? Was just he a monster with mind reading and tech hacking powers who needed everyone to be scared of him? We don't know. The ambiguity makes it work for me, though I could've done with fewer floating magic letters.

In the end we do actually learn what the Doctor believes in: he believes that he doesn't know everything yet, and he believes in Rose Tyler. He probably believes in Sarah Jane Smith too, but that never came up. He should also believe in the TARDIS, which miraculously appears just as he needs it, like a big deus ex machina. The trouble with having a helpful god or similar supernatural force in a script is that there's already an all-powerful godlike figure controlling everyone's fates and that's the writer. Whenever there's a coincidence or contrivance or miraculous act, it shows the hand of the author and breaks the illusion a bit. Though to be fair it was a: where he said it would be, and b: right underneath where it fell. 

It seems kind of ridiculous for the Doctor to expect Rose will somehow find a way to not fall into the black hole he dropped her into, but she definitely stepped up this episode and got the job done, leading a group of trained experts in a way that didn't seem implausible. She even figured out the beast's scheme and foiled it, even if it was kind of unnecessary as the Doctor had already prevented his escape. It was a good dramatic moment only slightly spoiled by the sound effects borrowed from Doom. Just like how the Doctor's big moment was slightly spoiled by the fact that he was in an empty cave with a pair of vases.

The episode also has vents in it, but there's nothing wrong with that. They're a sci-fi staple and it was nice to have a change of scenery. Plus we got a sci-fi action scene with everyone crawling away the Ood. It's just a shame about the fake muzzle flash, and poor Mr Jefferson dying a heroic death. He went out well, but I didn't want any of these guys to die, the story fleshed them out too well and made them too likeable. Even the dude in charge of the literal slaves!

Speaking of the Ood, it's a bit of a shame that their status as a slave race was mostly a red herring and we never got any real closure about that. The best we get is Zack giving them some respect at the end and I feel like it's left us with a shoe still waiting to drop.


RATING

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Overall I'd say this was pretty much as good as the first part and does a decent job of resolving the story. And the story does a decent job of giving people something darker, more mature and also more thoughtful than a lot of the season, without feeling any less Doctor Who because of it.

In fact this is more my kind of thing, so I guess I'll give it another...

  9/10

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NEXT EPISODE

Next time the horror gets more horrible, in a bad way, in Love & Monsters.

What did you think about The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit two-parter? Is it one of the season's gems or should it be thrown into a bottomless pit. That then gets thrown into a black hole.