Season 2, Episode 9 - The Satan Pit
This episode picks up where The Impossible Planet leaves off, with The Doctor and Ida at the mouth of the pit and the rest of he company fleeing the newly possessed Ood. I think the crew's acceptance of Toby was a bit too quick though. It's a tough one, but I'd like to think I'd be wary of the guy. As it is we focus just on the physical threat of the Ood. The red-eyed menace starts off almost as another zombie horde, only with more tea-bagging.
I'll let you join the dots on that one.
As a threat, the Ood soon move past the "advance slowly and be creepy" phase and become a bit more of a fast swarm kind of threat. Once the group escapes into the tunnels, the parallels to Aliens really gel. Wave after wave of monsters scrambling unflinchingly forward through tight ducting into machine gun fire. I don't think I'm drawing a long bow there. I'm pretty sure the production team said they got inspiration for the base from the Nostromo too.
They're all around us, man!
The pit itself is just a flat black nothingness. There's something really awesome about this scene, The Doctor hanging there in the nothing, pontificating. I even liked the whole awkward message for Rose thing. It worked well.
"If you talk to Rose, just tell her... Just tell her... Oh she knows."
Once The Doctor takes that leap of faith and lands in the lair of The Beast, we get some more exposition and a full look at our erstwhile enemy. After working out that The Beast is just an animalistic body lacking a mind, The Doctor chooses to destroy everyone rather than let it get free. Of course we get some rather convenient Deus Ex Machina as The Doctor stumbles across the TARDIS in time to escape and save the others from the now collapsing gravity well. We have to give The Doctor credit for making the hard choice here. He didn't know he had to live for the next episode.
Happy birthday to me... Wait, I'm only two?
The Doctor's lament at not being able to save The Ood seems a bit weak though. I know he can't cross his own time stream (unless he can) but surely he could have done something once he had the TARDIS. It somehow feels like a distinction was still made between the humans and the Ood, despite all of the equality subtext of this and the previous episode. I mean he managed to pick up Ida on the way. Why was she more important?
All up, the survival horror theme worked well, and this story is quite rewatchable for me.
All up, the survival horror theme worked well, and this story is quite rewatchable for me.
8/10
Can we fix it?
Again, not really much to do here. It was a nice suspenseful episode that played out well. As I said, it was a bit talky, and the whole Doctor loves Rose thing could have not been there, but it wasn't as sappy or drawn out as it could have been.
The only minor tweaks I'd have made would be first to have the Ood all die when The Beast was destroyed. This would mean The Doctor wouldn't have had to drop a weak line about not being able to save them.
It would also have been good to bring in a bit of paranoia at the start when the team escaped into the ducts. This could either have been directed solely at Toby, or more broadly at the whole team. If The Beast had possessed Toby and the Ood, maybe he could take any one of them at any time. That would have made the escape through the tunnels just a bit more tense as they all worried about each other.
Not too much to add though because it's a solid episode.
Oh, and I just had to share this one. I did a double take at this point...
The only minor tweaks I'd have made would be first to have the Ood all die when The Beast was destroyed. This would mean The Doctor wouldn't have had to drop a weak line about not being able to save them.
It would also have been good to bring in a bit of paranoia at the start when the team escaped into the ducts. This could either have been directed solely at Toby, or more broadly at the whole team. If The Beast had possessed Toby and the Ood, maybe he could take any one of them at any time. That would have made the escape through the tunnels just a bit more tense as they all worried about each other.
Not too much to add though because it's a solid episode.
Oh, and I just had to share this one. I did a double take at this point...
Vashta Nerada anyone?
