Season 2. 10 Jun 06. BBC 1, 7:15 p.m
WRITER: Matt Jones DIRECTOR: James Strong
CAST: The Doctor (David Tennant), Rose Tyler (Billie Piper), Mr Jefferson (Danny Webb), Zachary Cross Flane (Shaun Parkes), Toby Zed (Will Thorp), Ida Scott (Claire Rushbrook), Danny Bartock (Ronny Jhutti), Scooti Manista (Myanna Buring), The Ood (Paul Kasey), Voice of The Beast (Gabriel Woolf) & Voice of the Ood (Silas Carson)
A demonic being controls The Ood, willing them to kill the crew of the mining station.. while 10 miles underground, The Doctor descends into a gigantic pit...The Satan Pit continues the excellent work begun last week in The Impossible Planet, with telepathic slave race The Ood now being controlled by a demonic entity beneath the planet's surface -– and under orders to kill the crew. As Rose and the crew try to defeat them, The Doctor makes a descent into the pit…
After a shaky start, in which a lot of last week's tension and expectation is extinguished, only to be replaced with tired sequences of people scurrying around inside air vents, The Satan Pit soon regains momentum to deliver memorable scenes and fine examples of Doctor Who morality.
There are emotional death scenes sprinkled throughout the show, although the writing often embraces the sci-fi clichés of deaths that involve slow stragglers, hatches that can't open for the good of the majority, and verbal obituaries from the Captain…
Still, for every moment of laughably forced humanity delivered with total seriousness, there are some decent monologues to keep the balance right, particularly when The Doctor discusses the human impulse to explore dangerous environments out of sheer curiosity.
Matt Jones' writing affords David Tennant some jucier moments to relish; likewise Billie Piper, although the latter's assuming command of a futuristic crew rings totally false. No matter, as Piper gives her best performance of the year upon hearing The Doctor's supposed death/loss. As an actress, she can definitely rise to the challenge of big emotions (and death doesn't come much bigger), so I only hope the writers create more situations for Rose to show her mettle in a believable manner, instead of flashing a toothy grin every five minutes and delivering misplaced gags.
The visual-effects are just as strong as last week, with the new space sequences and a rocket take-off being fine additions to the Who canon. But the most striking and accomplished visual (perhaps of the entire show up till now) comes in the form of The Beast itself –- a gigantic horned demon chained inside the titular pit. A combination of Lord Of The Rings' Balrog and The Darkness from Legend (with a hint of Jason & The Argonauts), it's a stunning CGI achievement that increases the sense of grandeur further, making The Satan Pit particularly epic. Of course, the downside is that it illustrates just how comparatively pedestrian and childish the rest of the series has been (New Earth and School Reunion the biggest offenders).
Overall, this is a strong continuation that only falters with some sloppy clichés in the first ten minutes. By the time the action has built up its momentum again, culminating in the excellent Beast sequence with The Doctor, then The Satan Pit is a guaranteed favourite.
It was also interesting to see an episode conclude without a neatly-explained denouement from The Doctor, who instead admits some of the mysteries will never be solved (well, I'm sure the religious connotations also had something to do with it…)
If you also forgive an extremely unlikely plot contrivance with the TARDIS in the closing moments, you can't deny The Satan Pit offers a level of competence and scares rarely seen in Who these days…
NEXT WEEK: A man called Elton Pope becomes obsessed with finding The Doctor...