The Creature from the Pit

📝7/10 = ENJOYABLE!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

SECOND IMPRESSIONS: “THE CREATURE FROM THE PIT”

Season 17 marches along to its third serial, The Creature from the Pit, which downsizes the Doctor’s adventures somewhat. This four-parter is the last one to be directed by one of the show’s most beloved directors, Christopher Barry (the technical difficulties during production and the creative differences he had with the stars of the show led to him refusing to work for Doctor Who again), and it was the first one produced to feature Lalla Ward as Romana.

This serial is infamous for its many scenes involving complicated model shots as well as the infamous Erato prop and the scene of the Doctor speaking into one of its very phallic-looking tentacles.

David Fisher, in his third script for the show, changes style from his Gothic horror-orientated The Stones of Blood and leans closer to his lighthearted The Androids of Tara with added Douglas Adamsian elements. This results in a script with a strong first half and a weaker second half, as well as strong characters, good dialogue, and a couple of nice ideas, some of which don't come across very well on screen.

I love the classic adventure film feel of the opening episode: the Doctor and Romana land on a jungle planet and walk into trouble right away as the Doctor is captured and taken prisoner. Evil plants are lurking about, a little fight scene plays out, and commanding characters counterbalance the comical presence from the Doctor.

I rather like how Fisher allows Romana to play a pivotal role in this story and also finds use for K9 so that he isn't simply stowed away in the TARDIS for the duration of the serial. It’s a pity then that Romana isn’t fully developed as a character at this point and that K9 is voiced by the “wrong” actor.

The scene in Part 3 where Tom Baker keeps chatting with the Green Phallos of Doom is one of the more awkward scenes of his entire era, and it culminates in the questionable scene where he speaks into one of Erato’s protuberances. Part 3 also happens to be the least interesting episode, with little to no actual plot and mostly pretty dull scenes.

Part 4 turns a bit messier and sillier and loses some of the charming adventure feel of the first half, with the overacting and Erato scenes dragging it down slightly. The climax in the TARDIS is quite tense, at least.

Baker is still fun to watch as the Doctor, and here he is both funny, heroic, and the right amount of serious. You can see that Romana in this story was meant to be played by Mary Tamm; Lalla Ward’s dress and hair are designed to look like Tamm's, and her performance doesn’t quite match the confident and youthful tone displayed in the previous two serials.

David Brierley briefly replaces John Leeson as the voice of K9, starting with this serial. This was explained by the laryngitis that K9 caught in City of Death, altering his voice. Brierley lacks most of the whimsical magic that Leeson brings to the role.

Adrasta makes for one of the rare strong women of authority in Classic Who, and Myra Frances playing her is a delight throughout, even if she errs on the side of overacting here and there. She proves to put up quite the opposition together with her whip and sword-wielding soldiers. Karela is another strong female and played by returnee Eileen Way, who previously appeared as Old Mother way back in An Unearthly Child.

I love Organon, the silly astronomer and prophet introduced in Part 2. Geoffrey Bayldon (the alternate First Doctor in the Big Finish Unbound range) infuses him with plenty of old, wise man energy, and I’m all for it.

The only part of the cast I’m not sold on are the weird, hairy, and caveman-like bandits who hang around for most of the adventure planning to attack Adrasta. They don’t really add anything to the narrative other than pointless filler and silly fooling around.

The jungle planet seen here is one of the most beautiful sets seen in Classic Who. It looks and feels properly warm and exotic, and the smoke and lighting effects bring it to life effectively. The corridors and open spaces of the pit also look realistic, and the interior sets are nicely designed.

Erato is admittedly one of the less believable monster designs in Classic Who. I mean, what exactly is it supposed to be?

I like the simple worldbuilding David Fisher offers here, which combines a sort of Middle Eastern aesthetic with light sci-fi elements. The performances and direction highlight the lighthearted nature of this adventure, but it's an enjoyable romp with fun comedy bits and some surprisingly good adventure and action moments sprinkled throughout.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

• This marks the final appearance of frequent Doctor Who performer and stunt double Terry Walsh on the show.
• Lalla Ward reportedly disliked working on this serial because she hadn’t quite worked out how to play Romana yet and the scripts were written with her predecessor Mary Tamm in mind.
• The production was very aware of Erato’s somewhat questionable design, and the crew even burst out laughing upon seeing it in action for the first time. There wasn’t enough time to alter the design, however.
• The Part 2 cliffhanger, which sees the Doctor apparently crushed under Erato, is also known as “the attack of the giant phallic blob creature.”.
• The Doctor claims, most likely falsely, that Time Lords have 90 lives and that he has gone through 120 of them.
• Morris Barry, who appears as Tollund, is distantly related to director Christopher Barry and is better known for directing three Patrick Troughton-era stories, Tomb of the Cybermen being one of them.

Not super memorable, but enjoyable nonetheless. The sets were beautiful and the creature design was unique. I'm not a big fan of K9's new voice; not robotic enough for my taste.

I feel like pretty much every scene with the group of bandits could have been cut and the story would have been greatly improved for it. As is, they're sort of funny but mostly boring.

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: City of Death

Let's start with the elephant in the room, K9's voice. I respect that David Brierley tried to do something different with the voice, other than just imitating John Leeson but I can't help but feel that K9 has lost his charm. Brierley's take on the voice just annoys me and makes K9 feel too posh.

Voice aside, I think this was a fairly good story. The sets are well designed and while the creature's design is definitely surrounded by mixed opinions, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

The story itself is quite good and Tom Baker brilliantly acts his fascination with the creature in the pit, it feels very Doctor-y to desperately try and find a way to communicate with an unknown species and not judge it whatsoever. The reveal that the creature is an ambassador from another planet is nice too and definitely pushes the "don't judge a book by it's cover" moral lesson that Doctor who absolutely loves.

The effects at the end, in the TARDIS, as they hold the neutron star in place were really distracting and very unpleasant on the eyes.

It's not a bad story but it's a bit forgettable and, at times, annoying.

Next Story: The Romance of Crime (Audio Adaptation)

This is a very, very funny story. Until the final act it is the funniest Doctor Who story so far. Everything is played for laughs in what otherwise would be a pretty traditional, almost old school piece of Who. Sure, the cast are sending the jokes up about 30% more than necessary but the theatrical direction and performance feels like an endearing stage play.

It’s very strange (not in a good way) to hear a new voice actor play K-9, and the tin dog has gotten very shooty and verbose, but it’s rewarding to see this, usually minor character, get a chance to have a story where it gets to shine.

Tom Baker is blisteringly good in this. He is loving the humour. See him speak into the giant monster’s tentacle is truly wonderful. And in my opinion the monster is very well realised.

If you were to smooth off the rough edges in the performances and tighten/ brighten the script - especially the ending which is a flabby let down. I think this would be a classic. As it is, it’s a welcome and very memorable addition to the cannon.