Base under siege! In space! With spaghetti mouthed aliens!

Fans gravitate to stories like these. Weighty, grown up adventures which make us feel very serious and legitimate in obsessing over our favourite children's family TV show. After the comic campery of The Idiot's Lantern we are thrown into the depths of hell where our hero meets the literal Devil incarnate.

Not just our hero either - a whole cast of convincing, engaging characters who (with the exception of Danny) give a sense of realism to their environment. The feeling the convey is similar to that of Terry Nation's Survivors - these are a surviving cast of crew on a doomed mission, being picked off one by one by a malevolent, unknown force. The fact that Danny is so unconvincing I think speaks volumes about the quality of the acting going on around him.

The Doctor and Rose's chemistry finally hits home here. They feel like a perfect couple, destined to be together. Their natural believability took a bit of a hit for me when Eccleston changed to Tennent, but now its as glorious as ever.

The Ood are an excellent invention - brilliant writing paired with a perfect visual. The servant race who are not naturally menacing but susceptible to being taken over. This is without a doubt the most successful original creature introduced to Doctor Who in the 21st Century.

Nothing really holds back or lets down all the promise and build-up of The Impossible Planet in The Satan Pit. We're presented with a very big and terrifying mystery in the first part and by and large, I feel The Satan Pit does a good job at introducing us proper to this extremely powerful and threatening presence. Sure, the effects get a bit dodgy with the devil but I had a great time nonetheless. Our characters are memorable enough that it feels like there were stakes in them surviving and escaping the increasingly desperate situation. Rose and the Doctor's reunion is a nice moment because it feels earned, with both characters really at their best here and pushing themselves against these impossible odds. In my opinion, these episodes hold up well and are a solid part of Doctor Who's revived history.

8️⃣⏹️ → VERY GOOD!

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

THIRD IMPRESSIONS: “THE SATAN PIT”

The Satan Pit isn’t all non-stop action and tension like most second parts in Nu Who two-parters. It keeps building anticipation for the reveal of the big bad in the last third, almost to the point of excess. But what keeps it together is the many great scenes with the Doctor and Tennant’s strong performance.

There’s action as well, on Rose’s end, as she and the crew defend the base from the evil Ood. Rose seems to be the only one who can keep her calm somewhat, which makes her stand out. Zach also proves to be an unusually capable captain.

It’s pretty interesting how this episode suggests that every iteration of the Beast, in every religion and culture, originates from the original seen here. The scene with the Doctor slowly descending into the pit and contemplating the nature of the Beast, the universe, and his travels is a top-tier Ten moment.

Another great moment is the scene where Ten and the Beast finally go face-to-face and Tennant holds a long Doctor monologue. The CGI might not be the most effective, but the sheer size and design of the creature and its presence and voice make it so effective.

All the stuff with the Doctor seemingly dropping to his death and Rose refusing to leave the planet turns a bit too melodramatic for my taste, and the resolution is perhaps a bit too rushed, but other than that, the story largely sticks to the landing.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

• Captain Zachary represents “the Torchwood Archive,” whatever that's supposed to mean.

Disclaimer: My Review for this and 'The Impossible Planet' are the same, simply because my Opinion on both Episodes are very much the same.

Oh, finally the first “Masterpiece” for the Tennant Era, honestly it’s been a while since I watched it, but I can’t think much of the issues I have (besides the lovey-dovey of 10Rose, but the Story is so good, I don’t really care much about their banter). Having Woolf return to voice the Beast was just a clever Choice, his Voice fits the role so well and while the Beast with its effects aged a bit poor, I still find it quite impressive and especially ambitious. The Soundtrack is great and well the Story does so much right!
Suspense? Yes there is!
Great Designs? The Oods are probably one if not nuwho’s best alien design we got, so good!
And a great side cast? Definitely, which can be quite rare for NuWho
Dare I say, this also has one of the very great Cliffhanger of NuWho!

New Who Review #23

The Satan Pit

Continuation of Part one. This second part was much better. It really felt like it got into full swing here. The Doctor & Rose were split up again which feels like a common trend this series. The doctor was with Ida down on the planets surface and dealing with the pit and the horrors inside. I really liked 10's speech about religion and beliefs it made me question what my beliefs were which was interesting. The whole idea of Satan being a creature before time existed is scary because it means he's always been here. Rose was with the rest of the team on the base. She and the rest of the team had to deal with the possessed ood. It was really creepy watching the ood crawl through the vents. Mr jefferson actually ended up dying which was sad. He sacrificed himself to save the others. Overall this was a good story. I give this episode a 9/10 and the whole story a 8/10

A much more action packed episode than the previous, the Ood are sent into a rage by the mind of satan or whatever that thing is, and they drive the humans out of the base on their rocket, taking the possessed Toby with them. The Doctor and Ida talk about faith for a bit, and he finds the trapped body of the beast.

To be honest, I don't really find the discussions about faith in this episode to be all that interesting or insightful, but the action in this episode and the tension (especially with Toby) is great.

Rose gets a chance to show off in this episode, sending Toby into space, and the humans are able to escape. It's suggested that the humans that survived now have a better appreciation for the Ood

Let me just say the score for this story is excellent. Story-wise, this a strong follow up to The Impossible Planet. With Ten and Ida trapped on the planet’s surface and Rose stuck in the base with the rest of the crew, we see the best of their dynamics. I liked the discussion of faith with Ida, I thought it was an interesting element. With Rose separated from the Doctor, we get to see her step up into a leadership role which is just a pleasure to see. The Ood are reasonably menacing as secondary monsters and The Beast is a really solid CGI monster for its time.

2025 REWATCH (Review posted on both episodes)

• I always look forward to this story, I just love it so much. The set up, the ideas, the design, the music, the characters, the everything!
• The Ood and conception are brilliant; they serve (literally) a purpose and look iconic to the show. While the Beast is amazing and perfectly voice-acted, the CGI for the physical body still looks amazing today. If they could bring the beast back, do it, please!
• Bringing a paranormal/demonology trope into the show is an instant win in my books. I'm always likely to be interested if that's where the story is going to explore
• They pack so much into this story, You explore a lot, have time for some deeper questions, get a bit existential, and have enough time for some action. It's amazingly put together
• I feel the side cast is equally as great. We get so much time with them, but with 2 random soldiers, we never learn their names of. I felt myself drawn to Ida; I always do. I like her character

I think this might be both the Doctor and Rose's best episodes in all of Series 2. I probably shouldn't be surprised that the episode where I like them the most is also the episode where they never share the screen until the very end of the episode.

I'm not going to spend long on the plot. It's good and it moves but I haven't much interesting to say about it. The Doctor explores the Satan Pit whilst Rose and most of the remaining crew of Sanctuary Base 6 are trying to survive the possessed Ood. Through Rose's leadership, their individual skills and some teamwork the remaining crew make it to the ship and fly off the base. Unfortunately Toby is still possessed by the Beast, who is using Toby to escape his prison. Fortunately the Doctor works out that the Beast was imprisoned on this planet for a reason. The energy that is allowing the planet to stay in orbit around a black hole, is also keeping the Beast imprisoned. So if the Beast were to ever escape his prison, the energy would stop, causing both the planet and the Beast with it to plummet into the black hole. The Doctor causes this to happen, finds the TARDIS and rescues everyone whilst Rose kills the possessed Toby.

Rose is really good here. Whilst everyone has been affected by the Beast taunting them, and are currently panicking, Rose keeps a level head. She's been with the Doctor long enough to know what to do in these situations. She takes stock of what she has available to her. She doesn't know the base or it's contents, but she knows she has a capable crew who do. She also identifies which problem most urgently needs solving. In this case it's that the crew are trapped (Zachary the acting captain is trapped at the bridge. Everyone else by the drill) and the murderously possessed Ood are breaking through the doors. So she motivates her team to solving the problem at hand. Danny (who is in charge of the Ood) realises that he has a way to turn off the Ood's telepathic field, effectively incapacitating them (at least temporarily). However they need to get to Ood habitation for this to work, and that currently seems impossible. Mr Jefferson (in charge of security) realises how to get there, through the maintenance tunnels. The problem with that is that there's no air in those tunnels. Zachary (acting captain) realises that on the bridge he can manipulate the atmosphere inside the base and manually move the air around so that everyone else can get to Ood habitation. Toby (the archaelogist in charge of studying the ancient civilisation that have imprisoned the Beast) does... umm... well he pretends not to be possessed and looks at Rose's bum. Ok so they're not all winners. But by working together they are able to successfully incapacitate the Ood and retake control of the base, albeit with the loss of Mr Jefferson, who sacrifices himself to buy everyone else enough time to escape.

It's a wonderful sequence that gives (almost) everyone something of value to do and demonstrate the worth of every person. Take Zachary who has been promoted to acting captain due to the death of the original captain for example. He feels unworthy of the role, as well as useless being trapped in the bridge where he feels he can't help his crew, only able to push some buttons. Shaun Parkes is great in these 2 episodes btw. It's rivetting watching him just push some buttons, and seeing him demonstrate his worth as the captain he was never supposed to become. He also sells the moment a little later where Rose refuses to leave with them on their ship, so he orders his crew to hold her whilst he drugs her unconscious and carries her onto the ship. This scene could be uncomfortable, seeing 3 older men restrain and render a young woman unconscious against her will. But Parkes really sells this as an act of kindness, and you feel it when he explains that he isn't prepared to lose anyone else on this base.

The other side of the story we have the Doctor and Ida down in a chasm. I quickly want to shoutout Claire Rushbrook's performance as Ida. She's also great in these episodes. Her reckless curiousity feels natural and charming, when it could've easily seemed annoying. I also really feel for when she's afraid of dying alone.

But this episode really plays to David Tennant's strengths. More than maybe any other Doctor (certainly of the modern era) Tennant is great at tackling long speeches. This pays off here because although he has Ida to talk to at the start of the episode. For a decent chunk of it the Doctor is basically just talking to himself or a non-verbal, satanic monster. But if you give David Tennant something worth saying, you can just leave him to monologue and it's thrilling to watch. I can't imagine any other Doctor doing such a good job making all the exposition at the end feel as natural or compelling as he does here.

I don't think the question about whether the Beast is literally Satan or not is that interesting. I think it's clearly supposed to be an ancient monster where the idea has persisted and formed the basis for many satanic figures. But that it isn't literally Satan. It's a fun idea worth some dialogue though, but ultimately I don't think the episode is too interested in answering this question. At some point the Doctor realises he doesn't need to know what he's fighting, he just needs to know how to beat it.

I do like that this idea has the Doctor talking about belief. What his beliefs are and questioning them. I think there's interesting stuff in there. I particularly like his line about how he would have no trouble believing the Beast came from beyond time, but he cannot bring himself to believe the Beasts claim that he comes from before time. That doesn't fit with his beliefs, but he can't justify why it can't be, besides that it breaks the rules he's given himself to explain his beliefs.

But all of this belief talk is partly there so that the Doctor can give his little speech before choosing to send the Beast into the black hole. The Doctor saying "But I’ve seen a lot of this universe. I’ve seen fake gods and bad gods and demi-gods and would-be gods, and out of all that, out of that whole pantheon, if I believe in one thing, just one thing, I believe in her." actually works for me here. It helps that the episode has done a good job showing why Rose is someone worth believing in. This all adds up to me actually liking the Doctor/Rose dynamic for the first time this season. It's still a problem that it took 9 episodes to make this happen. But's it's better than nothing.

The CG is actually really ahead of its time here I think? The crew must've had to pool all their pocket money together for this one.