The Impossible Planet

Wow.

I didn't even bother to submit a review last week, so underwhelmed I was by The Idiot's Lantern (not bad as such, just blah). The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit two-parter has had me intrigued since I first heard the premise, however, so I tuned in hoping to have my faith reaffirmed.

And how.

This is how you do the first part of a double-episode story. Where Aliens of London, Rise of the Cybermen and even, to some extent, Bad Wolf plodded a little around the story while clearly saving all the real meat for later, The Impossible Planet was chock-full of interesting stuff. The mysterious planet stuck beneath a black hole, the loss of the TARDIS, the mysterious Ood and their menacing messages, bizarre possession of a crew member, a touching death, a frank discussion of the possibility of the Doctor and Rose starting a life together ... there was more here than in many single-parters, all of it excellent. In many ways, it had a real New Adventures feel to it (Lucifer Rising, anyone?)

The story is the first since The Parting of the Ways to truly have an epic feel to it (as much as enjoyed The Christmas Invasion, it never felt to me like it really left a corner of London). The archeological station had a genuinely lonely, run-down feel to it, like we really were on the frontier of the universe. My only real criticism is that, like much of this season, everything was just a bit too bright and studio-looking. The effects were excellent, however, from the brooding, voracious black hole to the first truly successful use of matte backgrounds (my personal pet-peeve) in the vast core the Doctor explores towards the end of the episode.

With the right balance of suspense, character work (a welcome move forward for the Doctor/Rose dynamic which has felt a little static recently) and, wonder of wonders, genuine mystery, this was great entertainment. I really have no idea how next week's episode will pan out (I could see the events of The Age of Steel coming a mile away after the first part) and I'm desperate to find out.

Above all, though, the feeling I took away from this episode was that I couldn't believe they put this out in the timeslot. Monsters quoting verse about the DEVIL?! At 7 o'clock on a Saturday night?

A massively welcome dark change of tone for the season which will hopefully give the Tenth Doctor some much needed gravitas to play with. Tennant is wonderful, but nothing since School Reunion has given him much of a chance to play genuinely unsettled (I am still trying to blank out the ANGRY SHOUTING IN SEVERAL SCENES of The Idiot's Lantern - Mark, David, why?!!?)

After a slight downturn in quality, I'm delighted to see things back on track. If next week's conclusion is of the same quality as this episode, I could find myself with a new favourite story since the relaunch (Father's Day and Dalek are battling it out at the moment). Tennant could well have his Caves of Androzani here.

Let's see what comes out of that pit.