The Impossible Planet

The series continues to surprise us. After an atmosphere drenched period piece set in the 1950В’s we are plunged into a tough, gritty, dirty SF В‘base under siegeВ’ epic. If the Cybermen two parter was popcorn cinema Who this is horror SF Ridley Scott style for the small screen.

OK. Let's get the name-dropping out of the way first. Yep, itВ’s a riot of references - of В‘AlienВ’, В‘OutlandВ’, В‘Event HorizonВ’, В‘The OmenВ’ and reminds us of В‘Robots Of DeathВ’ and В‘The ArkВ’...and...wait a minute. Pinch me but did all of that glorious work on The Impossible Planet really get made for British television? To go out on a sunny Saturday evening at 7pm?

This was one of the most visually stunning pieces of British telefantasy in years. The production design alone should be applauded. If ever there was an episode to demonstrate that the show is no longer peddling naff sets, costumes and visual effects, then this is the one. Top marks to Ed Thomas and his crew, Neil Gorton and his crew and The Mill. Thanks to Murray Gold for a swirling, malevolent score. All the departments were really raising their game on this.

And to answer that vexed question, can the new series do alien environments and planets? Yes, big time, judging by the sterling efforts here. The location work combined with The MillВ’s effects really did justice to the look of the pit with itВ’s Harryhausen/Giger-like hidden ancient civilisation. Stunning images.

Anyway. Thematically, this is the Doctor and Rose plunging into the abyss (another film reference too), not just getting to journey into the centre of a planet but also their own search in the abyss for new wisdom, for the fountain of knowledge to douse their inflated pride. By entering it, they challenge their own rigid and fixed attitudes. Witness the way the episode opens with them giggling like a pair of schoolgirls and how that is completely turned on its head by the conclusion. Like the black hole they have been refusing to swallow their pills. The Bitter Pill is not just the planet's mythological name but also the Doctor and Rose facing up to the redundancy of their charm offensive. On this world, the chirpy references to Walford go down like a lead balloon. They are awkward gate-crashers at a party in hell. Suffering the loss of the TARDIS, they both are forced to contemplate an 'ordinary' life with 'mortgages'. The look of horror on the Doctor's face says it all.

'Everone leaves home in the end' is a pointer to this and perhaps an affirmation of the paths the Doctor and Rose originally took. That said, the Doctor/Rose dynamic works so much better here than in some earlier episodes and you do get much more of a sense of genuine affection between them once they realise that no one is paying attention to their mutual smugness. When Rose suggests they might live together, we also get an indication that the Doctor isnВ’t entirely sold on this idea because after all Rose is not Reinette.

The Impossible Planet is chiefly the flip side of the Doctor/Rose obsession with hubris. They seem to have been grounded here almost as deposed gods. The Doctor's descent into the pit is the age old confrontation of God with Mephistopheles - the light and dark of the masculine psyche. It is yet another striking example of the journey from above to below in search of the unconscious world and this has permeated the current series as a whole. The crossing into the unconscious is also linked with the sexual symbolism of the drill penetrating the planet. It's almost like the fertilising of an egg, the stirring of new/old life and the opening of Pandora's Box. The horror film conceits used in the episode are also very much about the stirring up of the unconscious and making it manifest in the conscious world.

Toby's possession by the Beast complete with the branding and marking of his flesh that sets him apart from the rest of the group is the literal representation of the Beast crossing the threshold between its world and the reality of the base. He is an unwilling and weak partner in a dark Faustian pact that brings together the three worlds of mind, flesh and unconscious. The Beast is a trickster figure that reinforces the boundaries between the conscious world (the base) and the unconscious world (the pit). By awakening the Beast the crew have also themselves been forced to emerge from a sleeping state, their lives now depending on much more than their hum-drum routine. This again is a lovely reference to В‘AlienВ’ with the lives of those on board Nostromo experiencing this abrupt wake up call in a similar fashion.

The Ood, beautifully designed, are transformed from their willing slave status into fiery eyed soldiers for the Beast. They are a personification of the BeastВ’s Ego, a conjuring trick that uses their herd instinct to erupt onto the surface in the form of totalitarianism, the tyranny of one mind over the masses of his army. Slaves turning against their original masters, the Ood are unable to articulate themselves in their dead-end service industry mentality. They are cut off from thought and sensation. Their Egos have truly been extinguished. An army of the dead.

The lighting and colour palette of red and yellows in the base provided a suitable contrast to the almost monochrome and baroque chiaroscuro of the planet. The skull like lighting of the EVA suit helmets, with the wearers pale deaths heads in the darkness of the pit underline this dramatic use of light and dark. There was also some nifty editing and directing. James Strong might possibly have the talent to join the ranks of Euros Lyn and Joe Ahearne. He racked up the tension nice and slowly, with a final nerve-shredding ten minutes that hopefully will pay off in the second part. There was a huge amount of exposition in the first fifteen minutes and that didnВ’t help the pacing to begin with but this did feel like the first two parts of a В‘classicВ’ Who story with considered pacing and character development.

On the acting side we were blessed with cleverly sketched performances from Will Thorp, Shaun Parkes and Danny Webb. As for our regular cast, Billie Piper is still doing superb work. Many have started to find her irritating but she still has the ability to be very subtle in the way she plays certain scenes and thatВ’s a quality much to be admired. David Tennant still hasnВ’t quite got there yet and there were some amazingly good scenes, his tenderness with Rose when they realise theyВ’re stuck on the base was particularly good, but there is still a little too much В‘forced zaninessВ’ in the performance for me. HeВ’s excellent but for me hasnВ’t quite reached some of the heights of Eccleston achieved in the last half of the first series.

The stand out performance has to be Gabriel Woolf. A chilling voice that dominated the episode and evocative in that this was a threat not seen on screen (yet) but all the more powerful because of that.

A waking nightmare of an episode, then, with cast and crew firing on all guns. A narrative that genuinely forced you to keep thinking and wondering what the resolution to this would be. Part two will, I hope, provide some suitably intriguing answers.