The Impossible Planet

After some fairly cosy fun with 'The Idiot's Lantern' last week, Doctor Who takes a decidedly dark turn in its eighth episode. And it's surprising just how dark things get. Similarities to the 'Alien' movies, 'Event Horizon' and even 'The Omen' have already been mentioned, but hang on a moment, aren't those all 18-certificate scare-fests designed to turn cinema goers into quivering wrecks? Well they're certainly not family friendly tales for seven o'clock of a Saturday evening, sandwiched between 'Strictly Dance Fever' and 'The National Lottery'...

Call me a big girl's blouse, but I can't recall Doctor Who ever being quite this scary. It's difficult to put in perspective, but I think that if I were nearer 10 than, ahem, well a fair bit older than 10, then I might still be suffering from sleepless nights. Maybe it's just me, but the psychological scares provided by Gabriel Woolf's disembodied voice and a man's skin suddenly being covered with arcane symbols are far more terrifying than any number of ranting daleks.

So, what happens then? Well, the Doctor and Rose, as jovial as ever, step out of the TARDIS into a ramshackle space station inhabited by a small group of humans and their willing slaves, the tentacle-faced Ood. They soon discover that the space station is on a small, inhospitable rock which orbits a black hole, thus breaking several laws of physics, apparently, hence the episode's title. How does it do this? It turns out there's a mysterious power source at the core of the planet, and that's why the humans are there - to drill down, discover and hopefully exploit this power source. But it seems the inhospitable rock may not be quite as dead as everyone thinks...

Which brings us onto the villain of the piece. And, well, it's the Devil, isn't it? No beating around the bush with this one, it's pretty definitely the Satanic one. A little bold for that 7pm slot, but there you go. Nice coincidence (or is it?) that 6/6/06 is the Tuesday between episodes... Anyway, the Devil's presence seeps into the space station's technology. Rose's mobile phone impossibly rings to chillingly announce that 'He is awake'. An Ood's translation device states that, 'The beast and his armies shall rise from the pit to make war against God', a moment made all the more scary by the fact that the line is delivered in the Ood's usual pleasant sing-song tones. The Devil's face briefly flickers in the station's holographic imager and, most terrifying of all, science officer Toby gets possessed, his skin covered with strange symbols.

The tension builds wonderfully, helped by strong performances and Murray Gold's best and most cinematic score to date. In fact, the whole episode has a very cinematic feel, with vast images of space and underground caverns, stunning set pieces (Scooti's death being both powerfully emotive and brilliantly realised) and a really gritty, detailed story.

Any negatives? The pre-credit teaser is a cop-out that reeks of someone forgetting to write one until the last minute. And the Doctor's hug seemed like an attempt at quirky and alien but unfortunately just comes across as a bit embarrassing. Still, these minor quibbles can't dent what's been one of my favourite episodes of the new series so far. Here's hoping that whatever was rising out of the pit (and how masterful was it not to show it just yet?) provides a suitably epic conclusion to the story next week.