The Impossible Planet

I've now seen this twice. My first viewing was in the games room of a camp site, where the wife and I were joined by four children. Second viewing was at home for the BBC3 repeat.

Quite simply, the best episode of Doctor Who since the show came back. Yes, even better than "The Empty Child", and if "The Satan Pit" is as good...then this will be one of the all time greats adventures. As a single episode, this will rank already as one of the best.

I knew nothing of Matt Jones' previous writing so went in with an open mind...save that the synopsis I read suggested this might be one to look forward to.

My goodness, if ever there were one episode to show people and say "This is Doctor Who"....then it is this one. It has it all. OK, so the 'base under siege' theme is not new, and the visuals are reminiscent of Alien/Aliens but there is something fresh and new about this.

We have an apparently impossible situation, a planet in orbit around a black hole - kept there by some unknown energy source buried deep beneath the planet's surface. The Doctor and Rose arrive (in a cupboard, brilliant!) and things go further wrong, an earthquake destroys the section of the base where the TARDIS materialised.

On board the base we have a pretty normal bunch of people, who have elected to drill a shaft to investigate the power source. As usual this year, the supporting cast are excellent. And they are aided by the Ood, apparently a slave/heard race who communicate via low level telepathy.

Things go wrong in a sinister way when The Beast, whcih we surmise must be at the bottom of the shaft, awakens and starts sending message to the Ood...and posesses one of the people. This culminates in perhaps one of the most scary scenes ever committed to videotape. And it's so simple..."Toby, I am right behind you"....yet so chilling!

Finally the drill shaft is complete, so the Doctor and one of the workers from the base descend to investigate. They find a 30 foot diameter trap door, which opens revealing......

Cue end credits, a sigh of relief and genuine anticipation as to what comes next Saturday!

Really top notch stuff. 10/10 for all concerned.