The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit

Oh dear. Having just glanced over the reviews already posted on this page, it seems that I am destined to become largely outspoken in my opinion of these two episodes. You see, I thought they were just damn awful. There you go, I said it. В‘The Impossible PlanetВ’ and В‘The Satan PitВ’. Awful.

As inflammatory as that may sound, it would not be fair of me to take an indiscriminate swipe at all the elements of this story. The visual effects, for example, were absolutely stunning В– probably the best the series has seen since it returned to our screens. Hats off also to James Strong for his accomplished, inspired direction. And, of course, David Tennant and Billie Piper were, as always, brilliant. Not one of these things can be faulted.

No, where В‘The Satan PitВ’ fell down was with the most important element of all В– the script.

Now lets be honest, the quality of the scripts so far this year have generally been weaker than in Series One. There have been some corkers (В‘School ReunionВ’, В‘The Girl In The FireplaceВ’), some trundlers (В‘New EarthВ’, В‘The IdiotВ’s LanternВ’) and some absolute stinkers (В‘Rise Of The Cybermen/The Age Of SteelВ’). Unfortunately, В‘The Satan PitВ’ falls into the latter category.

Given that Matt Jones had ninety minutes to play around with, how he chose to fill them was baffling. We seemed to be getting padding and endless set-pieces when we should have been getting plot and character development.

ItВ’s true that, in Season One, the writers were still finding their feet when it came to the two-parters В– the finer points of how the narrative should be paced were still being worked out which lead to them being slightly patchy and uneven in their concluding episode. Even В‘The Empty ChildВ’ suffered with this to some degree although, admittedly, not as much as the others. By Season Two, Russell T. Davies and his team of writers should be starting to get to grips with the longer stories but neither of the two-parters so far this year have demonstrated any advancement in this area. In fact, they seem to have taken a step backwards. But whereas the problem with В‘The Rise Of The CybermanВ’ was that there were too many elements vying for attention (The Doctor, Rose, Pete and Jackie, Mickey, the Cybermen, John Lumic, the Preachers, an alternate Earth, etc), В‘The Satan PitВ’ suffered from the exact opposite - there simply wasnВ’t enough plot to go around, resulting in a lot of tedious, overblown dialogue, running down corridors and repetition (just how many times did we get the scene where Toby was sitting in his office only to have his name whispered by the unseen beast? I genuinely lost count!)

Another side effect of the thin plot was that you just stopped caring about the guest characters. When something was revealed about one of the crew it tended to be largely superficial. There was one instance where the beast goaded each crew member, revealing some weakness or ghost from their past. Toby, for instance, was apparently a virgin. Was this mentioned at any other point? Did it have any bearing on the plot? Nope. Ida was still running scared from her father. An interesting scenario and motivation for the character. Did this develop any further than the one glib remark? Nope. The only character that was allowed to bleed through successfully from this scene was that of the Acting Captain. He was demonstrated true worry about the responsibility of command and, certainly earlier on in the story, this proved to be quite interesting. Unfortunately, we were given no grounding to how this insecurity had come about. Shame.

Even the DoctorВ’s character suffered. The idea of him having his ideals tested is a brilliant one but it was just too shallow and came across largely unresolved. Having sat there through all the tedium for ninety minutes, you couldnВ’t help but feel slightly cheated and unfulfilled.

In Doctor Who Confidential, Russell T. Davies commented that it was important for the Doctor to not always have an answer, hence at the conclusion of this story we are left not fully knowing the nature of the beast that he encountered. This is all well and good, a fine idea in fact В– nobody ever has all the answers В– but I fear that what Russell was really saying was В‘sorry guys, but we kind of ran out of ideasВ…В’ If the intention really was to let the audience draw its own conclusions on the beast then why not leave the creature unseen, an invisible but ever present threat? Surely this would have been scarier and far more in keeping with the creepy, dingy space-horror that the story was trying to emulate. В‘Tooth & ClawВ’ suffered in much the same way В– how much more exciting and horrifying would it have been if weВ’d been made to wait right up to the moment when the werewolf bursts into the observatory before we get a chance to see it in all its terrifying glory? I understand that the BBC want to show off how accomplished the effects being produced at The Mill are В– and donВ’t get me wrong, I think theyВ’re breathtaking В– but it comes across slightly like a young teenage girl putting on makeup for the first time; she cakes too much on. Season One got it right in this respect, the visual effects were there to compliment the narrative, to drive it forward to the next passage of plot development. Here, unfortunately, it just felt like the visuals were plugging the gaping holes in the storyline.

Why, oh why couldnВ’t this story have been confined to one episode (a format far more fitting to the depth of its plot) and an extra forty-five given over to one of the richer ideas from this season? (Just imagine how much more Toby Whitehouse could have done with Sarah Jane and K9, for instance!)

Please, please, pull your socks up guys! In 2005, you showed us how brilliant Doctor Who can be in the right hands!

As K9 would say: В“Suggestion В– spend less money on visual effects and more on hiring people who can write!В”