The Satan Pit

To avoid redundancy I won't do a precis of the story as other reviewers have already done it. What I want to say is that about 30 years too late the BBC have finally put into Doctor Who the money it deserves. The "Satan Pit" has set the bar for the visual look of any Doctor Who story so far with a definite cinematic feel to rival or beat American TV Sci-Fi. For anyone but the casual viewer the influences of Robots of Death/Quatermass/Alien/Event Horizon etc may have been a little too obvious though. Thankfully the corridors are also getting better.

I don't know if this was the first Doctor Who story to bring in the (supposed?) devil. Even if it wasn't, this was done excellently with a surprising intensity for 7pm on a saturday night. The story and its execution shows that if the BBC wanted to they could probably make a really good adult Sci-Fi show, at least if they discard the silly jokes and only use humour that fits. Saying that, there's something about the writing on BBC dramas that often has a kind of "clever" world weary knowingness about it that I personally find off-putting in the context of something like DW. Same with the references to things like EastEnders - it may be "clever" but it's not necessary.

The two-parter "The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit" is surely the highlight of this series which has had other strong contenders. It's comparable to, or better than, last year's "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances" in terms of visuals and execution, if not imagination. Sadly the thing that spoils it for me is the irritating relationship between the Doctor and Rose. At times it's like watching a Sci-Fi/Fantasy equivalent of a pair of twenty-somethings who haven't outgrown their teenage years going travelling around the world in a camper van and patronising the foreigners they meet. Plus, the "Humans are so fantastic" thing was done to death in the old Doctor Who - there's no need to resurrect it here in such a cack-handed manner.

Rating: 8/10. Great, albeit derivative, story. Fantastic special effects and creatures. Good supporting cast.