I have to put my hands up and admit that I wasnВ’t expecting much from this one. Yes, I was very keen to see what the new series made of its first out-and-out alien world В– even though New Earth was in a whole different galaxy, the very fact that it was В‘new EarthВ’ didnВ’t make it feel all that alien, did it?

But somewhere along the line this kept getting compared by Russell T Davies to the western genre В– pioneers making their brave new way in hostile territory, that sort of thing. I think I probably took his comments a little more literally than they were intended, but neither the idea of this bleak, miserable planet nor comparisons to westerns В– a genre that usually bores me to tears В– did anything for me. So I had this chalked down as В‘one not to get too excited aboutВ’, although of course itВ’s all relative В– an episode of Doctor Who is never anything less than very watchable, even when the show is at its worst.

Of course, I was completely wrong about the whole thing anyway В– this two-parter is absolutely wonderful, and easily my favourite story of the second series bar the perfect Girl in the Fireplace. ItВ’s very different in style to MoffatВ’s effort, however В– whereas that excelled because of the emotional resonance and the cleverness of the story, The Satan Pit (as I shall refer to the two-parter) gets by more on action-adventure and oodles of atmosphere.

In fact, there were only a few bits and pieces across the two episodes that I really didnВ’t like, so letВ’s get them out of the way first before they spoil things. The opening of the first episode В– now this is a debatable one. Is the false threat of the Ood funny and clever because it takes advantage of our expectations that they should be a threat and then subverts them (for now), poking fun at the showВ’s format? Or is it a pretty poor excuse for a forced cliffhanger, as if the production team realised they needed a bit of excitement to crash into the opening titles on rather unsubtly crow-bared this one into the plot?

I lean towards the latter myself, and I didnВ’t like it, but mercifully itВ’s out of the way quickly enough, and from here on in thereВ’s little to dislike. The Doctor hugging Zach, the similarity between the deaths of Scooti and Lynda-with-a-Y from last year with the cracking glass and the nasty death in spaceВ… Personal reactions that are probably more down to your own individual opinion than anything wrong with the episode as such.

ThereВ’s little that writer Matt Jones or director James Strong can be said to have done wrong here, and both make very favourable impressions on their first outings for the series. Given that this was shot last and thus had the shortest timescale between production and transmission, itВ’s perhaps impressive that the episodes look as good as they do. ThereВ’s only one real visual weakness that springs to mind В– again, ScootiВ’s death, as her lifeless body floats through space. Shooting this underwater was a clever idea and probably worth a go, but the overall effect looks a bit cheap and sadly just doesnВ’t come off. But if Doctor Who is nothing else itВ’s a show where new production techniques and ideas have been tried out, so I applaud them for having given it a go.

The look of the sets and the whole design elsewhere is pretty gorgeous. The Sanctuary Base looks a bit familiar perhaps from a million and one Hollywood sci-fi movies, but it more than competes and stands up to such comparisons. The whole thing looks like a big budget version of the industrial zone from The Crystal Maze, and itВ’s a look that suits the edge-of-the-universe desperation of the situation very well indeed.

David TennantВ’s Doctor seems a tad brought down in terms of his usual manic persona for much of this story, which suits the situation well given that heВ’s supposed to believe heВ’s trapped on this lump of rock with no TARDIS to give him a way out В– not that you suspect deep down the Doctor would ever believe that, and we as the audience know it would never be the case. Nonetheless, the DoctorВ’s reaction to the apparent loss of his space and time ship is handled much better here than it was back in Rise of the Cybermen, although the fact that such a similar event happens twice in comparatively rapid succession could be regarded as a little unfortunate in terms of the overall planning of the series.

Tennant is particularly good in the scenes in which the Doctor ponders just what this deep, dark menace at the bottom of the pit might be, and his appreciation of and admiration for the humansВ’ spirit of adventure and desire to seek out and discover new things is also conveyed very well by the Scot. Similarly, Piper rises to the occasion when Rose is left basically marshalling the demoralised survivors of the expedition into some sort of action against the approaching Ood. Although both Piper and her character are good at this, the fact that Rose herself doesnВ’t have anything constructive to offer does highlight the fact that she can at times seem a little bit useless when it comes to practically doing anything about the situation, although she doubtless has good leadership skills.

It pretty much goes without saying these days that any Doctor Who story is going to assemble a first-rate supporting cast, such is the draw and prestige of the show, but I have to bring special attention here to the cast, especially Danny Webb. Anybody who was in the awesome Our Friends in the North has long-since attained God-like status in my eyes, and it was good to see Webb appearing in the show and putting in a fine appearance as Mr Jefferson. Also worthy of mention is Shaun Parkes as Zach, who was of course David TennantВ’s co-star in Casanova and thus it seems almost like a reunion between their two characters in that production at some points.

And then of course thereВ’s your man Gabriel Woolf. Is it Sutekh? WellВ… no, the little we do learn about the origins of В‘the BeastВ’ do seem to go against it, but who cares frankly when youВ’re getting a performance like that out of the man. Despite never appearing on screen he managed to be by far the most disturbing thing about the story, with his highlight coming in the В“DonВ’t turn around!В” scene in which he possesses poor old TobyВ’s soul.

But what was he? Or she, or it? The devil? An Osiaian? Something completely different? Unless this does all very cleverly and unexpectedly link into something weВ’re going to see at the end of the season then I donВ’t suppose we will ever know and it will forever be a mystery В– which is nice. We could do with a few fewer explanations in Doctor Who, and the dark, enigmatic shadowy nature of this devil made it by far the most intriguing enemy the Doctor has faced this series, and perhaps since the show returned last year.

No God-like evil from the dawn of time is complete without its minions, however. The Beast gets the Ood, a frankly repulsive lot and another score for the design team, although IВ’m not completely sure about the voices. While I was a little disappointed the whole idea of their slave race nature and their origins and how they fit exactly into human society wasnВ’t explored just a little more, the idea of this servants-turned-killers plot development was a good, if slightly predictable, one, and echoed The Robots of Death, as cleverer reviewers than I have long since tired of pointing out.

ThereВ’s little else I can add without repeatedly going on about how much I enjoyed the story. Another great effort by all concerned, and letВ’s hope we get a couple more trips to completely alien worlds in series three.

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”

Whoopee!

A tour de force. This episode was at least as good as the first part of the story. The CGI was fantastic, the script was excellent, the acting was superb.

In more detail there were plenty of references to previous episodes. Particularly the Daemons and also of course the movie Alien and a Red Dwarf episode where the crew were trapped in the ventialtion shafts. Torchwood got a shout again and there was a fairly big hint that Rose is going to snuff it before the end of the series.

What about the script? Fantastic, David Tennant had some great lines and so did Billie. He put the universe on the line by trusting Rose to do the right thing and all of Rose's heroics were done to save the doc. This was easily her strongest episode this series, she really went for it. This was definetely the TARDIS twosomes strongest episode their relationship was absolutely pivotal to the plot and the resolution of the crisis at the end.

What a shame that none of the Doctor Zoidberg lookalikes survived, Why not get an ood as the next companion, every TARDIS should have one. Apart from a tendency to demonic possession they seem to be pretty fun. OK the horned god isn't universally viewed as evil it was only classed at that when Christianity clamped down on its' rivals but for the purposes of the show I can live with it.l

These two episodes are what Doctor Who should be. They give you the same thrill that a story like Planet of Evil or The Brain of Morbius gave you when you saw them for the first time. This series has been a wee bit up and down so far but these stories and 'The Girl in the Fireplace' really raise the bar. It won't be long before it's over now and we'll be watching old episodes to fill the void. You really have to ask yourself how may of them would be as good as this. Not many is the answer.

After this dollop of hard sci fi we're going to get another odd episode next week but variety is the spice of life so roll on Peter Kay.

Most people reviewing "The Impossible Planet" said that it was written so well (surprisingly so considering Matt Jones' books were not some of the best) that even if "The Satan Pit" tanked, it would still be a great two-part episode.

Well no point in worrying because this part was as good if not better than the first, and that's saying something for Sci-Fi! I can't begin to write down all the Science Fiction two parters that just simply fell apart or just weren't all that interesting somewhere during part two.

In case I didn't mention it before, this two parter is not only awesome because they FINALLY leave the planet Earth, it's also incredible acting by every single member of the cast. If I was English, I might recognize some of these people (I believe someone said that 'Toby' was from a UK version of "Dancing With the Stars" or something). Still, every single cast member had a personality, passion and strength rarely seen in side characters. When they sacrifice themselves or are simply killed, you actually feel for them. David Tennant is brilliant as well. he really loves the humans again, something I had missed in the ninth's incarnation. His "sacrifice" of dropping to the bottom of the pit is a tiny bit lame only because A) You know he's not going to die and B) If he did he would just regenerate (although we are getting up there in "allowed" regenerations aren't we?). I'm also not sure if this crew, no matter how much they like and trus t The Doctor and Rose, would allow themselves to be ordered around by a young blond girl in overalls but hey, it's not called suspension of disbelief for nothin'!

Of course all the effects were absolutely top-notch. I don't know what they have planned for the finale but it sure seems like they spent a year's budget on a single episode. I love the rocket they escape in, the up close shots of the Black Hole, the Tardis hauling the rocket out of the Black Hole and hmmm....am I forgetting something? Oh yeah... "Satan" was AWESOME!!!! I can't help but think back to The Daemons. What a comparison. This guy looked, in a word, fantastic!!!!!! What an awesome looking demon.

The score in this entire two-parter was very similar to Firefly. I hope they keep it up. The slight violins and such work very well to the atmosphere of this episode. As with every episode there's a few holes like why would Toby/Satan need to tell an Ood he's controlling to shush about his presence and let him escape. Still, didn't affect my love for this two parter even one small bit. As I said in last week's review:

If you're a fan of Science Fiction, you deserve a show like this. Go find this two-parter and watch it ASAP!!!!

My expectations were high for The Satan Pit after the cliff-hanger ending to last week's excellent episode. Would Rose and the crew of the Sanctuary Base be zapped by the possessed Ood? Would the planet be sucked into the black hole? And just what was rising out of the pit to confront the Doctor and Ida?

These tricky situations were all, more or less, resolved with startling speed. The planet's orbit settled back down and locking the doors (temporarily) dealt with Ood. And as for what was emerging from the pit... well, it turned out that nothing was emerging from the pit. It was just a naughty point-of-view camera trick. Unfortunately, this did slightly deflate the episode for a moment. I felt it needed a more explosive beginning. Things righted themselves to an extent with the Beast speaking through the Ood on the video screen before giving them a brief glimpse of his demonic visage. The panicked crew talking over one another, only to be silenced, and then calmed, by the Doctor's interruption was a great scene, though the Beast's sepulchral tones were less impressive when mixed with the voices of the Ood.

With the lift cable broken, the story went in two directions: the Doctor and Ida contemplating the pit while the others crawled through access ducts to defeat the pursuing Ood. These latter scenes were as tense and claustrophobic as they needed to be, but reminiscent of similar scenes at the end of the film Aliens. The final door rising up to reveal waiting Ood provided a nice jolt, but choosing this moment to also reveal that Toby was still possessed by the Beast was a mistake. How much more of a shock would it have been if the audience discovered the Beast's escape plan along with the Doctor and Rose? As it was, we were waiting for them to play catch-up.

Ida and the Doctor's scenes in the cavern provided an interesting juxtaposition, quiet and thoughtful, and a chance to see a greater depth to the Doctor's character. The sometimes irritating banter and over-confidence vanished, to be replaced by introspection, doubt, even fear. Despite pressure from Ida, he initially decides against investigating the pit - maybe curiosity has been his downfall once too often. He dismisses the Beast's statement that it came from 'before time', but still seems shaken by the possibility. And he has a couple of magical, heart-in-the-mouth moments. Firstly, his 'No, it's not the urge to jump; it's the urge to fall', followed by his backward tumble over the edge of the pit. Secondly, when he unclips his caribenas and plummets into the void. With no idea of what's below him, it's almost as if he doesn't care what happens to him, whether he lives or dies. The simplicity of the visuals - the Doctor's flailing form against inky blackness, shrinking to nothing as he falls - makes for a stunning scene, especially as I thought, as the topside crew were about to re-establish radio contact, that he might be talked out of it.

The following scene, as Rose breaks down and then refuses to leave on the rocket with the others, ups the emotional ante. In fact, generally, the emotional moments in this episode work well - Jefferson's final scene and Ida's radio farewell to Zack being also worthy of mention.

So then the plot gets resolved. It's neatly done, if a little straightforward. The Doctor meets the visually highly impressive Beast and deduces that its intelligence has escaped on the rocket; Rose, strapped in on the rocket, comes to the same conclusion. As mentioned above, the audience is already one step ahead here, more's the pity. The Doctor, realising the trap, proclaims his faith in Rose and destroys the gravity field, apparently dooming everyone to end up in the black hole. The Beast speaks through a tattooed Toby once more - still shocking, despite it being about the third time it happens - and Rose despatches it and him, using that blatantly signposted bolt gun with one remaining bolt. The Doctor, using the rather-too-easily recovered TARDIS rescues Ida and saves the rocket from the black hole. Job done. It was the Ood I felt sorry for though, used and abused by both humans and Beast, and left cowering in the base corridors as they plummeted to certain death in the black hole.

In the end then, an enjoyable episode, but not the classic I was hoping for. I realise my expectations were perhaps unfeasibly high after The Impossible Planet last week, but it seemed that the best bits were used in that first episode, and not enough was held back for the story's conclusion. I thought I might end up with a new Doctor Who 'favourite two-parter', but I think that must remain The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances from last year. For the moment, at least.

Oh dear oh dear oh dear - after last week's cracking episode full of tension and excitement and almost reminiscent of the Sandminer crew in Robots of Death, the Satin Pit quickly sank into the most of cliche of SF plots - a chained up monster on a planet trying to escape with inhabitants of space base being chased around corridors by monsters (in this case the Oods which had shown great potential last week). For the majority of the episode the Doctor dangles on a rope, eventually crashes to the bottom and has pointless dialogue with a growling devil like creature whilst faithful Rose is left to deal with the creature's intelligence in the space rocket fleeing the black hole. Then bingo the Doctor finds the Tardis at the foot of the pit and saves the remaining humans - hoorah!!

To be fair the acting was of the same high standard as part one and the special effects were terrific. But the concept has been done in Doctor Who many times before - The Daemons, Pyramids of Mars, Battlefield to name a few. Despite the references to the Doctor and Rose questioning their beliefs about a creature that may have existed before the creation of the universe, there was nothing new here. Break a couple of flower pots and the creature remains prisoned for ever more - oh come on - pleasssssssssssssse!!!

So my first thumbs down for this season - maybe I just expected too much and episode one was really quite superb. This was a wasted opportunity to bring a really good space adventure to the season - it ultimately failed in my eyes - what a shame!!! And poor Oods - all wiped out - another race sent to oblivion!