Since "Doctor Who" came back to TV, the makers have so far been going down a checklist of things that either the original series or the spinoffs in the wilderness years did and bringing them to full-screen and fully-updated life. This story covers some of the few remaining "big" items to check off, like "visit hostile alien planet," and "meet Devil," and now having seen these done and done so well, I feel like we are at last back to "normal," or at least what normal was before the cancellation crises of the mid-80s started, or what normal should be today in 2006. Strange that such a gripping, suspenseful, and terrifying story should bring about in me a feeling of relaxation, like the series is finally well and truly "home." What a pleasant feeling to have. :)

In classic series terms, this is very much "Planet of Evil" crossed with "Pyramids of Mars" and a bit of "The Ark in Space." From "Evil," we have a bottomless black pit that the Doctor falls into, a scientific expedition on a hostile planet that's slowly going under, and some physics that's rough around the edges. From "Mars," we have the god-like being that could destroy the universe, the prison that it's kept in, the prison helping the Doctor to prevent the jailbreak , and even the voice of Gabriel Woolf. And from "Ark in Space," there's some good old running-away-from-monsters-in-ducting and diversion of power from a rocket ship with its own power system. Oh, and there's the old "we've lost the TARDIS" trick. I make these points not to criticize the series for reusing its own greatest hits collection, but to remind everyone that we saw these things in "Doctor Who" in 1975, and that's where it's all coming from, and not from other movies and media that became hits in the meantime. And it's more than just straight reuse. It's all given a fresh 2006 update with plenty of great character work, as the story stops itself on numerous occasions to let the Doctor, Rose, or our guest starts pause to think about the implications of what it is they're discovering, or about how much trouble they're now in, or how old the person who's just died was as she floats off into a black hole. I also very much like that, for once, the space explorers in a tough environment are not a bunch of cynics complaining about their lot or what bonus their evil paymasters didn't give them or how they shouldn't trust these strangers who just turned up. They're still at least somewhat cheerful, for although they may lose people, they're all doing something they believe in and feel like they're getting somewhere, and for that, the Doctor gives their captain a hug, in what's probably my favorite character moment that the Tenth Doctor has had yet. And now for that thing they discover...

Now, normally, I bristle whenever in "Doctor Who" we get a giant god-like monster from beyond the universe or time or what-have-you. These things are too often done as excuses for the villain to do apparently magic things or to introduce a silly backstory with all sorts of proper names attached to it. I was therefore a bit surprised to find myself really enjoying how the Beast material turned out, and I think the reason why is that although we've got the Beast, there's only a very sketchy backstory given for it (literally), and we only see a small fraction of its power. The rest is very wisely left to our imaginations as to whether or not this thing really is the true original Devil, or how bad it would be for the universe if it ever got out. It's big (really big) and bad and it can read your mind, and it might be older than the oldest hill, and it sounds like Gabriel Woolf, and that's all we need to know for it to be terrifying. On the Woolf casting front... I, like many others, was a bit giddy with anticipation that it could turn out to be Sutekh himself, but in the end I'm glad it turned out not to be. Had it been him somehow, it would have devalued both this and the earlier story, and in any case, the Beast that we do get to see is so visually impressive that I don't mind that it wasn't that guy with the mask with the green lightbulbs in it. And I do also much appreciate the implication that this Beast probably inspired those on all of the other planets that we've already seen horned beasts on, particularly Dжmos as the Dжmons were supposedly behind humankind's obsession with devlish imagery.

Of course, another big thing the 2006 series can bring to these 1975 "Doctor Who" traditions is the much-improved visual images, and this story certainly didn't disappoint on that score. "Doctor Who" has never looked as good as it did here, and in parts this show looks almost as good as "The Lord of the Rings" movies. There's the black hole itself, the star systems it's eating, that freakin' awesome Beast, the exteriors of the base, Scooti floating in underwater-for-space, but most of all, the cavern system leading to the seal, which looks utterly and completely convincing to me. I had no idea until I'd seen the "Confidential" episode how they shot that, and that it proved to have been done in a traditional "Doctor Who" quarry is the most ironic thing I've heard all year. Everyone at the Mill and on the effects team in general should give themselves some hugs like the Doctor does in this story, because you've really surpassed yourselves this time.

Director James Strong did a number on us as well, milking almost every shot for all the tension he could get out of it. For example, in one scene, the stage directions probably read "Toby looks in horror at his hands, which are suddenly covered in the alien lettering." But is that the final shot we get? Not quite.... first Toby looks at the backs of his hands, which are clear and fine, and so for an instant he and we watching think, "oh, they're fine," but then he turns them over, and there's the lettering all over them. Strong fills the entire story with little changeups like this, so we can never quite anticipate just when the scary bit is going to appear. I also would like to mention the four different reactions shots from only slightly different angles that we get in quick succession as the Doctor has one of his Tenth Doctor trademark moments of "Yes! No! Wait! Yes!" as he thinks very rapidly aloud to himself down in the pit.

Speaking of that Tenth Doctor, David Tennant really found some new sides of him to show us this time. We haven't seen "melancholy" from this Doctor much before now, but here when he's confronted with some really terrifying things for the Doctor, he gets all sullen. The two that stand out to me are when he's sitting with Rose over dinner contemplating having to settle down somewhere and have a mortgage on a house now that he may have lost the TARDIS for good, and especially that moment when he is hanging in the pit deciding on whether he should fall to the bottom or not and also trying to answer Ida's question about what he believes in. It's in that moment that we hear for the first time in a while his belief that he hasn't learned everything yet, and that's what keeps him going and going, and it's that which gets him to let go and fall to the bottom. (and what an image that shot is of him falling into blackness) And once there at the bottom, we learn of his other belief... his belief in her....

And speaking of Rose, she at last is back to the top form and quality screen time she hasn't had really since "The Parting of the Ways." "The Satan Pit," where she takes charge of the Ood crisis back in the base, is her strongest episode of the season by far. Whereas that take-charge-like-the-Doctor-does attitude got her into trouble in the previous story, here it's what saves herself and some of the others and helps to finally destroy (?) the Beast. Cut off from the Doctor, she doesn't go apopleptic but instead thinks what he would tell people, tells them the same, and because it makes so much sense, they do it even though they've all got ranks and a command structure and she's the mysterious stranger who doesn't even know what an Ood is. I mentioned things I bristle at earlier, and another one of those is when a hero has some pithy final line for the villain just before killing him, but somehow I actually really loved Rose telling the Beast to go to hell just before she literally sends him there with her bolt shot at the window at the end. I don't know why I liked it this time. I think it's just because it was Rose saying it and doing it... this lost little shop girl so far away from home comes through and kills the Devil himself. That's pretty cool.

Speaking of pretty cool, Murray Gold's music veered back into that category with this story. He gave us some truly beautiful music to go with the imagery this time, particularly the movements that accompany the reveal of the cave and the bit where Toby is standing out in the vacuum and then kills Scooti. That was very "Firefly"-like, and that's always a good thing. More like this please, Murray.

There's lots of other things I want to praise about this story too, but this is already going on a very long time, so I'm going to just have to list things and tell you at the top here that these were are all fantastic: the entire guest cast and the way their parts were written, the character name of Captain Zachary Cross Flane which is just the coolest name ever, the Ood, the inventive plot of the Beast trying to escape the jail in mind and not in body, the rocket, the ventilation ducts which for once don't do any venting, the spacesuits, the random spooky voices, putting the next week trail after the credits again... and so on and so on.

And last and least, I will take my shots at the ropey physics. I call them the least because they're all things that could have been fixed, and none of these things being wrong really impede the story in any way. It's just frustrating for someone of my background to see these things continuing to crop up from time to time. I do wish they'd let someone with a science background at least glance over the scripts before they shoot them so burs like this can be sanded down though.

There clearly seems to be gravity on the surface of this planetoid, so why is Scooti's dead body not just lying on the ground outside where Toby cracked the wall? Why is she suddenly floating above the base and off towards the black hole? (It looked really, really cool, I'll grant you, but why?)

Why is the gravity near and within the pit at normal levels when, being near the center of the planetoid, it should be balanced out to near zero-g? And since it should be near zero-g, that could've been used as the reason why the Doctor didn't crash when he got the bottom of the pit.

Why do they keep saying it's impossible to orbit a black hole when it is no such thing? (All this needed was to say that they're beyond the event horizon of the black hole while they're orbitting... now that would be impossible.)

Sci-fi tends to scrimp around the sounds-in-space issue for dramatic effect when ships are shooting at each other, but as recently as "The Parting of the Ways" we saw "Doctor Who" not allowing Dalek-to-person sound transmission through the vacuum. So how can Ida and the Doctor hear the rocket take off when it's doing so in vacuum?

That's all that come to mind right now, but I suspect there might have been one or two others.

Overall though, a tremendous story and a welcome return for "Doctor Who" to a truly alien planet and situation. 9.5 out of 10. (I'm docking 0.5 for the ropey physics.

What a disappointment that a story as fantastic as the Impossible Planet/ the Satan Pit should attract a comparatively paltry audience of under six million. There was a feeling or maybe a hope that the Impossible PlanetВ’s audience of 5.9 million represented something of the hardcore of the programmeВ’s current viewing audience and that the figures were unlikely to dip further but my high of yesterday has become my concern of today now that the overnights have been revealed.

It isnВ’t RTDВ’s, David TennantВ’s or anyone elseВ’s fault that thereВ’s a World Cup on at the moment, or that the weather is uncharacteristically glorious, that these are the longest days of the year and there may be lots of people away, or that we live in an age where thereВ’s ample opportunity to see an episode another time if you miss the first transmission. The trailer for next week doesnВ’t inspire me to believe that things will improve statistically, so how far can the figures slide? To five million? Four and a half? Lower? I donВ’t have the stats for season 26 in front of me for comparison purposes but one thing I do know is that audience viewing figures for initial programme transmissions are still considered very important and someone, somewhere will have noted that in the space of a mere few weeks not thousands but millions have for one reason or another not seen the initial transmission. Temporary blip? Hope so. First sign that the honeymoon period is over in the eyes of the viewing public? Maybe. People at large loved Chris but are more lukewarm towards DavidВ’s energetic but at times too energetic and В“loudВ” portrayal? Who knows.

ItВ’s easier said than done I know, but serious consideration will surely have to be given to airing season three earlier next year, if possible, otherwise there might not be a season four to look forward to at all. Anyway, stories like this are best viewed when itВ’s dark outside for maximum effect! Hey, maybe that was one reason some didnВ’t watchВ….too scary. Because at times this one really did do what the old ones used to do more often (or is it just that IВ’m older?) and make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.

The outstanding success of Matt JonesВ’s effort was largely due to the coming together of all the showВ’s finest elements into one brilliant whole. The story is of sufficient length to enable a fuller exploration of the various characters of the Sanctuary Base and this it does very well, aided it must be said by commentary from the Beast, and everyone turns in believable performances. This story, despite its subject matter of the possible existence of an impossibly old evil from before the dawn of the universe itself, was as gritty as they come and whilst the Beast proves himself to be the father of lies in his forecast of total wipeout for all those on the Base, it is nevertheless only three members, aside from the Doctor and Rose, who make it out alive, and the hapless Ood are totally destroyed. Even Rose blasts the possessed Toby out of the rocket and to his (apparent) doom.

And then there were the visuals В–absolutely stunning. Was I watching a film or a TV programme? Hard to tell. Am I getting carried away because this was the first, and it would seem only time this series that our travellers visit an alien world? And the haunting music, particularly in the Impossible Planet- wonderful. This was a perfect compliment to some stand out sequences, for example the truly chilling moment when the possessed Toby turns to look at Scooti Manista (what a lovely name) and beckons her towards him. Thought for a moment he might start floating towards her and scratch the window as in SalemВ’s LotВ… And then there was the shocking image of poor Scooti floating lifelessly in space. In the Satan Pit, the DoctorВ’s В“ act of faithВ” jump in to the abyss is also eerily well done, shades of Planet of Evil possibly but IВ’m not complaining. Just prior to that, during his controlled initial descent, the DoctorВ’s calm discourse with Ida as to the possible reason for the numerous myths and legends surrounding the devil is refreshingly restrained, (on TennantВ’s part) and not didactic, and perhaps the icing on the cake of Matt JonesВ’s excellent script is that it leaves open the question of the BeastВ’s ultimate identity and origin. And why not? We live in an age where thereВ’s an increasing tendency for some to dismiss and ridicule anything that doesnВ’t have an immediate physical explanation. The DoctorВ’s point is to say that one of the joys of travelling is that there is always the possibility of discovering something that might force you to alter your world, or should I say, universe view of things.

Listen, IВ’m basking in the enjoyment of this at the moment. In a few weeks IВ’ll watch it again and it might unravel before my very eyes. All I can say is that for the here and now this has overtaken Tooth and Claw as my favourite story of the season, and it just may well rank as one of my all time favourites. If I may join the ranks of those reviewers who like to give a mark: 9/10

"Tell Rose... awwhhh.. She knows."
*click, then a silent fall into the unknown*

While I watched the episodes on the transmitted dates, I recently had to catch my roomate up to speed on the last two episodes today, and had the expierence of taking in the entire story at one go. Hence my reflections on the entire thing.

I may have to rate this as my favorite story of the new series, and as well, put in my all time faves for all of DW as whole as well. And Im not saying this lightly. Story construction wise, I thought it worked in a way that, was a bit unexpected and thusly succesful; and very fulfilling. Case in point, the first half built up to this great suspenseful.. and then the second half slowed down a bit and was more reflectful in places. And why does this work in an overall context? Well..

You are dealing with Untimate Concepts here. The worst of the worst, the root of all evil. Its a great primise, but how do you pull it off, and it not seem to be impossible to top for all the remaining episodes? You pull back a bit. The story teetered on the edge of The Ultimate Bad, but never fully gave you that. Even explaination-wise, as it was left to to the characters to determin what it was all about, so it was with the viewers. And that is how it should be. If you deal with Ultimate Concepts, then hand you everything.. you walk away later feeling all has been done. The Doctor has worked it all out. And where is there to go after that?

The quiet, haunting, still moments for me, are the key for me, why this worked. Sure explosions and chases and death are all good fun and games in a Ultimate Exciting Adventure.. but its not the meat.

Fot me, the meat of this story was, quiet, and almost unspoken, and abstract. Toby standing in the vaccume. Scooti's body floating. The passing of the Scarlett System. The 'mundane' talk of the Doc and Rose while the hauntingly beautiful black hole is suspended above them. Rose's Refusal to leave the Doctor, even if he's dead. Ida's "I dont want to die alone" bit. And above all.. what may become the single greatest iconic moment for me in the character of the Doctor overall of all series... The Doctor, hanging by a cable above nothingness.. talking to Ida about beliefs and then telling her to "Tell Rose.. awwhh... she knows..." and then silently letting go and falling in to the black nothingness on nothing but faith. Faith in that he hasnt see it all yet.

As I write this, I get chills just thining back to that image.. the Doctor hanging above the unknown.. the dark. And in turn, facing the unknown, the dark. In life, in death, in existance. Awwh, she knows. And that dank and unknown is "why he keeps traveling".

The other characters have it well served as well. When you habd the audience everything, it may all click the first time, but unless there is something left, the mystery, then unknown, then there is nothing to come back to. We are left with glimpses of each character.. but so much is unsaid. The 'running from her father'. The virgin. The unforgiving wife. The unwilling captian. The boy who lied. They are just bits and fragments.

And an interesting unspoken point to Toby 'the virgin' continualy checking his hands for the writing, much as the myth that masterbation leads to hairy palms.. and the checking for hairy palms is the first sign of maddness.. not finding the hair, but the checking. After his first possession, watch him, impulsively looking again and again, like a tounge instinctualy returning to a broken tooth.. If he is the innocent, symbolicly, then why him? Whats his fear and guilt.. that hes a bad person? And he checks, and he checks. It eats into him, quietly in the background. The question he must be facing now, as he did in his life with his 'virginity'.. "Whats wrong with me???"

Doctor Who. Doctor Who? The show is about mystery, the unknown, and the exploration of all that is out there, and in here, and unsanswered. It is the central question, poised by the unwritten exclaimation point in the very title of the show. The "?" itself. And the "?" drives the show, the main character, and the need to explore. The more we learn about the Doctor, the more the "?" becomes deeper.. more doors opened.

And even when the Doctor in the pit, meets the beast, the beast is silent. He cannot talk. We dont get the anticipated answeres.. we get the Doctor, thinking outloud with his throries. He faces the great unknown, and all he can take back with him, or even face, is what he brought with him in his mind. No great relevelation made. The beast is silent.

This story is as a whole, amazing. And its quite moments, its refelctive moments.. that will remain eternal, long after all the chases have been made dull through repetition.

For at the end, we still have the central "?" that drives the characters, the situation, tha show... And our very lives everyday. That is what is eternal. That is what is impossibley old. The "?"

Thank you, Matt Jones and the production team, for not handing us everything. Thank you for the mystery. Thank you for delivering something that will remain.

For all those that loved this story, watch it as I did, back to back. The whole thing in one go. You will see something very epic in its duration. And its the epicness that comes from the unknown.

Of staring into the dark, and having the dark stare back at you. And you facing that. And not with words, or solutions, or answers. Just you and the dark, alone. Just you and the "?".

Like the Doctor, hanging by the cable against the abyss. Then letting go. Which is now for me, the single most iconic, and simple representation of all that is WHO.

The Doctor and the "?". Then falling.

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.