2.8-9: The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit
Synopsis: The TARDIS brings the Doctor and Rose to a sanctuary base on a basically uninhabitable planet which, impossibly, orbits around a black hole. A small cell of officers dwell in the sanctuary, along with the Ood, a race of alien "livestock," used as servants. The crew is drilling to the centre of the planet in search of some power source, some ten miles down. A quake causes part of the base to fall into a crater, taking the TARDIS with it, trapping our heroes.
A malevolent entity begins speaking to and attacking the crew by way of one of the officers, Toby, and the Ood. It calls itself the Devil. The Ood chase the crew members through the base, and they have no choice but to leave the planet on a rocket.
Meanwhile, the drilling has stopped and the Doctor and Ida, the science officer, have gone into the drill shaft to explore. While they are gone, the cable into the shaft snaps loose, trapping them in the pit. Figuring upon 60 minutes of oxygen, they decide to push further, before they die. The Doctor finds a great beast literally chained to a rock, and assumes rightly that this is the entity that's been tormenting the crew. But though it is physically trapped, its consciousness is free, existing as an idea, wreaking havoc.
The mechanism trapping the beast also keeps the planet in orbit around the black hole, so that if it were ever set free, it would fall in, along with the planet. The Doctor is ready to sacrifice himself to destroy the beast. However, he knows that the crew has left the planet on a rocket bound for Earth, with Rose on-board. The rocket wouldn't stand a chance against the black hole. But he also knows that the beast's consciousness is within Toby, on-board the rocket, carrying that malevolence back to Earth. Faced with the question of sacrificing Rose in order to destroy "the Devil," he decides to do so, because he believes in Rose's ingenuity and that she will survive. When the fallout throws the Doctor's body into a tunnel, he finds the TARDIS has fallen there, and is able to use it to tow the rocket out of harm's way.
Golden Comic Moment: Funny moments in this episode are few and far between, as one would expect from a story whose latter half is entitled "The Satan Pit." However, we find the Doctor's interactions with Zack delightful. After learning about the brilliance and resilience of this crew, the Doctor says to Zack, "Just stand there, 'cause I'm going to hug you. Is that all right?" Zack responds with feigned reluctance, "'Spose so." They hug, and it is truly a moment that will make you smile, particularly because Zack so clearly enjoys it (but not in a pushing-a-homosexual-agenda sort of way - it's just good clean fun).
It is worth mentioning that the chemistry between these two actors is not unprecedented. Shaun Parkes (Zack) played Rocco, the best friend of David Tennant's Casanova in the miniseries of the same name. Russell T. Davies says he doesn't believe in chemistry, but in these two guys, he's been able to exploit it twice!
Golden Fangirl Moment: If I were a different kind of fangirl, this story would be rife with great moments! But I am not that kind of fan, and in fact, those moments are cringeworthy to me!
I can only cite the first appearance of the Tenth Doctor in that orange spacesuit. He will wear that suit twice more, and it's always cute, but something about that first glimpse just makes us all twitterpated. He's being brave and noble, volunteering for a dangerous mission, which is no change, but that spacesuit is like a suit of armour for the sci-fi generation, and he's going into battle. He's only missing his foil!
Oh, and speaking of wearing that orange suit again, check out the IDA barrels in "The Waters of Mars." A harkening back in homage to Ida Scott?
Cringeworthy Moment: Oh boy, here we go.
It's not the story's fault, in fact, I think it's actually a very good story - the pieces fit together very nicely, and the subjet matter is philosophical and juicy. But I can't stand watching these episodes! Because I am not a Ten/Rose fan, I wind up cringing every five seconds. Almost every single interaction between the Doctor and Rose in this episode, starting from the moment when they step out of the TARDIS, until the moment when they reunite inside the TARDIS at the end, is gooey and overplayed. It has some of the most oft-cited Ten/Rose touchy-feely moments that are meant to be profound in light of their possible separation in this story, but just seem inserted as self-indulgent squee fodder.
Case in point: 1) When the TARDIS is gone, they are faced with settling down somewhere. Rose "goes there," and says what the Doctor and everyone else is thinking: you'll have to live together, and what does that mean? It's meant to make us gasp with awwww, but it's just awkward!
2) She kisses his helmet before he goes into the pit. And it's not even the dirty innuendo that makes it icky. It's icky all by itself.
3) When the Doctor thinks he'll never see Rose again, he says to Ida, "Tell her... oh, she knows." It is a link in the long chain of opportunities the Doctor has to say on camera that he loves Rose, but stops short. This all might be a bit more bearable, even for me, if he'd just come out and say it, for cryin' out loud. At least then we could dispense with the angst (says the Martha Jones fan... I know). And as we all know, the worst is yet to come!
4) His reasoning for destroying the beast, even if it means pulling the rocket (and Rose) into the black hole, is that if he's never believed in anything else before, "I believe in her!" Their love has become a catalyst for saving the day? Really?
5) That reunion scene at the end when Rose comes into the TARDIS and they have the hug to end all hugs. I guess I've seen too many Youtube videos in which that clip is inserted just after the Doctor fades from Bad Wolf Bay in "Doomsday," so that the Ten/Rose camp can feel vindicated and have closure. (Though, a remarkably similar hug happens in "42" with a different companion, and that one doesn't make me cringe... I've never claimed that I'm unbiased here, people!)
With so many Cringeworthy moments, it's difficult to pick just one. So, since we've already been quite mean to Rose in this commentary thus far, so I'm going to go whole hog and just be downright bitchy. The most cringeworthy thing about this story is Billie Piper's appearance. She just looks trashy. Her hair is flat and matted to her head, hanging contrivedly in her face for most of the time. It's like a 13-year-old has just discovered sex appeal. Her eye makeup is caked on even worse than usual, and I'm sorry, but when you put light pink gloss on a woman with lips like that, and then put her under dim colored lighting, it just makes her look like a porn star. For God's sake, Billie Piper is an attractive woman - someone needed to do right by her, and it ended in a cosmetology fail!
Okay, I'm done. I promise, I'll be nice to her in the next one.
Golden Moment: Four or five of our Golden Moments thus far have had to do with the characters' thoughts on humanity. It is our belief that Doctor Who must inherently contain some imbedded commentary concerning the human condition because its hero is not human, but he spends a lot of time around them. Someone outside our circumstances can offer observations that we would not notice ourselves. So far, we have learned that humanity is not just living in human skin. It is growing, changing, adapting, and yes, even suffering, pain and despair. Without those things, we can't be who we are.
And the Doctor offers us more insight here. Standing in the pit with Ida, trying to decide whether to go further behind the giant seal to find out what else is there, he delivers a short monologue, which is really quite beautiful, about the inherent curiosity of humankind. This transcription will not do it justice; do yourself a favor and go listen to David Tennant do it.
Ida says, "I'd go in," to try and prompt the Doctor into joining her. He smiles at her, and says, "That is so human. Where angels fear to tread. Even now, standing on the edge, it's that feeling you get, yeah? Right at the back of your head, that impulse, that strange little impulse, that mad little voice saying 'go on, go on, go on, go over, go on!" Later, when they are all on the comms together, the Doctor again expounds to the whole group about how brilliant they are, how they have thrown themselves into the path of darkness just for the sake of discovery.
Why I Beg To Differ: In DWM, the Doctor's conversation with Ida as it pertains to faith is called Golden. They explain that the show has never gone this far into discussion of religion, and the Doctor has never talked about his "beliefs". In this episode, he says, "I don't believe we've seen everything. Maybe that's why I keep travelling: to be proved wrong." The magazine also goes on to point out that Ida's upbringing has not provided her with a context for Satan, just things that men do. It says, "That's an apt philosophy for Doctor Who, a series which puts great stock in humanity and the common decency of our ideas."
Great minds think alike! Doctor Who, and the Doctor himself, place a lot of importance upon human faillibility and curiosity and ingenuity. I suppose that the entire concept of this episode is so human. "Satan" is a religious idea and it appears in almost all human faith. The embodiment of evil, possibly the thing that makes us do bad things.
But greater than faith, there is exploration. The "mad little voice saying, go on!" There is our oh-so-human desire to push further and explain things, find out origin and learn something new. This is what has driven this little group of humans to this planet at the back of beyond, and it is what drives all humans to search for faith, to explore our beliefs, to explain why we do what we do. This is why the Doctor's speech at the cusp of the seal is more important to me than the conversation about belief. It serves a wider purpose.
A malevolent entity begins speaking to and attacking the crew by way of one of the officers, Toby, and the Ood. It calls itself the Devil. The Ood chase the crew members through the base, and they have no choice but to leave the planet on a rocket.
Meanwhile, the drilling has stopped and the Doctor and Ida, the science officer, have gone into the drill shaft to explore. While they are gone, the cable into the shaft snaps loose, trapping them in the pit. Figuring upon 60 minutes of oxygen, they decide to push further, before they die. The Doctor finds a great beast literally chained to a rock, and assumes rightly that this is the entity that's been tormenting the crew. But though it is physically trapped, its consciousness is free, existing as an idea, wreaking havoc.
The mechanism trapping the beast also keeps the planet in orbit around the black hole, so that if it were ever set free, it would fall in, along with the planet. The Doctor is ready to sacrifice himself to destroy the beast. However, he knows that the crew has left the planet on a rocket bound for Earth, with Rose on-board. The rocket wouldn't stand a chance against the black hole. But he also knows that the beast's consciousness is within Toby, on-board the rocket, carrying that malevolence back to Earth. Faced with the question of sacrificing Rose in order to destroy "the Devil," he decides to do so, because he believes in Rose's ingenuity and that she will survive. When the fallout throws the Doctor's body into a tunnel, he finds the TARDIS has fallen there, and is able to use it to tow the rocket out of harm's way.
Golden Comic Moment: Funny moments in this episode are few and far between, as one would expect from a story whose latter half is entitled "The Satan Pit." However, we find the Doctor's interactions with Zack delightful. After learning about the brilliance and resilience of this crew, the Doctor says to Zack, "Just stand there, 'cause I'm going to hug you. Is that all right?" Zack responds with feigned reluctance, "'Spose so." They hug, and it is truly a moment that will make you smile, particularly because Zack so clearly enjoys it (but not in a pushing-a-homosexual-agenda sort of way - it's just good clean fun).
It is worth mentioning that the chemistry between these two actors is not unprecedented. Shaun Parkes (Zack) played Rocco, the best friend of David Tennant's Casanova in the miniseries of the same name. Russell T. Davies says he doesn't believe in chemistry, but in these two guys, he's been able to exploit it twice!
Golden Fangirl Moment: If I were a different kind of fangirl, this story would be rife with great moments! But I am not that kind of fan, and in fact, those moments are cringeworthy to me!
I can only cite the first appearance of the Tenth Doctor in that orange spacesuit. He will wear that suit twice more, and it's always cute, but something about that first glimpse just makes us all twitterpated. He's being brave and noble, volunteering for a dangerous mission, which is no change, but that spacesuit is like a suit of armour for the sci-fi generation, and he's going into battle. He's only missing his foil!
Oh, and speaking of wearing that orange suit again, check out the IDA barrels in "The Waters of Mars." A harkening back in homage to Ida Scott?
Cringeworthy Moment: Oh boy, here we go.
It's not the story's fault, in fact, I think it's actually a very good story - the pieces fit together very nicely, and the subjet matter is philosophical and juicy. But I can't stand watching these episodes! Because I am not a Ten/Rose fan, I wind up cringing every five seconds. Almost every single interaction between the Doctor and Rose in this episode, starting from the moment when they step out of the TARDIS, until the moment when they reunite inside the TARDIS at the end, is gooey and overplayed. It has some of the most oft-cited Ten/Rose touchy-feely moments that are meant to be profound in light of their possible separation in this story, but just seem inserted as self-indulgent squee fodder.
Case in point: 1) When the TARDIS is gone, they are faced with settling down somewhere. Rose "goes there," and says what the Doctor and everyone else is thinking: you'll have to live together, and what does that mean? It's meant to make us gasp with awwww, but it's just awkward!
2) She kisses his helmet before he goes into the pit. And it's not even the dirty innuendo that makes it icky. It's icky all by itself.
3) When the Doctor thinks he'll never see Rose again, he says to Ida, "Tell her... oh, she knows." It is a link in the long chain of opportunities the Doctor has to say on camera that he loves Rose, but stops short. This all might be a bit more bearable, even for me, if he'd just come out and say it, for cryin' out loud. At least then we could dispense with the angst (says the Martha Jones fan... I know). And as we all know, the worst is yet to come!
4) His reasoning for destroying the beast, even if it means pulling the rocket (and Rose) into the black hole, is that if he's never believed in anything else before, "I believe in her!" Their love has become a catalyst for saving the day? Really?
5) That reunion scene at the end when Rose comes into the TARDIS and they have the hug to end all hugs. I guess I've seen too many Youtube videos in which that clip is inserted just after the Doctor fades from Bad Wolf Bay in "Doomsday," so that the Ten/Rose camp can feel vindicated and have closure. (Though, a remarkably similar hug happens in "42" with a different companion, and that one doesn't make me cringe... I've never claimed that I'm unbiased here, people!)
With so many Cringeworthy moments, it's difficult to pick just one. So, since we've already been quite mean to Rose in this commentary thus far, so I'm going to go whole hog and just be downright bitchy. The most cringeworthy thing about this story is Billie Piper's appearance. She just looks trashy. Her hair is flat and matted to her head, hanging contrivedly in her face for most of the time. It's like a 13-year-old has just discovered sex appeal. Her eye makeup is caked on even worse than usual, and I'm sorry, but when you put light pink gloss on a woman with lips like that, and then put her under dim colored lighting, it just makes her look like a porn star. For God's sake, Billie Piper is an attractive woman - someone needed to do right by her, and it ended in a cosmetology fail!
Okay, I'm done. I promise, I'll be nice to her in the next one.
Golden Moment: Four or five of our Golden Moments thus far have had to do with the characters' thoughts on humanity. It is our belief that Doctor Who must inherently contain some imbedded commentary concerning the human condition because its hero is not human, but he spends a lot of time around them. Someone outside our circumstances can offer observations that we would not notice ourselves. So far, we have learned that humanity is not just living in human skin. It is growing, changing, adapting, and yes, even suffering, pain and despair. Without those things, we can't be who we are.
And the Doctor offers us more insight here. Standing in the pit with Ida, trying to decide whether to go further behind the giant seal to find out what else is there, he delivers a short monologue, which is really quite beautiful, about the inherent curiosity of humankind. This transcription will not do it justice; do yourself a favor and go listen to David Tennant do it.
Ida says, "I'd go in," to try and prompt the Doctor into joining her. He smiles at her, and says, "That is so human. Where angels fear to tread. Even now, standing on the edge, it's that feeling you get, yeah? Right at the back of your head, that impulse, that strange little impulse, that mad little voice saying 'go on, go on, go on, go over, go on!" Later, when they are all on the comms together, the Doctor again expounds to the whole group about how brilliant they are, how they have thrown themselves into the path of darkness just for the sake of discovery.
Why I Beg To Differ: In DWM, the Doctor's conversation with Ida as it pertains to faith is called Golden. They explain that the show has never gone this far into discussion of religion, and the Doctor has never talked about his "beliefs". In this episode, he says, "I don't believe we've seen everything. Maybe that's why I keep travelling: to be proved wrong." The magazine also goes on to point out that Ida's upbringing has not provided her with a context for Satan, just things that men do. It says, "That's an apt philosophy for Doctor Who, a series which puts great stock in humanity and the common decency of our ideas."
Great minds think alike! Doctor Who, and the Doctor himself, place a lot of importance upon human faillibility and curiosity and ingenuity. I suppose that the entire concept of this episode is so human. "Satan" is a religious idea and it appears in almost all human faith. The embodiment of evil, possibly the thing that makes us do bad things.
But greater than faith, there is exploration. The "mad little voice saying, go on!" There is our oh-so-human desire to push further and explain things, find out origin and learn something new. This is what has driven this little group of humans to this planet at the back of beyond, and it is what drives all humans to search for faith, to explore our beliefs, to explain why we do what we do. This is why the Doctor's speech at the cusp of the seal is more important to me than the conversation about belief. It serves a wider purpose.