(719) The Satan Pit

Something I didn’t mention yesterday was the voice of the devil. Gabriel Woolf did the voice of Sutekh in Pyramids of Mars thirty one years before this story was transmitted. Woolf has a great voice for the role and that is one of the successes of the story. Another thing is that this was the last story that was recorded and so this is the last episode that Billie Piper actually recorded although there are four more episodes left to transmit.

The episode pretty much hits the ground running from the very beginning and doesn’t stop until the episode ends. That is one of the few aspects of this episode that has improved in watching this episode again. Although it doesn’t take too long for me to remember why I have never rated this story very highly and that’s because it deals with faith and the devil. It’s not that I dislike this stuff or don’t believe in it but I just think that its not very interesting stuff to deal with in a 45 minute or two 45 minute episodes.

The Ood being possessed tells Rose that she will die in battle and it’s the start of Rose’s end in the show. The Ood are really good in this episode because they are creepy from the very beginning and seeing them scuttle around in the ventilation tunnels. It’s a shame that they all get wiped out because they were a slave race and they got possessed. I know they make a return but I think that this was their best story.

The Doctor doesn’t do a lot for most of the episode. It’s Rose that gets to do all the dramatic stuff and this is the best that Rose has been for quite some time. There were some moments where she was a bit cocky but not over the top. The Doctor spends most of the episode literally hanging around. His time doesn’t come until he meets the Devil. It’s very hard to act convincing against something that isn’t there but David Tennant is one of those actors that can do this very well.

The effect of the Devil is one of the most impressive that there has been in Doctor Who. It’s the sort of thing that would look good in a Hollywood picture. Goodness knows how much money was spent on this. I love to think about what this would have looked like in 1976 or 1986, I think that it wouldn’t have looked as good.

This has been a good episode to watch and the two episodes together worked quite well. The characters were all interesting but I think that it was the setting that really got me hooked and the Ood that kept me interested. This isn’t as good a two parter as the Cyberman one but its not as boring or bland as I have previously thought. It goes even more in my estimation when I think about tomorrows episode. Tomorrows episode is one that I have been dreading since I started the new series era of this marathon.

(718) The Impossible Planet

Today’s episode is the start of a two parter which I have never really rated very highly. I don’t think that there was a particular reason for this but when I started today’s episode, I was hoping that something would show me why my opinion should be changed. This episode sees the first appearance of the Ood which are one the more successful creations from the Russell T Davies era. It doesn’t take long for the first ‘that’s Ood’ joke. The Ood are a slave race basically and the pre-title scene was a pretty big clue as to what they are capable of.

This story is one of the few base under siege type stories that have appeared in the new series and its one where the TARDIS is of no use to the Doctor and Rose. The TARDIS has gone and in this episode it appears that it’s unreachable. I like it when this happens because it means that the Doctor has to really try and sort things out and can’t just use the TARDIS as a convenient tool like he does with the Sonic Screwdriver and Psychic Paper.

One thing that I have noticed about this episode is how quickly the tension starts. There is a chilling factor that there hasn’t been in Doctor Who since it returned and one of the reasons might be because of the claustrophobic feel of the story. When the Ood start to go a bit wrong then I think the episode really gets going. The evil Ood are great fun to watch. The Ood are quite strict in their movement and the way they hold themselves which is what I think makes them creepy.

The scene where the Doctor and Rose talk about the Earth is a nice one. Rose’s phoning back home would normally be annoying but for some reason I didn’t find it to be a problem and this is the first time for a long time that I haven’t found Rose annoying. Another good scene is when the Doctor and Rose discover that Scooti (MyAnna Buring) has died. The effect used is simple yet effective but the character was never really given enough time for us to care and so

When Toby (Will Thorp) is normal then I don’t really care about him because he seems  bit wet but when he becomes possessed then I think that the character is really good and the way he kills Scooti is quite grim for new Who.

I haven’t mentioned him since I embarked on the new series but Murray Gold’s music is really good. There are a few moments where it really helps add to episode and one moment in particularly that comes to mind is Scooti’s death where the music really is fantastic. There is an argument where if you notice incidental music then it means that the story has failed (this argument could be levelled at all aspects of a story) but I don’t necessarily agree. Sometimes I think that is true but in this case the incidental music is a bonus.

The cliffhanger is rather good because of the two different perils that the Doctor and Rose face. The Doctor is staring into the huge hole in the ground and Rose is under threat from newly possessed Ood. The episode as a whole hasn’t really improved in as greater way as I was expecting. There are things that I do like about this episode but there is something that doesn’t grab me like I would have expected. Maybe the next episode will be the one that grabs me but I don’t see that happening. It’s been written and directed but there’s something missing.