What are you lookin’ at?
Since the relaunch of Doctor Who last year, some fans have been asking why the stories were so Earth-centric in their settings. The rationale was compelling, i.e. (i) an anchor for the new fans to relate to, (ii) a focus on the companion and how travelling with the Doctor affects her and her home life, and (iii) a simple structural format that limits exposition to a minumum thus allowing the 45-minute format to work. However, it was still getting a little frustrating. So, we arrive at “The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit” double parter with a even more anticipation than usual. The happy travellers arrive on a Sanctuary Base, built on a planet that is, impossibly, orbiting a black hole. They meet the crew and their Ood workforce and, of course, things start to go wrong pretty soon. The power source that’s keeping them in orbit is buried 10 miles beneath the surface, the crew are drilling down to find it, and they have awoken an ancient evil…. the devil himself.
Tattooed Man
Hands down, this has to be the best example of Doctor Who, in the world, ever. Not one but two fantastic monsters, a rollicking good adventure yarn, brilliantly realised supporting characters, an engaging storyline, genuine peril, super cliffhanger, and an opportunity for the main characters to question and think about some of the larger issues of faith without ever once patronising the family audience. I could, and no doubt will, watch this over and over again and keep on discovering more facets of this wonderful tale to enjoy each time.
Tags: BBC1, Billie-Piper, David Tennant, Doctor Who, Rose-Tyler, Russell-T-Davies, The-Doctor, The-Impossible-Planet, The-Satan-Pit
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[...] In the final episode “End Of Days”, we see the return of the character Billis who had turned up being incredibly creepy in the previous episode as the manager of the Dance Hall. The mysterious and sinister stranger with an ability to travel through time got the whole of fandom speculating that this may have been the return of a certain evil Time Lord (and you never know, it still might) but it turned out he was trying to raise Abbidon (sp?), another Beast that seemed closely related to the one found at the bottom of The Satan Pit. Rather than being chained up, this one clomped, Godzilla-like, over Cardiff destoying all life until he met up with the one person who couldn’t be killed. The beast seemed to overdose on Jack’s life-force and dropped dead. Jack was all but killed but he was resurrected, only for a familiar wheezing, groaning sound to fill the hub as the Doctor arrived (off-screen) to whisk him who knows where at last. [...]