N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!
I’d forgotten quite how obscene-looking the titular ‘Creature’ is. Even given the brief and problems the design team faced, it’s hard to believe they got away with giving Erato’s protuberent pseudopodium any screen time whatsoever.*
“Astrologer extraordinary. Seer to princes and emperors. The future foretold, the present explained, the past … apologised for.”
Organon, The Creature from the Pit: Part Two
Apparently, this was Douglas Adams’ first script-editing job for Doctor Who and in a way it shows. At times it’s very funny and enjoyable, especially when Myra Frances as Lady Adrasta or Geoffrey Bayldon as Organon are on screen. At others, such as when the creature is on display or the shamelessly stereotyped bandits led by Fagin (ahem Torvin), it seems more like a Monty Python sketch.
Nothing wrong with Monty Python, of course – and after all Douglas Adams is the only writer to have a credit on both – but it does mean The Creature from the Pit is occasionally rather silly.
But it’s almost worth it for Adrasta and Organon.
It’s certainly a full-on performance from Myra Frances; the ferocity with which Adrasta yells ‘Point the dog against the rock!’ – such is her mistrust of Romana and K-9 – being one stand-out moment. I have to admit I was also a bit curious about the way she kept saying she ‘had a use for her’ with regard to Romana. (This probably says more about me and what I’m inferring than anything actually being implied.)
And Geoffrey Bayldon’s as Organon is a marvellous turn too, bringing the characteristic charm and eccentricity that made him a children’s TV favourite (and which probably contributed to his being considered for the role of the Doctor back in 1963).
But, for all the fun Adrasta and Organon offer here, I don’t imagine that The Creature from the Pit is what Kate Bush was still dreaming of five years later.
* I’m usually not an advocate for watching scenes out of context and then judging something by them but check out this YouTube edit for an amusing illustration of Erato in his somewhat X-rated glory.
