N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!

It’s not the first time the Doctor has been faced with a giant creature in a big ol’ pit. This one looks slightly less obscene than the previous incumbent but when it comes down to it, The Satan Pit‘s titular beast is still a horny old devil.

With The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit, New Adventures alumnus Matt Jones crafts yer traditional base-under-siege tale that includes the classic trick of seemingly irrevocably separating the Doctor and his companion from the TARDIS. (Do we ever believe they won’t be reunited?)

There are even scenes set in ventilation shafts. Granted they are actually maintenance shafts that require ventilating, but that’s a minor quibble over detail. In truth, it’s rather difficult to maintain any sense of tension in these scenes.

I kept wondering how they could manage to suck out all the oxygen from the separate sections of the maintenance shafts when the access grilles in the floor above them have whacking great holes in them. True, I’ve never been on a space base on a planet orbiting a black hole, and I’m willing to accept my knowledge of physics might be missing something here, but at the very least it seems a bit silly.

“Well maybe I am, yeah. Since when do humans need slaves?”

Rose, The Impossible Planet

But if base-under-siege stories are your thing, this one has its moments. Gabriel Woolf is suitably creepy as the voice of the beast and the Ood are an excellent addition to Doctor Who‘s panoply of aliens. It’s tempting to think the passing resemblance to the Sensorites of old is no coincidence. Perhaps the two are cousins? I can’t help but think the Doctor lets the humans off a little easily on the subject of possessing them as slaves (especially when he spends half the episode telling us how great he thinks humans are), but Rose at least registers her alarm at this.

Although it drags a little in places, The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit features a memorable new alien race and an impressive, not-so-timorous beastie. It remains a solid, traditional Doctor Who adventure, the likes of which wouldn’t have been too out of place in the classic show.

These are my potential Target Library titles for The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit:
— Doctor Who and the Impossible Planet
— Doctor Who and the Pit of Satan
— Doctor Who and the Creature from the Pit 2