NuWho Review: Series 2 Episode 9 “The Satan Pit”

By: Matt Jones

**Spoilers**

If you have not yet watched this episode, please go and do so before proceeding.

Let us stop for a moment and pay homage to the amount of sheer audacity that it must have taken to write and produce an episode of Doctor Who that was to specifically deal with issues of religion and the supernatural from this angle. True scarcely a week goes by that we are not dealing with some sort of extraterrestrial being (or even pseudo-supernatural, like the Gelth) but to delve into a topic this taboo and dark is something that deserves respect. They have bypassed all of the cute, red, pitchfork-carrying Halloween costumes and went straight for the heart of the matter – treating the Devil like a tangible, real menace with both sensitivity and a fair amount of appropriate horror.


Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:

- Not disappointing us after last time’s extremely tense cliffhanger, The Satan Pit tears out of its gates like a Triple Crown thoroughbred racing for the gold. The stakes are higher than ever and the noose never once goes slack as it inexorably tightens. 

- Within the first few minutes we have both a fine fire-fight between the Ood and the crew members and a question about the Devil from Rose who is sounding amazingly young and small as she practically begs The Doctor to tell her that Satan isn’t real. He doesn’t answer.

- And yet another factor on the creep-o-meter arrives; it wasn’t enough for the Devil to possess Toby, kill Scooti, and take over the entire hoard of Ood. Oh no...He had to hack into the computers and electrical system as well. Suddenly this whole menace became a whole lot more real. It’s easy enough to dismiss things as coincidence, folklore, or plain superstition whenever they remain in the realm of fairytales and magic…but somehow whenever cold, solid technology starts to be affected too it just puts another dynamic on the fear factor.

- But that isn’t all that this development brings. With The Beast controlling the station (through an apparent use of telepathy/telekinesis) the captain is trapped at the headquarters, Rose and her companions are stuck with Toby who may or may not be clean, and The Doctor and Ida have no way to get back up the shaft and away from the gaping Pit.

- Matt Jones had a stroke of genius here when he gives The Doctor a line where he lists off a dozen or so religions and cults and mockingly demands that The Beast reveal which Devil he is. Not only does this line deal with potential scoffers, but it also sends yet another chill down our spines when The Beast replies “All of them,” making us realize that we are probably dealing with the big evil behind all of the other stories of evil. It is the idea that in all of the stories of the world there is some element of truth. That truth may be twisted and perverted to suit the storyteller’s needs, but it is still there...the little seed of reality that just couldn’t be killed. Given the subject matter of this particular story, I’d say that that concept is quite dark and alarming.

- The Beast shows how he knows each of them and their deepest ears, delivering a prophecy about Rose’s coming death while he's at it. The Doctor manages to put up an exuberant façade to rally the courage of the crew. 

- "The soldier, the scientist, the little boy who lied..." If I didn't know better I would SWEAR that Matt Jones is a psychic and just described the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Doctors in that one sentence.

- Someone makes the astute statement that the Devil works through basic fears, but The Doctor tries to divert the conversation with a quip about psychiatrists. He is trying to keep them focused on anything but the overwhelming, crushing darkness. Eventually The Beast has had enough of this gnat’s babblings and drops the capsule back down into the crevice, cutting off all communications. Rose finishes the job (good job to her...it’s about time she shows some initiative worthy of her reputation, although you'll notice that she doesn't assign herself any jobs to do) and they start searching for a way out of Hell.

- Having nothing else to try, Ida starts to lower The Doctor into the pit as he decides to go and explore “…where angels fear to tread” in hopes of finding his TARDIS. 

- And then comes one of the most meaningful discussions in this entire two-parter (which is saying something, given how packed the dialogue is). As The Doctor is entering the Pit, he and Ida ask themselves that question that everyone, man, woman, or Time Lord, must wrestle with at some point in their lives: “What do you believe, Doctor?” That is the true crux of the matter...the question that must be answered and the question that is the heart of all questions man might ask. While Moffat’s witty quips and terrifying timey-wimeyness is great, I wish that we could see more episodes of this caliber that were willing to delve as deep into tough issues as this one was. 

- Everything was handled so well and David Tennant’s performance as The Doctor really sold the scene as you get the feeling that our Time Lord has never really slowed down long enough to allow himself to ask that vital question; and here it hits him hard.

- While this is going on, Rose and the gang are participating in a life-or-death game of tag in the maintenance shafts with the possessed Ood. As if the immediate threat of termination by Ood-globe wasn’t enough, these shafts only have a thin supply of air that Captain Zach has to keep manipulating into each section before he can open the gate and let the humans through. Naturally this makes for several exceedingly tense moments and close escapes. The whole sequence is claustrophobic and almost morbidly humorous as they crawl through the shafts in terror at a breakneck pace. 

- It is here that Jefferson, the soldier, basically sacrifices his life for his companions. Not much is made of the death amidst all of the action (unlike poor Scooti) but it still somehow manages to make just as great an impact as the first death of this story. True Jefferson gets an excellent pre-mortem speech, but his actual time of death actually happens off screen and the frantic pace immediately picks up again…and we learn that poor Toby is not in fact clean after all.


- It should be noted that Toby is not a megalomaniac bent on world domination nor is he a particularly odious prat who probably had a hidden sadistic streak. In the story he is a quiet, slightly introverted young man who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and is being used for an evil purpose. It is tragic, but I thank the story for not falling to the temptation of making Toby bad-to-the-bone.

- The Doctor falls into the pit, Zach declares that they’re going to have to abandon the base, and Ida resigns herself to a slow death down in the chamber. 

- This is a quiet scene full of sadness and every single aspect of the production team sells it perfectly. Even Rose’s declaration that she’s going to stay with The Doctor manages to come across as truly poignant rather than bratty (unlike in The Parting of the Ways) and I give her points for that (although I could have done without her threats of shooting Zach...there is such a thing as going overboard). 

- Nothing, absolutely nothing ruins the hopelessness and just general down feeling of this scene. We feel as though we’ve hit rock bottom and that is a good thing for the purposes of the episode. For so long it has been a breath-stealing chase to fix things as the characters race against time. While things were dark and frightening, there was still hope…but now there is nothing but despair. Every story has to hit that low point and it is done so effectively here that it is almost beyond belief.

- Then comes a scene that to this day I still have trouble watching: The Doctor comes face to face with the very thing that he has tried so hard not admit even exists...and he is terrified!

- Look at him! Even as he half-jokingly mock The Beast it is clear that all of his babble is simply posturing. And when The Doctor is properly terrified of something, I think it’s safe to say that we should be too. I’m going to show a picture of the Devil now because, well, you kind of have to:

- Yes, His appearance is absolutely grotesque but what is infinitely more terrible about Him is that, as The Doctor observes, although His body may be chained in all of its true horror down here in the Pit, His mind is still free to roam abroad. Talk about raising the scare bar yet again!

- I said when I reviewed The Doctor Dances that one of the most frightening things about sci-fi is the technology-gone-wrong scenario just because of the simple fact that you can’t reason with technology. Well, allow me to present to you something that is frightening no matter what genre it appears in: a body that is captured but a mind that is free to manipulate, to possess, to wreak havoc. Because something like that which is truly evil can’t be reasoned with, not really. You can try...but in the end you will only destroy yourself as you open your mind for its. 

- Then comes the realization that Toby is gone and the mind of the Beast is escaping from the Pit.

- The Doctor realizes that in order to 'kill' the mind of the Beast he has to sacrifice Rose. The only solution he has is to break the prison and destroy the gravity field, sending the rocket into the black hole.

-“So, that's the trap. Or the test, or the final judgment, I don't know. But if I kill you, I kill her. Except that implies in this big grand scheme of Gods and Devils that she's just a victim. But I've seen a lot of this universe. I've seen fake gods and bad gods and demi-gods and would-be gods, and out of all that, out of that whole pantheon, if I believe in one thing, just one thing, I believe in her.”

- He smashes the prison jars and basically sets The Beast on fire, revealing the true nature of ‘Toby’ to the others on the rocket and destroying the gravity field.

- And then everything literally goes to Hell. 

- A big shout-out should go to Will Thorp who plays Toby. The entire cast had a hard script to sell here and they all do a great job, but it is Thorp who really shines – both as Toby and as The Beast. The way he switches almost effortlessly between the two characters is impressive and his portrayal of possessed!Toby is both scary and fascinatingly disturbing in how evil it is. This was not an easy part to play, but I think he does it about as well as it’s ever going to be done. 

- The final scene in the rocket where the Devil realizes what has happened and is basically spitting out Its death throws is chilling and makes us cheer when Rose delivers the appropriate line “Go to Hell!” and uses the gun to send Toby flying into the black hole. We all breath a big sigh of relief even as we mourn the passing of poor Toby

- But then we realize that the rocket is still falling to the black hole as well. The Beast may be gone, but death is still coming. 

- We see Ida running out of air at last and the poor Ood all huddled together for comfort. Cue the chills and the sobbing…

- But it doesn’t last long because The Doctor finds his beloved TARDIS and catches them, saving the dying Ida while he’s at it. We almost get our feel-good ending…though it is really bittersweet as Zach reads out all the names of the deceased, including the Ood, reminding us that all victories inevitably come at a cost. And referencing Alien.

Well, that was quite a ride! These two episodes are easily the most likely of NuWho to get your heart racing from pure fear-based adrenaline as they address the very base fears of mankind. It is extremely well written and handles a rather touchy subject with both respect and sensitivity. I rate The Satan Pit as an 5/5. I wish more episodes would be as brave as this one.

What did you think? Do you agree with my rating? If not - what would you say differently?