Doctor Who: The Creature From the Pit

Part One

“What are you doing in the Place of Death?"

“Oh, just pottering around. I have this insatiable curiosity, you see… why do you call it the Place of Death?”

“Because anyone found here is automatically condemned to death.”

“Ah.”

This is a story I’d been looking forward to immensely, as I remember finding this story an utter delight back when it was released on video- silly in a good, Season Seventeeny way, with lots of Douglas Adams-esque witty dialogue which often did extyreme violence to the fourth wall. Plus, it’s written by David Fisher, who penned two great stories last season. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, K9’s new voice, for a start. Perhaps it’ll grow on me, but David Brierley’s vocal style lacks the prissiness of John Leeson’s, and doesn’t deliver the lines the same way. K9 suddenly seems to have lost a large chunk of his personality.

The TARDISeers land on an alien planet where the our heroes attacked by silly yet convincing looking “Wolfweeds” and threatened with death by Eileen Way, a real face from the past. Some of the dialogue sparkles a bit, but it all seems a little formulaic, however much this is acknowledged in the dialogue. And then we get our hirsute cockney bandits, who all seem to be played like Fagin and out to pick a pocket or two. This is a little unfortunate, especially as they’re portrayed as grasping and greedy. Still, I love Romana’s attitude to being captured, and the cool way she contrives her escape.

It’s quite surprising to see Morris Barry turning up in an acting role here, executed for his unfortunate lack of “a teaspoon and an open mind”. But the main baddy is played in a suitably pantomimish fashion by Myra Frances- it’s not a particularly subtle performance but Lady Adastra is such a fun character, and there’s no other way her lines could have been delivered. She’s a pure cipher, but this is of course quite deliberate. This story knows exactly the sort of thing it is, as clearly shown by the dialogue’s frequently wrecking ball-like relationship with the fourth wall: “We call it… the pit!” / “Ah, you have such a way with words…”. It’s just that, for the first time in the Graham Williams era, this is all starting to sound a slightly troubling note. This story may know it’s a formulaic runaround crammed with stock characters, but that doesn’t stop it being a formulaic runaround crammed with stock characters.

Oh, and why on Earth does the Doctor just chuck himself into the pit at the end?

Part Two

“We call it… the creature!”

“Ah. That’s original.”

There’s a justly famous scene at the beginning of the episode, with the Doctor, hanging off a ledge halfway down the pit, consulting a climbing manual called Everest in Easy Stages. It’s in Tibetan, so the Doctor pulls out another tome from his bottomless pockets, this time titled Teach Yourself Tibetan. It’s a terrific gag, and I wouldn’t dream of being so churlish as the bring up any linguistic skills the Doctor may or not have displayed in Planet of the Spiders.

We get introduced to the fab Geoffrey Bayldon as Organon in this episode, and he gets by far the best line: “The future foretold, the past explained, the present… apologised for.” We’re also introduced to the eponymous creature, which looks almost exactly like a massive green… words fail me.

We’re introduced fully to the underlying concept behind the story here too- metal is rare and Adastra has the monopoly. It’s fundamentally a sound basis for a story, but never explored in any depth. In fact, much about this society is left vague- what’s the tech level? What about those other communities without a metal mine? How come a single mine produces so many different kinds of metals?

Part Three

“I thought you were dead! Why haven’t you died?”

“I’m sorry, my lady. It was… an oversight.”

It’s becoming increasingly clear that this isn’t going to be as good as I remembered it. It has lots of good one-liners and a fun camp villain, both of which protect it from falling too low in my affections, but I must admit the plot itself is very much by the numbers. Plus, I don’t like the way an astrologer is allowed to be a major character in here without astrology being seriously questioned at any point. That’s not the way Doctor Who has traditionally dealt with the subject.

The most eye-popping moment in this episode (and perhaps in all of Doctor Who thus far!) is a certain moment involving the Doctor and the creature’s, er, protuberance. I suspect it’s this more than the story’s perceived shortcoming that led to this story being one of the last out on video and is delaying its DVD release.

Part Four

“Have a care, Doctor!”

“Have a care yourself. Have a care for your people for a change.”

We finally get the big revelation- the creature, or Erato, is in fact an ambassador from Tythonius, who rather conveniently comes from a world with loads of metal and a deficit in chlorophyll, and arrived on this world to arrange a trade. Adrasta, wishing to retain her monopoly, kidnapped him, shoved him into a pit, and proceeded to drop engineers and astrologers on him. Instead of, say, just killing him. Once the secret is out, both Erato and her own people have a bone to pick with Adrasta and she is quickly killed. End of story. Except we’ve still got most of the episode to fill.

And there lies the problem- with the plot wrapped up, the episode just feels like padding to fill up the time until the end of the episode. Which is exactly what it is. And I’m not entirely sure the science is accurate!

Well, I’ve not exactly been complimentary about this story, but in spite of everything it has enough wit and charm about it to protect it from a seriously low rating. This is an odd one, the first genuine guilty pleasure because the fact is, despite its faults, I can’t help being fond of The Creature From the Pit. 3/5.

Doctor Who: The Sea Devils

Part One

“Crimea?”

“Gallipolli? El Alamein? Does it really matter?”

Not what I expected to be the first thing I’d comment on, but a car with no doors! That’s weird. Why?

Good episode though, concentrating on the regulars and giving them a nice bit of character development. And that’s great- let the plot start later. We realise this is going to be a fun episode as soon as the Doctor comments on the Master putting on weight. And the Doctor’s exasperation with the nice-but-dim Trenchard is just the sort of Pertwee rudeness I like- fun, light-hearted, and doesn’t cross a line. The Doctor’s character is consistently being better written this season.

I’m a bit of a Guardian reading wishy-washy liberal, me, but even I reckon the Master’s got himself a cushy little prison regime. The screws even call him "sir"! There’s a nice scene between the Master and the Doctor in which Delgado shines- he injects just enough irony into the Master’s request for the occasional chat with the Doctor. Pertwee nicely plays the Doctor’s inability to shake hands with the man with whom it now seems he was “practically at school together.

Of course, something fishy is going on. Nice that our first inkling of it is when the Master asks Trenchard for a second television set for his bedroom- “Colour, of course.” And one of the best things in this episode, and possibly in all of television, is the Master whistling along to the Clangers. Possibly the only thing better than this moment is the look on Delgado’s face when Trenchard explains that they’re “Only puppets, you know. For children.”

There’s nothing quite so Doctorish, and necessarily absent from the UNIT years, as the Doctor quickly getting himself accepted by the supporting cast, and it’s pleasantly nostalgic to see him do this with the navy here. Better still, we get some top namedropping action: “Captain Hart, Horatio Nelson was a personal friend of mine.”



Part Two

“I always find that violent exercise makes me hungry. Don’t you agree?”


By this point the music (I’m a fan!) is getting really noticeable. But it’s good to have something new and different in a season which brings more stuff back from the past than we’ve ever seen up to this point. This episode, with the Doctor briefly recounting the plot of Doctor Who and the Silurians (sorry, Doctor Who and the Eocenes!) to Jo, makes it clear that this story will be no exception.

There’s plenty of good stuff here though- the Doctor’s radio geekery, and especially the banter between him and Jo. They seem to be settling into a relationship nicely not based on him snapping at her like a total arse, as was the case last season. Thought has been given to sorting out the characterisation problems, which is good.

It seems everybody can resist the Master’s hypnotism these days, even petty officers! The doctor’s got captain Hart under control though- we’ve already reached the point where he can just demand some transport (how very Pertwee!) and not even deign to explain. Most entertaining. I’m finally warming to this doctor. I mean, dammit, that golf shot trick is cool, and the swordfighting is well classy.



Part Three

“How very kind of you.”

(Pause)
“How very unkind of you.”


Crikey, that’s a huge reprise. And that bit with the knife- you wouldn’t be able to show it nowadays. In other news, the soundtrack goes from weird to weirder (good!). It’s so very early seventies, sounding a bit like German prog of the time for some reason although I can’t think of any band in particular. Popol Vuh, perhaps?

Good to see Jo’s escapology skills put to use again, and also to hear what the Master’s actually been telling Trenchard all this time. Oh, and a Sea Devil comes out of the sea!


Part Four

“Well, I presume you’re a trained diver, in addition to your other accomplishments then, Doctor.”

“Naturally.”

Sonic Screwdriver mission creep continues unabated; now it seems it can both detect and explode landmines. It works in context for now, so I’ll let it slide, but perhaps long term this sort of thing is not too good an idea.

Another great Doctor / Jo scene, as he steals all her food: “For heaven’s sake, jo! What do you think this is? A picnic?” And the plot is thickening, with loads of Sea Devils emerging and, unexpectedly, Trenchard biting the dust. Pity- he was a nice bloke, but his Achilles heel was his unthinking patriotism, and in a Malcolm Hulke script a patriot stands no chance of survival. Well, except when they do. But you can sense the authorial disapproval, and here it’s clearly Trenchard’s tragic flaw.



Part Five

“Nothing too elaborate, my dear. Just a little eggs, bacon, toast, coffee…”

The story’s starting to drag a bit now. After all the fun with the Master at the start it’s become clear that we’re getting a rerun of Doctor Who and the Silurians without much of the depth. We’re still getting some good characterisation, acting and dialogue, but this stage of the story has been done before. We even get a stupid politician- not a civil servant mind, none of us are at all stupid, of course. And just how many sugars does this man take in his coffee?

The Sea Devil leader is strangely more reasonable in his discussions with the Doctor than even the Old Silurian ever was, perhaps too reasonable to be believable. And it’s interesting how the Doctor freely admits the Sea Devils would ultimately stand no chance in a war against the humans, thus depriving us viewers of a fair chunk of our sense of threat.

Interestingly, the role played by Walker with the humans directly parallels that played by the Master with the Sea Devils, but with the Doctor elsewhere he gets his wish from the start. The scenes in the naval base and with the Sea Devils thus counterpoint each other, with the humans coming off as morally worse.

The cliffhanger’s great, and iconic for a reason.



Part Six

“”Dear oh dear, Doctor. Will you never learn?”

Things get wrapped up nicely plotwise, and there’s some good character stuff too. It makes sense that Walker would be a coward, and Jo gets not only to use her escapology again but also to pilot a hovercraft- by now it’s starting to look like her character’s getting some proper sustained development, but perhaps I speak too soon!

Hmmm, so guns now work on Sea Devils? I seem to recall they didn’t in the submarine a few episodes ago…

More good stuff for the Doctor, as he offers the Sea Devils a chance before he blows them up, and finally gets the chance to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow! And now that he’s not going to be in every story, it’s a good thing that the Master’s on the loose again.


Overall, by the end it became too much of a retread of Doctor Who and the Silurians without the depth, but still had plenty of good characterisation and humopur to redeem it. I’ll be generous: it just scrapes a 4/5.