As with all of these reviews, I am writing this one only minutes after watching the episode so that as much of the Who-lights can be fresh on my mind as possible. Having watched "The Impossible Planet" a few days before this, I can honestly say that as far as traditional Doctor Who flavor goes, this one had grown a bit stale when compared to episode one of the two parter.
Although this episode was also penned by Matt Jones (who wrote the first part), this episode seemed to bluntly and frequently focus on the soap flavored Doctor/Rose love relationship theme, as opposed to the first part, which literally had only one scene - the one of The Doctor and Rose at the table. And even that scene lightly tapped the soap button - it was subtle enough that the scene didn't turn into something plucked out of One Tree Hill. However, in the case of "The Satan Pit," scenes were not only frequent, but long - complete with tears and "how can I leave him alone? Even if he IS dead?" dialogue.
In retrospect, the story for this episode seemed to start running thin, mainly due to much of the "Doctor Who" elements being taken care of in part one. There were numerous scenes that were practically dragged out to the point of The Doctor describing certain feelings using five to six different phrases that all meant the same thing. For example, when The Doctor and Ida are contemplating exploring the now-opened pit, The Doctor comments on a feeling in the back of his head - which he then states, "that _____ feeling," where each time he uses the phrase, a different adjective is placed in front of the word "feeling." Overall, that contemplation scene was drawn out, and in my opinion was an indication of the episode starting to falter and struggle to keep the storyline afloat. We don't need to sit through two minutes of The Doctor sounding like he's reading a thesaurus.
The anticipation building up before The Doctor drops into the pit was also a bit overdone. Well, VERY overdone. We first see The Doctor disconnect two straps, while he questions Ida about her religious beliefs. By this time, we're all eager to know what lies at the bottom of the pit, but we are forced into suspense one more time as The Doctor takes a rest from disconnecting his harness to express thoughts on beliefs. Of course at this point, he asks Ida to "Tell Rose..." *cut to Ida* *cut back to Doctor* "Tell her..." *cut to Ida* *cut back to Doctor* "oh, she knows..." at which point he finally releases his harness and falls into nothingness. That scene, like so many of the tear jerker scenes in this part, were accompanied by strong orchestral "Gone With The Wind" romantic music.
The other taste-killer for Who flavor in this episode was that a good portion of the beginning was used to resolve the cliffhanger from part one. Don't get me wrong, the resolution itself story-wise was fine, it's just that the music accompanying the scenes sounded like something out of a summer sci-fi flick.
I can understand why Davies may have chose to make ALL of the Ood deaths off-camera, because he was specifically targeting a younger audience, especially females. But to be frank, most Who fans have agreed that Davies under-estimated most childrens' ability to cope with Doctor Who's tendency to put us behind the sofa. It's a good bet that atleast 60 to 80 percent of the kids 8 and older that may have been watching this episode were probably aces at violent games such as Modern Warfare, Call Of Duty, Medal Of Honor, and Resident Evil. So it's likely that a few Ood getting shot on screen wouldn't have been much of a bother to them. Just a thought on that topic though. Classic Doctor Who often had scenes of people getting shot down as they ran away from their killers, such as "Resurrection of the Daleks" with Davison, where Litton's henchmen (the two coppers) shot down unarmed men in an alley.
The final big whammy for this one was the extensive one-sided conversation between the Doctor and the beast. Given the camera angle, lighting, and setting, it looked, felt, and played out more or less like a play on a theater stage, rather than an episode of Doctor Who. Here once again, the Doctor starts to smash one of the jars, only to drop the rock he was holding in order to drill into viewers' heads the cold hard truth of what will be the situation after he smashes them. Again, used here as nothing more than a crutch for suspense and drama, and yet again causing suffrage to the already thin and weak stability of the episode's story.
The most irrelevant, unnecessary, unrelated story element? The scene in the service shafts in which Rose comments on Danny's "unhappiness." You know which scene I'm talking about. Utterly ridiculous. What possible contribution did that make to the episode?
Without devoting this whole review to a rant about what detracted from a perfect score, let me touch base on the few qualities that earned the episode its 4.5.
Well, the coolest villain had to be the possessed Toby, with red eyes and writing covering his face and neck. I especially liked the scene where he breathes fire and Zack starts wigging out. Speaking of cool villains - ironically, the beast was voiced by Gabriel Woolf, who also voiced Sutekh in the 4th Doctor story, "Pyramids of Mars." There were a few scenes of dialogue here and there that were music-less, but they were rare.
Rose shows good TARDIS colors by taking initiative and pep-talking the others into not giving up, which eventually pays off - the service shaft escape route was good for the story.
This episode can be gold or garbage, depending on your point of view. For the Doctor/Rose relationship fans, it was probably a gift from Heaven. But when you set it aside the original series to see how closely it follows the fundamental themes, it leaves much to be desired. In the case of this review - which does exactly that - the episode of course, scores poorly.
Although this episode was also penned by Matt Jones (who wrote the first part), this episode seemed to bluntly and frequently focus on the soap flavored Doctor/Rose love relationship theme, as opposed to the first part, which literally had only one scene - the one of The Doctor and Rose at the table. And even that scene lightly tapped the soap button - it was subtle enough that the scene didn't turn into something plucked out of One Tree Hill. However, in the case of "The Satan Pit," scenes were not only frequent, but long - complete with tears and "how can I leave him alone? Even if he IS dead?" dialogue.
In retrospect, the story for this episode seemed to start running thin, mainly due to much of the "Doctor Who" elements being taken care of in part one. There were numerous scenes that were practically dragged out to the point of The Doctor describing certain feelings using five to six different phrases that all meant the same thing. For example, when The Doctor and Ida are contemplating exploring the now-opened pit, The Doctor comments on a feeling in the back of his head - which he then states, "that _____ feeling," where each time he uses the phrase, a different adjective is placed in front of the word "feeling." Overall, that contemplation scene was drawn out, and in my opinion was an indication of the episode starting to falter and struggle to keep the storyline afloat. We don't need to sit through two minutes of The Doctor sounding like he's reading a thesaurus.
The anticipation building up before The Doctor drops into the pit was also a bit overdone. Well, VERY overdone. We first see The Doctor disconnect two straps, while he questions Ida about her religious beliefs. By this time, we're all eager to know what lies at the bottom of the pit, but we are forced into suspense one more time as The Doctor takes a rest from disconnecting his harness to express thoughts on beliefs. Of course at this point, he asks Ida to "Tell Rose..." *cut to Ida* *cut back to Doctor* "Tell her..." *cut to Ida* *cut back to Doctor* "oh, she knows..." at which point he finally releases his harness and falls into nothingness. That scene, like so many of the tear jerker scenes in this part, were accompanied by strong orchestral "Gone With The Wind" romantic music.
The other taste-killer for Who flavor in this episode was that a good portion of the beginning was used to resolve the cliffhanger from part one. Don't get me wrong, the resolution itself story-wise was fine, it's just that the music accompanying the scenes sounded like something out of a summer sci-fi flick.
I can understand why Davies may have chose to make ALL of the Ood deaths off-camera, because he was specifically targeting a younger audience, especially females. But to be frank, most Who fans have agreed that Davies under-estimated most childrens' ability to cope with Doctor Who's tendency to put us behind the sofa. It's a good bet that atleast 60 to 80 percent of the kids 8 and older that may have been watching this episode were probably aces at violent games such as Modern Warfare, Call Of Duty, Medal Of Honor, and Resident Evil. So it's likely that a few Ood getting shot on screen wouldn't have been much of a bother to them. Just a thought on that topic though. Classic Doctor Who often had scenes of people getting shot down as they ran away from their killers, such as "Resurrection of the Daleks" with Davison, where Litton's henchmen (the two coppers) shot down unarmed men in an alley.
The final big whammy for this one was the extensive one-sided conversation between the Doctor and the beast. Given the camera angle, lighting, and setting, it looked, felt, and played out more or less like a play on a theater stage, rather than an episode of Doctor Who. Here once again, the Doctor starts to smash one of the jars, only to drop the rock he was holding in order to drill into viewers' heads the cold hard truth of what will be the situation after he smashes them. Again, used here as nothing more than a crutch for suspense and drama, and yet again causing suffrage to the already thin and weak stability of the episode's story.
The most irrelevant, unnecessary, unrelated story element? The scene in the service shafts in which Rose comments on Danny's "unhappiness." You know which scene I'm talking about. Utterly ridiculous. What possible contribution did that make to the episode?
Without devoting this whole review to a rant about what detracted from a perfect score, let me touch base on the few qualities that earned the episode its 4.5.
Well, the coolest villain had to be the possessed Toby, with red eyes and writing covering his face and neck. I especially liked the scene where he breathes fire and Zack starts wigging out. Speaking of cool villains - ironically, the beast was voiced by Gabriel Woolf, who also voiced Sutekh in the 4th Doctor story, "Pyramids of Mars." There were a few scenes of dialogue here and there that were music-less, but they were rare.
Rose shows good TARDIS colors by taking initiative and pep-talking the others into not giving up, which eventually pays off - the service shaft escape route was good for the story.
This episode can be gold or garbage, depending on your point of view. For the Doctor/Rose relationship fans, it was probably a gift from Heaven. But when you set it aside the original series to see how closely it follows the fundamental themes, it leaves much to be desired. In the case of this review - which does exactly that - the episode of course, scores poorly.
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