Although this episode's score on the Whoscale isn't as high as "The Unquiet Dead" and "Tooth And Claw," it still remains one of my favorites from Tennant's first year. Perhaps the most contributing factor to this is the fact that this episode is the first of the revived series to utterly and completely leave Earth behind, with the only ties to our own planet being the humans inhabiting the base on the asteroid. The TARDIS can go anywhere, any when - so it we were well overdue an episode that was completely alien to the Earth-type settings.
Penned by Matt Jones, this was indeed a well-conceived story,
and was so intricately detailed that it apparently required two parts. Jones does a great job with The Doctor's quirky dialogue, just as Gatiss did with "The Idiot's Lantern." Most notably in this episode when Jefferson asks The Doctor, "You telling me you don't know where you are?" At which point The Doctor cheerfully replies, "Nope. More fun that way!"
This is another one of those times when it's hard to determine who got the most space
on the script page; when Jones sat down and pictured a handful of scientists studying a black hole (which for some reason, radiates an orange glow much like a sun), I'm not convinced that it was Jones' idea to design the base with such a gritty industrial cargo ship look to it. Additionally, like practically all of the future-set episodes of the Russell T. Davies era, the futuristic humans are for some bizarre reason still dressed in typical 21st century clothing.
The other biggest turn-off for the episode's classic Who appeal was the crashing orchestral music accompanying the scenes in which the base was violently rocked by quakes and atmospheric decompression when a possessed Toby breaks the glass from outside. The dialogue scenes were relatively music-less for the most part, and when music did accompany them, it was usually subtle enough that we weren't being forced into an emotional corner - we were free to feel what we wanted about the situation at hand.
There is of course, the scene of The Doctor and Rose sitting at a table gazing up at the black hole and discussing their future now that the TARDIS was presumed lost. Something I never liked about Davies' writing of The Doctor's character is that he often accepted defeat too easily - once it was revealed that the TARDIS had fallen into a deep chasm, we get the "it's gone forever" treatment. That particular element had the scent of Davies' script edit all over it. It's likely that Davies wrote in the TARDIS falling into the chasm in order to set the stage for the later scene with The Doctor and Rose at the table. Both instances - the TARDIS being lost and the table scene - were irrelevant to the "Impossible Planet" story, and were clearly the five to six minutes of the episode that the fan girls liked the most. When the "Doctor/Rose" moment is over, it's obvious that the episode then resumes it's course on Jones' track when Rose's cell rings and the beast in the pit is on the other end.
This episode also introduced us to the Ood, which almost immediately sparked caution, yet curiosity at the same time, due to their mysterious nature.
My favorite scene(s) in this episode was the taunting, and eventual possession of Toby by the beast. There was no music in those scenes to "force us" to be uneasy - the occasional voice calling his name and telling him not to look around, yet teasing him with "I can touch you" was more than enough to send chills to my bones.
For the most part, this was a great episode. The cliffhanger at the end was wonderful, and the final scene was nothing short of 100% classic Doctor Who - an evil voice is heard and as the "trap door" opens, the camera rises up from inside staring right at The Doctor and Ida - just as the "sting" of the closing theme sounds, and we are left wondering what could possibly be emerging from that dark pit. That particular moment is reminiscent of one of the parts of "Planet of Evil" with Tom Baker, where the episode ended just as an anti-matter beast emerged from a similar pit. Just as the Doctor fell in, the screen froze with him in mid-air, accompanied by the "sting."
Penned by Matt Jones, this was indeed a well-conceived story,
and was so intricately detailed that it apparently required two parts. Jones does a great job with The Doctor's quirky dialogue, just as Gatiss did with "The Idiot's Lantern." Most notably in this episode when Jefferson asks The Doctor, "You telling me you don't know where you are?" At which point The Doctor cheerfully replies, "Nope. More fun that way!"This is another one of those times when it's hard to determine who got the most space
on the script page; when Jones sat down and pictured a handful of scientists studying a black hole (which for some reason, radiates an orange glow much like a sun), I'm not convinced that it was Jones' idea to design the base with such a gritty industrial cargo ship look to it. Additionally, like practically all of the future-set episodes of the Russell T. Davies era, the futuristic humans are for some bizarre reason still dressed in typical 21st century clothing.The other biggest turn-off for the episode's classic Who appeal was the crashing orchestral music accompanying the scenes in which the base was violently rocked by quakes and atmospheric decompression when a possessed Toby breaks the glass from outside. The dialogue scenes were relatively music-less for the most part, and when music did accompany them, it was usually subtle enough that we weren't being forced into an emotional corner - we were free to feel what we wanted about the situation at hand.
There is of course, the scene of The Doctor and Rose sitting at a table gazing up at the black hole and discussing their future now that the TARDIS was presumed lost. Something I never liked about Davies' writing of The Doctor's character is that he often accepted defeat too easily - once it was revealed that the TARDIS had fallen into a deep chasm, we get the "it's gone forever" treatment. That particular element had the scent of Davies' script edit all over it. It's likely that Davies wrote in the TARDIS falling into the chasm in order to set the stage for the later scene with The Doctor and Rose at the table. Both instances - the TARDIS being lost and the table scene - were irrelevant to the "Impossible Planet" story, and were clearly the five to six minutes of the episode that the fan girls liked the most. When the "Doctor/Rose" moment is over, it's obvious that the episode then resumes it's course on Jones' track when Rose's cell rings and the beast in the pit is on the other end.
This episode also introduced us to the Ood, which almost immediately sparked caution, yet curiosity at the same time, due to their mysterious nature.
My favorite scene(s) in this episode was the taunting, and eventual possession of Toby by the beast. There was no music in those scenes to "force us" to be uneasy - the occasional voice calling his name and telling him not to look around, yet teasing him with "I can touch you" was more than enough to send chills to my bones.
For the most part, this was a great episode. The cliffhanger at the end was wonderful, and the final scene was nothing short of 100% classic Doctor Who - an evil voice is heard and as the "trap door" opens, the camera rises up from inside staring right at The Doctor and Ida - just as the "sting" of the closing theme sounds, and we are left wondering what could possibly be emerging from that dark pit. That particular moment is reminiscent of one of the parts of "Planet of Evil" with Tom Baker, where the episode ended just as an anti-matter beast emerged from a similar pit. Just as the Doctor fell in, the screen froze with him in mid-air, accompanied by the "sting."
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