The second episode Saturday was of course then The Impossible Planet, and damn, that one is a treat every time. Interestingly, it starts off with Rose and Ten being smug “should we turn back and leave? Laughs” and then immediately being humbled by losing the TARDIS. As a result we get to have the two of them in some nice character scenes, as they have to contemplate what they will do. Will they live together, have to find jobs, get a mortgage, etc. They get a sort of reality check and we see them be actually rather down-to-earth about it all, which is cool. There are a few other scenes that are just laid-back nice character moments, such as when they watch the Scarlet System go into the black hole, that just allow the episode to breathe and take some time, something they don’t seem to take the time for with Doctor Who these days.
“We must feed…” titles “you if you are hungry” has to be up there with some of the more infamous cliffhanger-resolutions that we’ve seen in the classic series, it’s very silly, but not really an issue. I really enjoy all the world building with Krop-Tor, how its a civilization so old that the TARDIS can’t even translate its writing, all the architecture down by the pit entrance, how there’s this impossible mystery about its existence in orbit so close to a black hole. I really just enjoy the setting in general. It’s modern Who’s first true alien planet, one that isn’t just some kind of Earth, be that New Earth or an alternate universe Earth, Series 1 was of course all Earth or a space station near Earth, Krop-Tor is distinctly an alien world.
The Ood of course are an iconic new alien from the modern series, probably the first that can really stand alongside your Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, Ice Warriors, and such from the classic series. I will say, if anything makes this story overall a 9 rather than a 10/10, it’s the treatment of the Ood. It feels a decent bit like Potter’s House-Elves, as they’re portrayed as wanting to serve as slaves, no desire for anything else, without anything really criticizing that portrayal in this story. Of course, Planet of the Ood will be here in two seasons to sort of rectify that, but as it stands in this one, it’s a bit iffy. The irony of the head of ethics in the base essentially being the slave master is palpable. Additionally, it really rubbed me the wrong way when Rose was comparing having worked in a shop or as a dinner lady to an Ood’s experience as a literal slave. Those experiences are not the same, borderline offensive to suggest so to a slave’s face. They say Basic 100 the Ood should be dead, but wouldn’t dead show as Basic 0, indicating no psychic activity?
Gabriel Woolf. I don’t think I need to elaborate further…
He is excellent as the voice of the Beast. Every word he speaks is bone-chillingly creepy. His voice has only gotten scarier with roughly 30 more years of age since his previous appearance in Pyramids of Mars. And actually, his voice combines really well with Silas Carson’s Ood voice when the Beast speaks through them as well.
The side characters are all likeable, maybe Toby the least since there wasn’t a lot to him before he was possessed. Shame they killed Scooti so early, I’d have liked to see more of her. But Ida and Zack were probably my favorite of the bunch. I like all the how great humans are with their desire to explore and inquisitive nature stuff. Something was there, so they went out to study it, it’s an attitude that very much reminds me of Four’s comments on humanity in The Ark in Space. The scene with Toby just out there in the vacuum, covered in writing, red eyes, and smashing the glass with just his possessed mind to kill Scooti as she struggles with the door that the Beast has also taken control of is a very effective scene.
As a Doom player, the use of Doom doors as a sound effect gets a chuckle out of me every time. And actually, it’s rather fitting, as Doom is about fighting demons from hell, a lot of satanic and related imagery in those games. And of course, those who don’t play just hear some rather spooky sounds. Also interesting how accurate they got that black hole to look, about a decade before the first image of one was captured. With the music, I really like the Impossible Planet theme, with the cello or viola melody, not certain which. A little funny how the entrance to the pit was most definitely not 30 feet in diameter with the scale it was shown at. Also, they’re doing that thing with spacesuit helmets that they’re lit up on the inside so you can see the actors, which no real spacesuit would do since it would cause so much glare inside. But those are all just little nitpicks.
Just a lot of good building of tension in this first part leading to a great classic base under siege story in the second half as I’ll talk about with The Satan Pit
