I’m behind you, Toby. I’m right behind you. Don’t look. Don’t look at me. One look and you will die. I’m reaching out, Toby. I’m so close. Don’t turn around. Oh, I can touch you.
Dare you discuss The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit as the TV Club circles a black hole?
Watch both episodes on BBC iPlayer:
Or on BluRay and DVD:
Rate and review below:
Incidentally, I rewatched Impossible Planet yesterday!
It’s a very, very good piece of television, managing to be horrifying, funny, and a great setup for the next episode.
Also, I couldn’t help noticing the similarities between this episode and the reveal of Sutekh in Legend of Ruby Sunday. In fact, upon watching Legend for the first time, I was sure the Beast would show up!
I find the soundtrack is an underdiscussed aspect of this episode, the eerie strings, really goes with the sort of unknowable horror going on
Easily the best story in s2. Fact
By far my favourite episode of Series 2, like it’s not even close.
A genius, claustrophobic, genuinely terrifying, somewhat philosophic base under siege distillation of quality that impresses again and again as it goes on.
It has one of the greatest side casts we’ve ever gotten in the show, somehow making you care about every character (except Security Guards 1 & 2, poor guys weren’t even named before they died).
Ten and Rose aren’t actually that bad, the conversations about having to settle down in one place together is touching (and makes the 60th Anniversary only more confusing). I think this is the best execution of the character dynamic they were trying for this series.
The Ood are introduced and are one of the best alien designs in the new series. I don’t know if it was Matt Jones’ idea or if they were placed in with RTD’s behest but thank you to The Impossible Planet for introducing them.
The setting is bleak, eerie and one of the only places in Doctor Who I’ve seen truly capture the lonely expanse of deep space.
Gabriel Woolf puts in an all time great performance as The Beast, who is one of my favourite New Who monsters of the week, CGI be damned, it’s his presence and influence that makes the story so scary (everybody talks about Toby’s possession but that f*****g scene with the Ood chanting is the one I always think of)
Murray Gold once again puts in a pretty stellar score. The sharp violins and the ominous droning blend together fantastically.
It’s such a shame Matt Jones never came back and wrote more because this is a scary, tightly written, intelligent and all time great script.
10/10
Technically, it seems like Matt Jones wrote an episode of Torchwood and three other stories, two of which were Bernice Summerfield. No more on screen Doctor Who, though.
It does remind me of how Remembrance of the Daleks was written by Ben Aaronovitch, who had no experience writing for Doctor Who, though they also ended up writing Battlefield and a novel or two…
But yes, Impossible Planet & The Satan Pit are great episodes, and high up there for New Who.
Oh yeah, I forgot he wrote that Torchwood episode.
I know he wrote a couple VNAs but I was more talking about the main show.
The soundtrack to this story is gorgeous. From mournful to horrific. It’s one of the best episode soundtracks in my opinion.
Quoted for truth. This, for me, was the story that really started to deliver on Tennant’s huge potential. Wonderful stuff that, I think, is tonally much more in keeping with series 3 and 4 than the season it is actually a part of.
He also wrote a Virgin New Adventure (Bad Therapy), a few more short stories and a Benny NA, but TARDIS Guide has him down as Matthew Jones for those stories. Can the names be linked @shauny ? 
Anyways, I love this two-parter. Definitely the best story from s2 and I think one of the best 10th Doctor stories overall! The atmosphere is so thick you could cut it with a knife.
Agreeing with what everyone’s said definitely the highlight of Season 2
Also being a massive Torchwood fan, I really like what they’ve done with the cast here in the expanded media.
Or with the Torchwood Archives in general
I’ve put them all under the one name, Matt Jones: Writer: Matt Jones · TARDIS Guide
Thanks!
OH THAT’S AN EASY 10/10 FROM ME FRIENDS! Introducing the Ood effectively is a remarkable feat all on its own but the two episodes are a great showcase of character work, atmosphere, good set design, and a whole lot of suspenseful, creepy fun.
Oh this is a great one (all praise to the Great One). The first proper alien world in the modern series excluding New Earth, which is still functionally Earth, but Krop Tor is distinctly alien. All around great atmosphere, very tense and exciting, honestly would have fit right in in the Hinchcliffe era. Gabriel Woolf, who of course appeared in that very era, is excellent as the voice of the Beast, he sounds more and more terrifying the older he gets.
Ten and Rose don’t particularly annoy me in this one either, the scene where they have to talk about possibly having to get a house and all that stuff if they can’t get the TARDIS back is a particularly good moment for the two of them.
Probably my favorite part is that shot of Ten just hanging there over the abyss, just nothing but black all around him, discussing faith before he unclips and drops down below, not knowing if he’d survive. Absolutely the best story of Series 2.
If I had to give any mark against it, the idea of the Ood existing to be slaves and being portrayed as essentially wanting to be enslaved was a somewhat questionable look, something which is remedied two seasons later by freeing them. Also, I don’t know if it was intentional irony that the guy who supposedly is the ethics guy was the one explaining all of this about the Ood.
9/10, One of my favorites
I’ll tell you, the goosebumps I got during the scene where the Beast said Rose is going to die.
Rose was my first companion and I was very attached to her, this is the moment where I was worried for her future, and to be told you’re going to die by the devil? Pretty scary stuff!
I think I’m in the minority here. I find this one a ‘meh’, overly long, and forgettable story. I don’t know why really, but it just doesn’t do anything for me.
The Ood are cool, but that is about it.
2.5/5.
I rewatched this one lately and so many scenes stick in my mind:
So much excellent stuff in this episode which even the smugness of the Doctor and Rose can’t detract from. The two episodes really give the story, setting and characters the space they need to breath and it feels almost like an old school four parter. 8/10
