Story #176 - Fear Her (2006)

Sarah -
I’d like to propose we establish a new Sofa of Rassilon honor: The Warriors of the Deep Award (WOTDA), which recognizes episodes of Doctor Who with a decent script that are entirely let down by the story’s production.


Harry -
If it involves drinking a ceremonial toast, I'm in.


Sarah -
It certainly does! We’ll have to mix up a special concoction -- or just pass the gin bottle between us.

In any case, "Fear Her" is my official WOTDA nomination for Series Two.

The story of "Fear Her" begins with Stephen Fry’s legendary unfinished Doctor Who story. Fortunately, the production team had a reserve script standing by, written by none other than Life on Mars co-creator Matthew Graham. In addition to being ready to go, the "Fear Her" script ticked off the most importance box -- it was cheap. 

The TARDIS lands on a quiet suburban street. There’s a brief kerfuffle when the TARDIS doors are facing a storage unit wall, but all is set to rights and the Doctor and Rose are ready for the 2012 Olympics. I had the realization that this story was broadcast six years before those Olympics and now we’re six years on from them. Times flies, doesn’t it?


Harry -
This is some genuinely timey-wimey stuff. The first time around it was a futuristic story, now it's a historical.


Sarah -
The street turns out to be not quite as quiet as it looks. Rose immediately notices missing posters for children all over the neighborhood. We saw one of the children vanish before the Doctor and Rose arrived, despite warnings from an elderly neighbor.


Harry -
A bit of farcical police work attempted by the Doctor while the neighbours voiced their concerns. After resorting to shushing everyone, the police procedural can begin properly. Rose and the Doctor both detect signs and smells of a kind of residual energy left behind after children have disappeared.


Sarah -
It doesn’t take long for the Doctor to work out that a girl named Chloe seems to be connected to the missing children. When she draws pictures of the children in her neighborhood, they become trapped in her artwork. It’s chilling.


Harry -
Abisola Agbaje gave a brilliant performance as Chloe, who appears at first to be a lonely girl, but with flashes of inexplicable anger. There seems to be a natural reason for this:

ROSE: What about Chloe's dad? 
TRISH: Chloe's dad died a year ago. 
ROSE: I'm sorry. 
TRISH: You wouldn't be if you'd known him. 

But this being Doctor Who, it comes out that something alien is causing her to react, but Agbaje's performance still makes it very believable.


Sarah -
It know it’s fashionable to pick on child actors in certain circles, but I agree Agbaje's performance is effective. No shade to Eros Lyn, but I can’t help but think that another director might have been able to help the actress find more subtlety in her performance. The whispering got a little one-note after a while.


Harry -
Like so many great scares in Doctor Who, it's the commonplace made horrifying that sticks in the mind. The living drawings stayed with me all this time as well.


Sarah -
The Doctor works out that Chloe is possessed by the Isolus, an alien life-form that has four billion siblings. The Isolus is just trying to recreate its family, with potentially billions of human beings. 

I find this premise absolutely terrifying. The Isolus is the type of protagonist I often find most interesting. It’s not trying to conquer Earth or carrying out a diabolical plan, it’s just lonely and trying to survive. It’s all very tragic.


Harry -
Another great horror trope: someone's body possessed by a malevolent force. The scene where the Doctor communicates with the Isolus through Chloe was unsettling.


Sarah -
There’s so much that’s unsettling in this story. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen an abusive parent in Doctor Who, but Eddie Connolly’s bullying doesn’t seem to come close to the physical and possibly sexual abuse of Chloe’s father. Chloe and her mother Trish are both still suffering from PTSD, which has contributed to the infiltration of the Isolus.


Harry -
There is clearly a stress on the dad having done horrible things.


Sarah -
Nina Sosanya, who portrays Trish, is one of those actresses I have liked every time I’ve seen her. She effectively underplays the role of a mother whose own PTSD is so overwhelming that she can’t even begin to help her daughter. That has led her to swap her abusive relationship with husband for one with her possessed daughter. 

This is also a very good episode for Rose. When she’s away from the Doctor, she becomes so capable. She’s the one who first notices the missing posters and connects with people in the neighborhood throughout. This is when I like Rose the most.


Harry -
Agreed. Full credit to Matthew Graham for doing away with the smugness we've had to endure this season.


Sarah -
It’s definitely a respite.


Harry -
Having sorted out that the Isolus is behind the disappearances, the Doctor determines that they need to locate its pod and I quite like what happens next. Instead of waving his sonic screwdriver and locating the pod in two seconds, he and Rose go back to the TARDIS to build a pod detector. Old school!


Sarah -
So much of this story feels old school and, dare I say, cozy. I kind of love how giddy the Doctor is about finding the pod.


Harry -
I wonder if RTD got fidgety while reading this script and decided to throw in the Doctor's casual line about being "a dad once."


Sarah -
OMG! The look on Rose’s face when says that! It’s a great moment that illustrates for the 595th time that there is a gap between them that can never be bridged.


Harry -
Before Rose can question him about it, the gizmo picks up the pod and they set off on the trail. Meanwhile, Chloe begins drawing the Doctor and the TARDIS.


Sarah -
Whoops! The Doctor finds himself trapped in a drawing, but Rose is determined to save him. She grabs a pickaxe and starts digging up the street, much to the dismay of Kel, the local council worker who has been assisting Rose in her investigation. Meanwhile, Chloe is drawing the entire crowd at Olympic Stadium...and then the world. 

Following the direction from the Doctor in the drawing, Rose realizes the pod needs warmth and love...right as the Olympic torch is on its way down the street. She chucks the pod into the touch and -- hurrah! -- the missing children begin to reappear.


Harry -
The story felt like it went off the rails here.


Sarah -
Meanwhile, Chloe’s drawing of her father has come to life, terrorizing her and her mother and trapping them in the house. Trish sings to Chloe to drive the terror away, destroying the monster of her father’s memory. Going back to the Warriors of the Deep Award, I have to suggest that this scene would have been significantly more effective and way scarier if it wasn’t so damn bright. The animation of Chloe’s drawing of her father should have been terrifying, but it doesn’t come close, which is a pity. Chloe’s recovery should have been so much more effective.


Harry -
Agreed.  The monster that you cannot see is often more terrifying.


Sarah -
But wait, where’s the Doctor? The torch bearer falters from the pod flare, which leads to the dialog that made me want to smash my television: “There's a mystery man. He's picked up the flame. We've no idea who he is. He's carrying the flame. Yes, he's carrying the flame and no one wants to stop him. It's more than a flame now, Bob. It's more than heat and light. It's hope, and it's courage, and it's love.”


Harry -
Oh man.


Sarah -
The Doctor picks up the torch and lights the cauldron, sending the Isolus home in its pod on a cloud of love. Good grief. My teeth hurt from all the saccharine. 

The Doctor and Rose are reunited and all is well. Or is it…?

ROSE: You know what? They keep on trying to split us up, but they never ever will. 
DOCTOR: Never say never ever. 
ROSE: Nah, we'll always be okay, you and me. Don't you reckon, Doctor? 
DOCTOR: There's something in the air. Something coming. 
ROSE: What? 
DOCTOR: A storm's approaching.


Harry -
Foreshadowing for the extremely foreshadowly challenged.  I was quite done with this story by the end.  As you said above, a solid story let down by the production and for me the era as well.  This could have been a wild CSO thriller in the Pertwee era, or something with insane visuals in the McCoy era.  Anyway, we got through it.  Drink!


Sarah -
Best Line: No, I'm not really a cat person. Once you've been threatened by one in a nun's wimple, it kind of takes the joy out of it. 

Favorite Moment: The Doctor absentmindedly eating marmalade from a jar with his fingers, only to be corrected by Rose with an “ahem” and a shake of her head. It’s one of those perfect scenes that remind us that the Doctor is an alien. 

Lasting Image: Star Trek was my Sci-Fi gateway drug, so I have to go with the Vulcan Salute

5/10


Harry -
Best Line:
ROSE: Cake? 
DOCTOR: Top banana. Mmm. I can't stress this enough. Ball bearings you can eat, masterpiece! 

Favourite Moment: the initial terror of the dad in the wardrobe.

Lasting Image: the living drawings.

4/10

Our marathon continues with Story #177: Army of Ghosts / Doomsday...

Story #175 - Love and Monsters (2006)

Sarah -
We’ve reached our first Doctor-lite episode, which feels like a bit of a milestone. Created to make it possible to get the season filmed on time and on budget, Doctor-lite episodes can still be a divisive issue in fandom. The quality of Doctor-lite episodes will fluctuate over the years, but "Love and Monsters" has the distinction of being the first.


Harry -
Aye, who knew when this singular oddity appeared that it was just the thin edge of the wedge, and we'd see entire calendar years fall victim to the Doctor-lite phenomenon.


Sarah -
My memories of "Love and Monsters" were fuzzy before this rewatch: the Abzorbaloff, Moaning Myrtle in a paving block, lots of ELO, and adorable Marc Warren. In the end, it’s certainly not a great episode, but it’s not as bad as I feared it might be. There’s a backhanded compliment for you!

Harry -
My memories were similar and I ended up almost relieved that it wasn't as bad as I remembered. Apologies to RTD for our double backhand.


Sarah - 
In defense of RTD, he’s as much of a fan as we are, so Love and Monsters is a significantly more generous treatment of fandom than Whizz Kid in "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy".


Harry - 
It's a twist on fandom that shows us characters who are fans of the actual Doctor, not the show. The story opens with a classic Doctor Who moment: someone running. In this case, it's Marc Warren -- who for a time in the mid-00s was everywhere, appearing in State of Play and Life on Mars, and he gave a memorably grotesque performance as the titular character in a BBC adaptation of Dracula. Here, his Elton follows some shouting voices into an abandoned building. He sees the Doctor and Rose chasing something and comes face-to-face with a roaring alien. Some comedy running ensues. It's all quite mad, and then we cut to Elton's video journal.


Sarah -
I just discovered that "Love and Monsters" wasn’t Warren’s first brush with Doctor Who. He was an uncredited extra in "Battlefield" in one of his earliest TV appearances.


Harry -
There's a piece of trivia worthy of Toby Hadoke.


Sarah -
I imagine Toby can name six different ways Marc Warren is connected to Doctor Who!


Harry - 
Elton introduces himself as someone who first encountered the Doctor inside his childhood home at the age of three or four. Since then, he has been haunted by that night and he wants to find that mysterious man. Having been a witness to the Auton rampage, the spaceship crash that wrecked Big Ben's tower, and the Sycorax invasion, his interest in the Doctor is stoked and his investigation becomes more intensified. He's not alone. He and a group of like-minded investigators have formed a group called L.I.N.D.A.: the London Investigation 'N' Detective Agency.


Sarah -
Elton is the anti-Donna Noble; the person who was paying attention!

I’m kind of sad that Clive from "Rose" didn’t have the opportunity to meet up with L.I.N.D.A. Also, I love that Elton was waiting years for the opportunity to use the L.I.N.D.A. acronym. That’s a proper nerd for you.


Harry -
Despite being brought together by a common interest in the Doctor, the quirky group of L.I.N.D.A. members find themselves enjoying other activities like music, food and art. Clive might have kept their focus from drifting, but that task is taken up by Victor Kennedy, a well dressed man of no known background. L.I.N.D.A. quickly falls under his sway as Kennedy whips the team into an investigative force, dispatching them on missions to research, observe, and infiltrate -- whatever it takes to get close to the Doctor. Before long, he begins picking off individual members and inventing reasons to explain their sudden disappearances.

I liked that RTD brought together such a disparate group of people to form L.I.N.D.A.. They were more believeable as a group of very-regular-seeming people, rather than had they all been as fanatical as Kennedy.


Sarah -
I love their little L.I.N.D.A. surrogate family and Elton’s developing relationship with Ursula. The jam session is one of my favorite moments in the story. It’s heartbreaking when Kennedy shows up with his Torchwood files and starts picking them off one by one. He’s just awful, with a particularly awful performance from Peter Kay. Everyone else hits just the right note, but he’s so over the top it became unbearable.


Harry -
One of the weak points of the story was that Kennedy provided no backstory whatsoever, and there he is bossing everyone around, and how would he have a) gotten, and b) brazenly announced that he had Torchwood files in hand. Would the rest of the group even have known what Torchwood was, top secret organization and all? Anyway, probably overthinking it.


Sarah -
A fan theory that I had never come across before now is that Kennedy is based on Ian Levine. True or not, this is my new favorite fan theory of all time!


Harry - 
Now that's a backstory I can get behind!

Still in Kennedy's thrall, the rest of the team continue with their assigned tasks. Elton believes he's struck paydirt when a couple of lucky breaks lead him into Rose's sphere, i.e. a chance encounter with her mum Jackie.


Sarah -
Poor Jackie. It’s so cringy when she starts flirting with Elton, but we see how lonely she is. It’s not easy being the person left behind.


Harry -
Credit to RTD for creating something unique in the new series. "Rose" gave us the Rose story, "Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel" gave us the Mickey story, and now we get the Jackie story. Instead of Doctor-lite, many of these stories could be seen as Companion-plus.


Sarah -
The moment when she confronts Elton about finding Rose’s photo in his pocket is heartbreaking, but she’s still our tough Jackie, “Let me tell you something about those who get left behind. Because it's hard. And that's what you become, hard. But if there's one thing I've learnt, it's that I will never let her down. And I'll protect them both until the end of my life. So whatever you want, I'm warning you, back off.” I love Jackie so much in this story.


Harry -
It was sad that the story that put Jackie front and centre highlighted her loneliness, but it also showed her steely side. Elton was lucky not to take one in the chops. He realized immediately what a terrible mistake he'd made.


Sarah -
Don’t mess with Jackie Tyler!


Harry - 
Determined to confront and leave Kennedy once and for all, Elton and Ursula finally discover his true nature. I remember on first viewing that this was where the story went off the rails. It's hard to take anything seriously when the villain is so over-the-top panto. And silly. And gross. The Abzorbaloff devours its victims by, well, absorbing them into its body, but not completely. The faces of recent victims press out against its flesh, their minds and senses still their own.


Sarah -
Off the rails, through the village, and over the cliff! If I decide to watch this story again, I think I’ll just turn it off when Ursula goes back to get her phone and skip the whole Abzorbaloff reveal. There’s really no point in watching the rest of the episode. It’s just embarrassing. I’ll defend wobbly sets with my last breath, but never bad writing.


Harry -
The Abzorbaloff was in this story because it was the winner of a "design a Doctor Who monster" contest on Blue Peter, so we can literally say it's like some kid designed it.


Sarah -
I'd forgotten about that. It's a terrible idea that I hope will never happen again. "Dear Mr. Chibnall..."


Harry -
The story began with a comic monster chase and it fittingly ends with one as the Abzorbaloff nimbly waddles after Elton, right into the path of the Doctor and Rose.


Sarah -
Rose gives Elton a piece of her mind for messing with Jackie and the Doctor discovers the Abzorbaloff is from Clom, twin planet of Raxacoricofallapatorius. Of course he is.


Harry -
The "Clom" line was the only time I laughed while watching. And Elton, once again lucky not to take one in the chops from an angry Tyler.


Sarah -
Having been absorbed, Ursula is able to direct Elton to snap the Abzorbaloff’s cane, which causes him to melt into the paving stones, along with his L.I.N.D.A. victims. But wait, the Doctor can save one person with a convenient wave of his sonic screwdriver and that one person is Ursula. Sorry everyone else, you’re screwed.


Harry -
I hate to say this was a lazy ending because the whole story was experimental in nature.


Sarah -
Then I'll say it -- L.A.Z.Y.

Turns out Elton did meet the Doctor as a child. He explains to Elton that he was hunting a living shadow which had escaped its home dimension. He caught it, but not before it had killed Elton's mother, so that’s sorted. Elton muses on his situation, deciding it’s not all that bad. And the fates of Rose and Jackie and how much longer it will be before they pay the price. Bit of foreshadowing there, eh?


Harry -
Second story in a row with the foreshadowing.


Sarah -
So, apparently, Elton and Ursula the paving block live happily ever after and our story ends with a not-so-subtle oral sex joke. There’s a full point off my rating for that. Ugh.


Harry -
So lame. A prime example of RTD getting self-indulgent with no one to check him, but again, the whole story feels that way most of the time.


Sarah - 
Best Line: "Oh, you don't meet many Eltons, do you? Apart from the obvious."

Favorite Moment: Jackie telling Elton off.

Lasting Image: Unfortunately, it will probably be the Abzorbaloff running after Elton

4/10


Harry -
DOCTOR: Not from Raxacoricofallapatorius, are you? 
VICTOR: No, I'm not. They're swine. I spit on them. I was born on their twin planet. 
DOCTOR: Really? What's the twin planet of Raxacoricofallapatorius? 
VICTOR: Clom. 
DOCTOR: Clom. 
VICTOR: Clom.

Favourite Moment: the ELO jam session.

Lasting Image: so many images I'd prefer to banish, especially the Abzorbaloff!

5/10

Our marathon continues with Story #176: Fear Her...

Story #174 - The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit (2006)

Harry -
Do you think it's safe to come out from behind the sofa, Sarah?


Sarah -
No, I don’t think it’s safe at all. I’ll be typing this from the safest place in the universe -- behind the sofa!


Harry -
That was New Who's first bona fide horror story, wouldn't you say? Every Doctor Who story has it's share of frights. We've had ghost stories ("The Unquiet Dead"), rampaging monsters ("Dalek", "Tooth and Claw"), and creepy freakouts ("The Empty Child"), but "The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit" delivered demonic possession and cosmic horror on a whole new level.


Sarah -
A horror story set on a base under siege is firmly in my Doctor Who sweet spot. 

So I have to admit that was totally misremembered this story, thinking that Martha had been in it. I had to look up Martha stories and realized I was confusing it with "42". I’m not sure that means anything, other than reflecting how long it’s been since I watched any of these stories.


Harry -
There will be a feeling of "sameness" when we get to "42". This seemed to occur often in the RTD era.


Sarah -
For better or worse, the RTD era was nothing if not consistent. The story begins on a typically irritating note as the Doctor and Rose emerge from the TARDIS all giggly and smug. Fortunately, the action kicked in quickly so it didn’t have time to get unbearably annoying. Having materialized inside a sanctuary base, the Doctor and Rose find themselves surrounded by the Ood, who initially appear menacing but are actually a race of servile empaths. What did you think of the Ood the first time we met them?


Harry -
As intended, the Ood are gross at first glance, and frightening in their first moments on screen. It adds to the sense of unease aboard this base. I forgot how much stress was put on describing the Ood as little better than slaves or livestock. As one crew member explains: "If you don't give them orders, they just pine away and die." Also strange how the Doctor and Rose took it in stride.


Sarah -
Right? In any other story, the Doctor would be working to free the Ood, not leaving them to die in the inevitable carnage.


Harry -
There is a lot for them, and us, to take in during the opening scenes. We meet most of the most of the base crew in rapid succession, and learn that they are drilling into the core of a planet that is something of a cosmic miracle. The planet is maintaining permanent orbit around a black hole, as entire galaxies fly past to their destruction. Very sciencey!


Sarah -
The guest cast is particularly strong. It’s unfortunate that we know most of them won’t make it to the end of the story.


Harry -
The reason for the drilling is to locate the power source that is generating the energy needed to hold the planet in orbit. Such power could revolutionize science, and naturally the humans want to get their hands on it. Unfortunately, a side effect of the drilling is earthquakes that rock the planet's surface. A huge tremor destroys a section of the base, taking the TARDIS with it. The Doctor and Rose are trapped. That put a damper on things.


Sarah -
Oops. The smug cool kids get their comeuppance, which leads to yet another awkward conversation as Rose jokes about giving up the traveling life and settling down for a happy life in the suburbs of some backwater planet. The Doctor is horrified at the prospect of being stuck in one place, declaring that he’s dying at losing “literally” the only thing he’s got. Calm down, Drama Queen. And how many times does Rose have to be told that the Doctor can’t be her boyfriend forever and ever?


Harry -
Meanwhile, Toby the crew's archaeology specialist hears a voice whispering behind him.


Sarah -
I’m back behind the sofa. The progression of the beast’s possession of Toby, the Ood, and the computer ratchets up the tension so subtly that the crew almost doesn’t notice it’s happening.


Harry -
Scootch over, Sarah. Ever since the Exorcist films, the notion of demonic possession has given me the creeps. Watching Toby's slow transformation, first with the whispers, then the ancient letters appearing all over his body, to the moment when Scooti spots him outside in the vacuum of space before he sends her to her death, it's all a growing horror. Worst for me was the individual Ood suddenly declared to Rose: "The Beast and his Armies shall rise from the Pit to make war against God." Aieeee! That's some old school Catholic terror.


Sarah -
I’m imagining watching this back in the day when Doctor Who was on at 11:00 p.m. on Sunday night. I would never have gotten to sleep!


Harry -
Even before the TARDIS vanished in the earthquake, I found the Doctor oddly subdued, or maybe a bit off. There was that spontaneous hugging session with the crew, but for the most part he moped around watching things happen around him. Just as suddenly as things were getting out of hand, Toby returns to normal. Neither he nor anyone else can explain how Scooti ended up floating in space, her dead body tragically drifting away. That moment reminded me of Katarina's death way back in "The Daleks' Master Plan".


Sarah -
The image of poor Scooti floating in space was heartbreaking. It definitely felt like a callback to Katarina.


Harry -
The drilling stops, meaning that they've reached what they were looking for. The Doctor volunteers to descend the mine shaft with Ida (it's kind of sad that I have to keep looking up the crew's names, they each got such little time in the spotlight; this story deserved to be a classic era six-parter so we could really get to know everyone). The capsule descends to the bottom and they emerge into a gigantic cavern filled with statues and carvings from the planet's ancient civilization.


Sarah -
I liked Ida. I know I’ve made this point before, but this is another case of the Tenth Doctor being paired up with a more mature woman, which happened a lot in the Fifth Doctor era when he was traveling with younger companions. In both cases, it’s refreshing to have some grownups in the room.


Harry -
While the Doctor and Ida explore, the Ood quietly mobilize. Well, quietly on the outside, but scanners indicate that their brain activity has accelerated to levels that should be fatal. They slowly mobilize and march on the others. At the same time, Toby has gone back to illustrated man mode, with more frightening words for the crew: "These are the words of the Beast. And he has woken. He is the heart that beats in the darkness. He is the blood that will never cease. And now he will rise." Aieeee!


Sarah -
The Beast definitely has a flair for the dramatic.


Harry -
Pardon the pun, but all hell is breaking loose. The planet suddenly slips from orbit, sending it towards the black hole. The Ood and Toby are terrorizing everyone above, while down below, the Doctor and Ida watch as the trapdoor at the bottom of the pit opens, and a terrible voice declares that it is free again. But what is it? Now THAT is a bloody cliffhanger.


Sarah -
I had to take a little breather before jumping (figuratively) into "The Satan Pit". The Beast wastes no time declaring himself to the Doctor and dismissing the humans: “You know nothing. All of you, so small. The Captain, so scared of command. The soldier, haunted by the eyes of his wife. The scientist, still running from Daddy. The little boy who lied. The virgin. And the lost girl, so far away from home. The valiant child who will die in battle so very soon.”

Needless to say, Rose has a few questions about that little bit of foreshadowing.


Harry -
"You will die here, all of you. This planet will become your grave." Oh hell's bells.

The only non-terrifying thing about the Beast's voice was seeing that it was the one and only Gabriel Woolf behind it.


Sarah -
Sutekh himself!


Harry -
Rose asks if it's the voice of Satan, but the Doctor can't or won't confirm it.


Sarah -
I’m pretty sure that’s because he knows it’s Sutekh, and doesn’t want to explain the continuity to everyone else.


Harry -
The Doctor tries to calm everyone by claiming it’s all wordplay and trickery to terrify them (even though it worked like gangbusters), but the voice seems to know about the Doctor as well, giving him pause. It was brilliant having a disembodied voice terrify everyone for the first half hour of this episode. The terror on everyone's faces was very real.

While attempting to return up to the base, the cable of the capsule that the Doctor and Ida are in snaps, sending them crashing back down. Ida realizes they could make use of the cable and absail down into the now-open pit. Curious, but also seemingly resigned to his fate, the Doctor goes first.


Sarah -
I love Ida! It’s like, “We’ve gone this far and are probably going to die. Let’s explore while we can!” She’s brilliant.


Harry -
Meanwhile, the Ood are still rampaging through the base. It's one huge tribute to Alien here as everyone flees into smaller and smaller spaces trying to get away from the monsters. The claustrophobia was starting to get to me.


Sarah -
I appreciate that Rose takes charge and rallies the crew to fight the situation, but things are clearly not going well. Mr Jefferson’s death is in the ventilation shaft is particularly heartbreaking.

In the end, only Rose, Zach, and Toby have survived. Zach tells Ida that they can’t save her and the Doctor and everyone is pretty much resigned to their fates. But Rose is having none of it. She’s prepared to wait for the Doctor like he’d wait for her, but Zach’s not on board with her plan. He’s lost too many people and sedates Rose to get her on the escape rocket.


Harry -
I had a great deal of empathy for Zach. He’s like a harried civil servant who was just doing his thing when he found himself unexpectedly thrust into a senior management role in a crisis situation. He’s trying his best, all things considered.


Sarah -
Meanwhile, the Beast has gotten on the Doctor’s last nerve; he trusts in his faith in Rose and smashes the jars that are holding the gravity field in place. Alas, the Beast is too clever to fall for that and shifts to Toby’s body, which is just next to Rose’s. But here’s the thing: the Beast doesn’t know that he’s in the RTD era, where Rose is capable of things that no other companion could ever manage. Would the intrepid Sarah Jane Smith be able to grab Zach’s bolt gun? I think not. Would the clearly smarter-than-the-Doctor Zoe know how to perfectly time the shooting out of the glass and unbuckling of Toby’s seatbelt to shoot him into the black hole? Oh, hell no! Only Rose Tyler is capable of achieving these miraculous feats, which is why she and the Doctor are clearly the OTP of the entire fucking universe...


Harry -
I couldn’t believe she shot out the glass of the escape rocket. It’s the least intuitive action one could imagine in that situation, but remedied of course by an RTD-era quote like “Go to Hell.” I guess we were meant to punch the sky there.

Fortunately, harried civil servant Zach quickly activates the external shields to seal off the damage caused by the madwoman behind him. So much wanton disregard for the health and safety regulations. I would not fault him for filing a grievance when this is done.


Sarah -
Help me, Harry. I don’t think I can make it through the rest of this season. Has the Doctor ever been so deep in a self-created bubble with any other companion? I would give anything to hear the Sixth Doctor bicker with Peri right about now.


Harry -
I know. Those two are just too much. If only this story featured a different TARDIS team it might have been a classic. The horror aspects are incredible. The voice and design of the Beast are truly terrifying – not to mention the sheer size of the monster. Genuinely frightening stuff for any Doctor to face.


Sarah -
It’s a great story despite the domestic drama of the TARDIS Team. That said, I liked that the script has the crew questioning their behavior as the crisis builds.


Harry -
As mentioned earlier, I would have liked to have gotten to know the characters of this crew, or at least learn some more of their backstories.


Sarah -
It’s the stellar guest cast that makes you want more. Excellent casting!


Harry -
One final point about the production is how awesome the production was. Director James Strong put together a solid effort, especially in making the sets look and feel so battered and claustrophobic. Unlike a lot of sterile and cheap looking sets in space, this one was very believable.


Sarah -
I have only good things to say about the production. The sets are perfectly lived in and the direction is smashing.


Harry -
At the end, it was fortuitous that the TARDIS was sitting there waiting for the Doctor to trip over it. A few quick trips to exchange Ida for Rose, and some Gallifreyan tractor beam magic to pull the escape rocket away from the black hole, and there you have it. The planet, the Beast and Toby’s body all sent into the void of space. I remember being irked by the tractor beam business when this story first aired, but I’ve come to accept it as something TARDISes are able to do.


Sarah -
At least it wasn’t solved by waving the sonic screwdriver. At the end of the story, Rose is more convinced than ever that the Doctor will always save her. I imagine the Beast’s warning was forgotten as they traipse off to the next adventure.


Harry -
Ultimately, I’ll give this story a decent ranking because of everything except the Doctor and Rose. So there!


Sarah -
We are of one mind on this.


Harry -
Best Line: “Maybe that’s what the devil is, in the end. An idea.”

Favourite Moment: when the TARDIS rescues the escape rocket and Zach realizes he can get the hell away from all these people. The look of pure relief!

Lasting Image: the Doctor plummeting into the pit.

7/10


Sarah -
Best Line:
Ida: “The urge to jump. Do you know where it comes from, that sensation? Genetic heritage. Ever since we were primates in the trees. It's our body's way of testing us. Calculating whether or not we can reach the next branch.” 

Favorite Moment: The Doctor and Ida’s conversations in the pit.

Lasting Image: Toby in full beast-possession mode, covered in alien writing.

7/10

Our marathon continues with Story #175: Love and Monsters...