Series 2 (2006)

Episode title: The Satan Pit
Featuring: Tenth Doctor
Companions: Rose Tyler
First shown: 10th June 2006
Related articles: Ood
Guide: As three of the Ood advance on Rose, Jefferson and his security guard, Jefferson gives the order to kill the Ood. In the control room, Zachary tells everyone that the planet is gaining stability around the black hole once more while Danny reaches the others warning them that other Ood are on their way, before the Ood kill one of the female security guards. With Zachary trapped inside the control room and Jefferson running low on ammunition, the pair agree to activate “Strategy 9” and they get everyone together. The Doctor and Ida contact the base, much to Rose’s relief, to report that the seal is open but nothing seems to have come out of the bottomless pit. Zachary orders the Doctor and Ida to return to the surface because they are initiated Strategy 9, but Ida is reluctant and asks the Doctor what they should do. The Doctor muses about human’s curiosity and suggests that they would be better off retreating this time. Back on ground level, Jefferson is about to kill Toby before Rose stops him, noting that whatever was possessing Toby has passed to the Ood, though Toby is unsure as to what it was but thinks it might have been the Devil.

As the Doctor and Ida return to the surface, Ida tells the Doctor that Strategy 9 is to throw open the air locks while everyone else is in lockdown, thus sucking the Ood out into space. However, the lift fails and the Beast, speaking through the Ood appears on the television monitors, telling the Doctor that he is every beast from every religion, saying that the Disciples of the Light defeated him and chained him up in the Pit for eternity before the creation of the universe, before speaking to each of the crew in turn, playing on their fears in insecurities, mentioning the Time War to the Doctor and predicting Rose’s death in battle. The humans begin to panic, but the Doctor calms them down, reminding them of their strengths and pointing out that together they are united while the Beast is alone. Seemingly in response to the Doctor’s comments, the lift cable snaps and the Doctor and Ida only just escape before the ten mile cable collapses on top of the capsule, severing communications with rest of the crew with only 55 minutes of air remaining. Ida decides to rig up the loose cables to explore the rest of the Pit but the Doctor decides that he will go down while she stays with the lift.

Due to the loss of power, Zachary is now unable to activate Strategy 9, but the Ood continue to try and break their way in. With Rose’s rallying, Zachary reroutes power from the rocket to restore half power to the base, while Danny decides to disable the Ood by broadcasting a telepathic flare that would reduce their telepathic field to 0, killing them. However, this can only be done from the Ood Habitation, with the only access through the airless maintenance shafts under the base. However, Zachary is able to divert air to the shafts and the group scramble into them as the Ood break into the room. Zachary then controls the air flow of the shafts, aerating each section and decompressing the previous one as the group travel through, but the Ood are in pursuit. Jefferson remains being a little too long to fend off the Ood, and fails to reach one of the junctions in time. Knowing that Zachary is unable to prevent his death, he requests that the air is removed quickly, so that he dies from suffocation rather than by the Ood. Zachary does this and Jefferson’s life signal winks out on his monitor.

The body of the Beast in The Satan Pit

The others have little time to grieve as the Ood are in their section as well, and they rush up the corridor as the Ood get closer. However, just before they attack Toby, Toby’s eyes turn red and he holds his finger to his lips signalling the Ood not to attack or reveal his secret, to which the Ood obey while Rose and Danny rescue Toby without noticing his momentary change. As the group reach the Ood Habitation, the Ood break into the control room with Zachary, but Danny is able to activate the Basic 0 telepathic field in time and the Ood collapse, holding their heads and Zachary escapes to the mine shaft to meet the others. Meanwhile, the Doctor reaches the end of the line in his exploration with the end still nowhere in sight. Rather than waiting for death to take him, he decides to cut his line and fall the rest of the way to explore, despite Ida’s pleas. Just as the Doctor does so, communication is restored between Ida and the base, where Zachary tells her that they can’t rescue her as they must abandon the base and stop anyone else from travelling to the planet. Ida understands, and tells them of the Doctor’s fall, prompting Rose to wish to stay behind, but Zachary knocks her unconscious and carries her onto the rocket. The group escape to the rocket as the Ood begin to stir as their telepathic field begins to reassert itself.

Back in the Pit, the Doctor wakes up to find his helmet smashed but he’s still able to breath, deducing that an air cushion must have broken his fall, while Rose regains consciousness as the rocket begins to take off. Despite her protests and despite threatening Zachary with his bolt gun, Zachary refuses to turn back, saying that it is too late, while Toby seems amused at the whole thing. Rose questions the relative ease in which they escaped, noting that the Beast could have killed them in any number of ways, but Toby reprimands her in uncharacteristic viciousness. Meanwhile, the Doctor finds two jars that light up the cave when he touches them, revealing the body of the Beast, but while the Doctor talks to it, it appears animalistic in nature, to which the Doctor works out that the mind of the Beast is long gone. The Doctor realises why the planet of Krop Tor was the perfect prison for the Beast, noting that if it tried to free itself, the gravity field keeping it in orbit around the black hole would fail, thus sending the Beast into the black hole itself. The Beast however, had prepared for this, saying that if the gravity field failed, then Rose would also die but the Doctor says he believes in Rose, and smashes the jars anyway, forcing the gravity field to collapse, as the rocket and the planet are then sucked towards the black hole.

Rose prepares to shoot the cockpit window to send Toby, possessed by the Beast into the black hole in The Satan Pit

On the rocket, ancient runes appear on Toby’s face as the body of the beast bursts into flames in the Pit. Toby breaths flames as the Beast takes full possession of him, but Rose shoots Zachary’s bolt gun into the cockpit window and releases Toby’s seatbelt, sucking him out of the rocket and sending him towards the black hole. Zachary raises the emergency shields, protecting those left in the rocket, but they’re still falling towards the black hole, as is the planet. On the planet, free from the Beasts control, the Ood huddle together nervously, while Ida collapses, the last of her air exhausted. As the Doctor turns to leave the Beast’s burning body, he discovers the TARDIS waiting for him. Meanwhile the crew on the rocket prepare themselves for death after watching the planet disappear into the black hole, before everything becomes still, and to Zachary’s amazement, the rocket turns and begins to head away from the black hole. Over the speakers, the Doctor announces that the TARDIS is towing them all to safety, and wishes to do an exchange, Rose for Ida, whom he managed to save and will be ok despite a little oxygen starvation, though he apologises that he had no time to save the Ood. Once the rocket reaches clear space, Rose and Ida are swapped, and the Doctor tells Rose that the Beast lied when it said she would die in battle. The TARDIS dematerialises as the rocket heads back for Earth with Zachary listing those who died with honours, starting with Toby and continuing with every Ood who died on the planet.

This episode is the concluding episode of a two part story. To read the guide for the first part click here.

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