It did feel very Event Horizon-y.

The crew memeber being possesed by the devil, the openeing of a forbidden object to release some form of terror, the black hole....

That said, the episode was one of the best ones I've seen in a while, and I really felt the character of Rose did something useful this week: I often feel that she is an annoying squealer, who does nothing helpful but get herself into trouble.

Bravo BBC, and I hope the second part is as good

gotta agree - defo one of the best eps of this season.
everything from the constantly repeated doom doors to the blatant crusade ripoff just gelled together to produce something that took the best elements from several of the best sci-fi experiences, and delivered something that was pure classic who.
whereas previous episodes have been rather contrived, this wasbeautifully done - unfortunately, this means that the final part has a lot to live up to - and if the last part of the previous story was anything to go by, we could be in for a dissapointment.
and a great pity one particular charecter wont be back for the ending - she was cute...

(Edited by mad 05/06/2006 09:57)

Disregarding all of the comments I'm seeing about rip-offs (there're only eight plots in the world, after all, if you believe the right school of morphology), was I the only person who thought that that was just a rollicking good yarn of an episode?

Getting the obvious stuff out of the way first: I'm not a major fan of the older series of Doctor Who. I'm aware that they exist and I've seen a few (largely through networking and the sci-fi society at Lancaster), but other than having gradually assembled a picture of the character of the Doctor himself and his gadgets, I tend to view the new series largely on its own merits, or as an existing character in a new scenario.

And I liked this.

This episode screams to the English Literature student in me for an Imperialist reading, but I'll try to rein that in as far as I can.

Oh, come on! I couldn't be the only person thinking that, right? Right...?

Lots of pushing back boundaries, frontier talk and hammering away at the "Because it was there" mentality (with the Doctor being flat-out patronising at times), explicit swipes at the slavery theme (it puts a whole new spin on the idea of "the fourth great and bountiful human empire", if you want it to), and right down to the Acting Captain and the crew member responsible for ethics of all things both being non-caucasian.

I wondered whether or not I really was overdoing the analysis this time (insofar as theorising isn't about perception rather than intention most of the time anyway), for the few minutes it took me to track down the origins of the quote:

"For how can man die better then facing fearful odds. For the ashes of his fathers and the temples of his Gods?"

It seemed far too precisely and symbolically delivered to be a random line from the scriptwriter - so yes, I went looking for it. I'm nosey like that.

Apologies if I'm somehow exceedingly dense and the last one to figure out something that wasn't thought worth mentioning, but it turned out to belong to one Thomas Babington Macaulay:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Babbington_Macaulay
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRmacaulay.htm
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quotes_by/thomas+babington+macaulay
http://www.geocities.com/bororissa/mac.html

Which I thought rather nailed the sense of time and place on the head.

We've probably found the token story this series that'll send the US censors into a screaming blue funk, haven't we?

Yes, I confess that seeing the title The Satan Pit on the episode list made me wonder what was going to start happening at that point - but I wasn't expecting quite such explicit Judeo-Christian imagery (a generic "beast" and a generic "god" from some far-flung galaxy, perhaps) from a show with this timeslot and demographic.

Whilst concept's like Solomon's Seal or Pandora's Box are fairly universal, nailing the context down with language like "Satan", "sin" and "messiah" is what I'd call a bold move - especially when BBC Worldwide largely has its head shoved up the backside of an export market where large sections'll object to even "Welcome to Hell".

Giggling helplessly and refusing to reconnect with reality is hopefully becoming Rose's way of reacting to stress, if this episode is anything to go by.

It just doesn't seem right to blunder into a completely alien scenario, for "Welcome to Hell" to be the first evidence of language that you see, and to crack up laughing. Perhaps it was an attempt to lighten things up a little for the younger audience - the Doctor certainly had no excuse.

It's either that or just plain bad writing. At least Rose was actually seen showing a bit of understanding and compassion for things other than herself for once.

Althougth on that front, it did make a nice change to finally meet something that the TARDIS couldn't handle.

And we got a reversal when the TARDIS got lost again - physically and fully this time. Finally we got a confirmation that it was grown rather than made, which not only gave that a little more pathos but an explicit reason to new viewers for the Doctor's attachment to it as the last piece of his home planet.

And the comment about having lost the TARDIS as everything that he has left said exactly how permanent Rose still isn't, even if she completely ignored it.

The look on his face during the "stuck with you" conversation - despite the fact that that kiss Rose planted on his space suit implied that there was definitely something happening off-screen - said everything.

I'm wondering whether survivor's guilt made Nine - who occasionally seemed envious of the whole human lifestyle (Father's Day, anyone?) a bit more accommodating, whilst Ten's just drifting into bitterness - but again, that could just be me making up excuses for the scriptwriters if it doesn't show a pay-off by the end of the series (I rather liked that "How would you know?" challenge to his assertion that the black hole wouldn't send him mad).

Although, of course, it still completely forgets him chasing headlong and willingly after Mme. de Pompadour, which makes that whole episode all the more anomalous (or significant, if you're the overly romantic type) plot-wise.

Although at least there was some reaction to the exclamation that Scooti was only 20. Definite exchoes of Nine in Dalek, I thought.

I keep seeing comments elsewhere about Ravel's Bolero being out of place as a seductive piece is in the middle of such a tense situation. As someone who'd always been taught to interpret the piece as a dance of death - and therefore completely appropriate - I'm surprised to say the least.

At least this was one case where the supporting cast felt like a cohesive crew, rather than particularly having a Guest Star of the Week â„¢. I had my doubts when we first heard Scooti have that totally anachronistic "as they say in the old days" moment for no apparent reason, but maybe she was just trying to be young and trendy or show her study skills off.

And even disregarding the actual effects of explosive decompression, she did get a decent death scene. I wonder how much of the effects budget's actually left after that nice pretty black hole.

Lovely villainy - although the casting department chose well in finding an actor who could pull off a vicious grin like that. Even without the 2001-esque computers and the return to simple defamiliarisation and tension tricks, the simple use of a human villain and the horror of transforming into it worked in the way that it should have done in Age of Steel. Again, simple fears like claustrophobia and the unseen work beter than special effects at times.

Why someone didn't just start shooting the Ood (or didn't wonder who was giving them their orders before humanity came along in the first place) is just going to have to remain one of life's little mysteries. But was I the only one who thought that a bullet which "only impacts upon organics" was far too convenient a piece of flange?