The Creature from the Pit Part One

The one where the Doctor and K-9 are attacked by sentient vegetation...

The TARDIS spins through time and space. Well actually, it's spinning through a big cloud of soap suds, but we'll let that slide. Within the police box, we have to endure one of those ridiculous introductory scenes where Tom Baker gets to be childish and anarchic. This time he's found slumped on the TARDIS floor (the Fourth Doctor rarely uses chairs) with K-9 reading Beatrix Potter, while Romana is busy cleaning out the hold.

There are two observations to zone in on here. Firstly, that K-9's voice has changed, now provided by David Brierley and not John Leeson, which is a little jarring. It can be explained within the fiction by the fact K-9 had laryngitis at the start of the season, but Brierley's prim voice just seems wrong. There's nothing actually wrong with it, it's just that it's different, and as a result, not as good (rather like David Gooderson's Davros). The other observation is that Lalla Ward is wearing one of the most horrendous outfits I've ever seen come out of the TARDIS wardrobe (this is a wardrobe that also harboured the Sixth Doctor's coat). I just don't think it suits her at all, it's like a Victorian nightie, and then there's the awful headband and curtained hairstyle. I'm sure some people appreciate it, but it's far too Laura Ashley for me. Gillian Thomas's make-up for Ward is awful too. It looks like it's been applied by an eight-year-old girl experimenting on mummy for the first time. Yeuch!

It's specifically the presentation of Romana I dislike in this story, because every other aspect of costume and make-up is gorgeous, from June Hudson's rich textures and fabrics for the people of Chloris, to the almost ceremonial facial decoration of Lady Adrasta. I just think Romana's look is misjudged.

With the opening scene over and done with (slightly shambolic, a bit silly, totally unnecessary) we get into the story proper and see that the TARDIS has landed in a lush alien jungle which looks absolutely wonderful. Designed by Valerie Warrender, and filmed at Ealing, I love the density of it, how it doesn't look like it's a bunch of pot plants arranged around a tree trunk (as with Planet of the Daleks or Kinda), and the lovely dissipating effect of the mist really adds an ethereal, almost dream-like quality. As the Doctor and Romana investigate the strange egg-shaped structure, I really felt they were on an alien world.

The Doctor identifies it as a giant eggshell which is transmitting some sort of distress signal, but before he can establish any more, he's assailed by a pack of rolling bales of vegetation which pin him down. These are apparently wolfweeds, sentient vegetation developed by Lady Adrasta in her laboratories. What a wonderful idea, and they're quite effective too, rolling stealthily around (not sure how they see) and at one point playing Grandmother's Footsteps with the suspicious Doctor. Love it!

This story sees the return of veteran actor Eileen Way to Doctor Who, here playing Karela. Way had appeared in the very first Doctor Who story as Old Mother, and then again in the 1966 Dalek film as one of the nasty women in the woods. She was typecast as sharp-tongued old harridans, but she's dolled up here to look like a very well-preserved pensioner who has a no-nonsense attitude to life. She has a wonderfully sardonic style of delivery.

After putting the Doctor into a yoke, Karela's party is attacked by bandits (very hairy bandits), and in the confusion, Romana is kidnapped. The Doctor also manages to get a few thumps in by using his wooden yoke to knock a some men senseless. Later, he tries to escape by knocking two guards unconscious with the yoke. Again, the Fourth Doctor is always too ready with his fists (or yokes!) and is perhaps only second to the First Doctor in terms of violence.

Romana is taken to the base camp of the bandits, who seem to be scavengers for anything metal, which has an elevated value on this planet due to its scarcity. The bandits are led by a very hairy man called Torvin, played by John Bryans doing his best rendition of Fagin from Oliver Twist. Because Romana is made of flesh and bone and not metal, Torvin sees no value in her, and orders her to be killed, but his minions would rather have a vote on it because maybe she could be useful as a hostage.

Lalla Ward is fantastic in her scenes with the bandits, which is even more impressive when you remember that this story was the first she recorded as Romana. She is instantly in charge of the situation, looking down on her captors with due disdain (wrinkling her nose in disgust as Torvin gets too close) and generally demeaning them with barbed lines such as: "I'm a traveller. I'm a Time Lord. And I am not used to being assaulted by a collection of hairy, grubby little men!" Mary Tamm would be proud!

Romana goes on demolishing these cretins, calling Torvin a "hirsute moron", and when he takes umbrage, she counters: "Do you want to make something of it?" It's like Ace has suddenly walked into the room! Romana then demands to be untied, and follows this by ordering the bandits to "Sit down!" like mongrels. On the one hand, this is a very supercilious, pompous and condescending aspect of Romana (an aspect which only really manifests fully with Ward in the part), but these men are very irksome so I don't blame Romana getting uppity with them.

She then produces K-9's whistle from her cleavage, and Bryans gets the pleasure of holding it to his lips and blowing, inadvertently summoning the tin dog from his TARDIS slumbers. When he arrives, the fact he's made entirely of metal means he's instantly a prime target for these scavengers, but a quick zap from K-9's laser stuns Torvin so they can escape. John Bryans affects perhaps the very worst collapse ever seen in Doctor Who history when he's zapped by K-9, turning very deliberately to make sure he's falling in the right place before laying himself down carefully on the floor. He's truly abominable at it!

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Lady Adrasta are getting on very well. Myra Frances is wonderful as Adrasta, dressed up like a pantomime witch but keeping the size of her performance wisely in check. She works well with Tom Baker (who seems to be sweating like a pig throughout this episode), and David Fisher's witty dialogue, particularly in the scene with Dolan and Tollund, sings. The Doctor's witticisms work, they feel organic rather than forced in for the sake of being funny. The Doctor casually refers to the engineers as undertakers (because they look like them!), throws the possibility of a giant frog into the discussion, jokes that someone tried to fry the giant egg, and my favourite of all, when Doran says: "My lady, this man is being facetious", the Doctor retorts: "He's quite right!"

By the way, isn't it weird seeing Morris Barry in the small part of Tollund, the man who directed Troughton stories such as the classic The Tomb of the Cybermen and the not-so-classic The Dominators? It's only a little part, but he's very good, and I love the way he hides his face in his cowl when Adrasta orders that Doran is taken to The Pit.

The cliffhanger is great too. The Doctor is reunited with Romana, who sets K-9 onto the wolfweeds, but he sadly comes a cropper as they smother him. Having seen poor Doran thrown into The Pit and attacked by something slurpy and green, the Doctor decides to see what's down there for himself, and jumps in. It's an unexpected move, but just the sort of crazy thing the Doctor would do. I'm glad the Doctor gave Romana a knowing look before jumping, because it means it's all part of his plan. It doesn't necessarily mean he knows what he's doing though!

First broadcast: October 27th, 1979

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Valerie Warrender's lush jungle set, as well as June Hudson's lavish costumes (but not Romana's).
The Bad: John Bryans casually collapsing is just awful.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 20

NEXT TIME: Part Two...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part Two; Part Three; Part Four

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: https://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-creature-from-pit.html

The Creature from the Pit is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Creature-Pit-DVD/dp/B003DA60C6