The Creature from the Pit Part Two

The one where the Doctor meets a subterranean astrologer...

Grappling onto the sides of The Pit's wall, the Doctor produces from his capacious pockets some rock-climbing pins and a hammer. Now, that's pretty silly isn't it, although certainly not unprecedented that the Doctor should be carrying something wildly appropriate (or inappropriate!) when required. But when he realises he's not altogether sure how to use the rock-climbing equipment, he produces from his pocket a book entitled Everest in Easy Stages. Now that's even sillier, bordering on ridiculous. But when he discovers the book's written in Tibetan, he then produces another book entitled Teach Yourself Tibetan, and that is just several steps too far! It's a great joke, very funny in fact, it's just that it doesn't really have a place here. It's more Basil Brush than Doctor Who (although telling the two apart sometimes is tricksy). This is not a sketch show, this is an adventure in time and space, so stop trying to look smart and get on with it.

Admonishment over. Moving on to Romana, she is the prisoner of the Lady Adrasta, a woman who knows her mind, is no fool, but is more than happy to talk about her problems and fill complete strangers in on the situation at hand. She answers almost every one of Romana's questions, but refuses to expand on why she's interested in the giant eggshell. "There are some questions, my dear, it is better not to ask."

But Romana's over-confidence comes back to bite her on the taffeta bum when Adrasta asks her what she knows about the shell, to which Romana responds: "There are some questions it's - " SMACK!!! Adrasta gives Romana one hell of a slap across the face which shuts her right up (it's either a very well staged slap, or that really did hurt Lalla!). Romana sort of had it coming, because she's so sure about her superiority to others that sometimes she needs reminding that there's such a thing as humility.

Adrasta becomes obsessed with K-9 once she learns he's made of metal, something which is scarce on Chloris. The scene where a guard tries to chisel his way into K-9's casing is mildly distressing, and it's just as saddening to see the poor mutt smothered in wolfweed cobwebs. K-9's had a tough time of it these last few stories: he's been attacked by a robot parrot, attacked by a walking stone, almost melted down in a furnace, mind-controlled by an evil entity, endured a bad bout of laryngitis, and now attacked by a bunch of marauding vegetation. At least he's had stuff to do, which wasn't so much the case in his introductory year.

There's also a bit where Adrasta interrogates K-9, threatening to kill his mistress if he doesn't cooperate, and the poor feller answers her questions begrudgingly. David Brierley manages to make the word "affirmative" sound so sorry and rueful when he answers questions about the TARDIS. It hurts K-9 to answer these questions, but answer he must. Poor dog.

It is amusing when he refuses to be defined as a "tin dog" though. "Correction: I am not made of tin!", to which Adrasta says: "It's been listening to us!" and then Karela murmurs: "It's eerie!" Wonderful delivery by Eileen Way there!

Meanwhile, down The Pit, the Doctor meets Organon, "astrologer extraordinary, seer to princes and emperors. The future foretold, the past explained, the present apologised for!" Organon, dressed like a wizard with a beard Merlin would be proud of, is played by the wonderful Geoffrey Bayldon, and it's about time he appeared in Doctor Who, a show he was born to appear in (if not take the lead in). Bayldon is absolutely brilliant and bounces off Tom Baker beautifully. David Fisher's dialogue continues to impress with its wit and is delivered so astutely by Baker and Bayldon.

Bayldon is so Doctorish at times, such as when he asks the Doctor: "Where are you from?" with a sideways look, and he delivers his lines with a blithe ease which makes the character seem so real, despite the archetypal trappings. "My horoscope said I'd be useful to somebody today," he says, which is funny because Organon is so unlikely to meet anybody at all in the depths of The Pit!

Christopher Barry, directing Doctor Who for the last time, creates some imaginative camera angles, including some gorgeously framed two-shots of Baker and Bayldon, and in Adrasta's throne room there's a number of shots with a great understanding of depth, such as when Adrasta quizzes K-9 with her leg up on the chair, with Karela and Romana in the background. Barry has really thought about how to frame his camera shots from scene to scene, unlike too many point-and-shoot BBC directors.

The Doctor and Organon seek out the mysterious giant green monster that lives in The Pit (the Doctor wielding a wonderfully gothic skull candle holder), and it really is just a big green blob. The design of it is breathtakingly naive, with its protruding appendage resembling an extremely aroused Krynoid. When the design department came up with this monster the entire studio floor must have collapsed with laughter before realising what an utter nightmare they had on their hands. Poor Christopher Barry, who had to make sense and practical use of this giant testicle without making the show a laughing stock.

The shots of it from afar aren't bad at all, when it's shown as an enormous seething mass dwarfing the humans, like something out of a Ray Harryhausen film. The effect of the physical prop emerging from the model mass near the end of the episode is really cleverly done, showing imagination and creativity in the face of such despair. Barry isn't giving in easily. But when we see the monster's waving appendage up close, searching out the Doctor and Organon like some mouldering nymphomaniac salami, all credulity is lost to both mirth and disbelief.

Has Doctor Who really gone there? Yes. Yes, it has.

First broadcast: November 3rd, 1979

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Geoffrey Bayldon's Organon is a delightful guest character.
The Bad: That wobbling green appendage.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

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

NEXT TIME: Part Three...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; 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