Heeeere’s Satan!! And more CGI than ever!
Wow, yet another two parter from Dr.Who, and it was pretty god damn awesome too! This one seemed to have the most natural pace out of all the two parters this show has offered thus far, as the first part layed the groundwork and the second park really dived into the mysterious of the whole affair. Because let me just say, this episode started off WEIRD, and it didn’t really stop getting weird.
Rose and the Doctor quite literally landed on a planet that should NOT be alive, as a blackhole is sucking up anything in sight directly above them, and they are stuck, in some sort of gravitational balance. So yes… it’s one of THOSE episodes. We also got acquainted with a bunch of interesting alien-slave race whom were called the “Ood”.
I of course thought it was their doing when the entire base started collapsing, however, it was much stranger. Apparently it was Satan! Oh boy was I glad this episode didn’t digress into some cringe-worthy religious drivel, and I swear, every line that the Doctor spoke about it this episode made me smile. Finally we have a protagonist who actually understands what logic is!
I will say, that although the second part was noticeably more intense, the first part still had me interested. It was the mystery and the fantastically-paced character-based scenes that drove the first act, and it was pure joy to see. However, when shit started hitting the fan the pacing ramped up a few notches and we got to see some interesting mechanics come to play.
This episode wasn’t without faults, as a few characters went fairly undeveloped so their subsequent death scenes weren’t too impactful. However, I was happy to see the Doctor form a bond with the women he went ten miles into the ground with, as she was (in my opinion) the best actress of the guest stars.
So Satan quite literally turns out to be fear manifested, as he is changed up around twenty miles deep in this planet. We still didn’t get a solid reason as to WHY… or HOW… but we did get some properly cool scenes involving him. Although I was a bigger fan of him sabotaging the base, not being a direct threat. This is mostly because he knows almost everything about the people he was talking too, sharing their deepest fears and getting into their heads. This was automatically one of my favorite aspects of the episode.
He also said that Rose is due to die… which… I was a little put off by. I guess we will see in the upcoming episodes, as I will sorely miss her if she were to die, as she has grown on me. But… I digress, the episode in general was solid all the way through, both parts excelling in certain aspects to make it an intriguing and entertaining ride!
Grade:
Episode 1: B+
Episode 2: B+
Overall: B+
awkwardreviews 
I forgot this was the episode where the ood first appeared. Trying to remember back, cause again it’s been years since I’ve seen these two, but isn’t this where the woman takes a space walk without a suit? I remember watching a Doctor Who Confidential on how they did that scene (in case you don’t know DW confidential used to be a behind the scenes series they’d put on BBC3 right after the relevant episode had aired. They’ve stopped doing them now though, either because of budget or because BBC3 thought they weren’t cool anymore.)
There was a week between parts for me and I can remember speculating about what was going to happen but having nobody to discuss it with.
I can’t remember the who and the how they trapped Satan on that planet but I do remember that it was put in that stasis on the edge of the black hole to stop it escaping. At least that’s what I remember.
Although the secondary characters are usually sketched in pretty well you do get the odd episode like this where one or two of them fall by the wayside, either because there’s a lot more than usual so it’s hard to give all of them enough screen time or because they want the majority to be against the Doctor so that the one who believes him and wants to help him help them comes off all the better.
I think I just remembered something else, this is the one where the guy was writing all the runes over himself, right?
I’m liking your reviews and I hope you continue with them.
great review, the next ones are quite so-so in my opinion but the season finale is great, i´ll be waiting to read you reaction to those episodes
Fantastic!