The Impossible Planet

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178a – "The Impossible Planet"
Doctor Who episode

The black hole above the rocky landscape of Krop Tor
Cast
Doctor David Tennant (Tenth Doctor)
Companion Billie Piper (Rose Tyler)
Guest stars
Production
Writer Matt Jones
Director James Strong
Script editor Simon Winstone
Producer Phil Collinson
Executive producer(s) Russell T. Davies
Julie Gardner
Production code 2.8
Series Series 2
Length 1 of 2 episodes, 45 mins
Originally broadcast 3 June 2006
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by →
"The Idiot's Lantern" "The Satan Pit"
IMDb profile

"The Impossible Planet" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is the first part of a two-part story, followed by "The Satan Pit". The story was first broadcast on 3 June 2006.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

The TARDIS lands in a base on a planet orbiting a black hole, an allegedly impossible situation — according to the physics of the show — that stumps even the Tenth Doctor. The base crew are drilling to the centre of the world, to claim the power that keeps it in orbit for the good of the Human Empire. However, an ancient evil is down there too, and he is awake…

[edit] Plot

The TARDIS materialises inside a "Sanctuary Base" meant for deep-space expeditions. The Doctor and Rose discover an inscription scribbled on the station wall which the TARDIS is unable to translate.

After a slight misunderstanding when first meeting the Ood, a docile race of empathic servants who work on the station, the travelers meet the crew of the base, led by acting Captain Zachary Cross Flane. The crew, which includes Science Officer Ida Scott, Head of Security Mr Jefferson, and archeologist Toby Zed, are on an expedition on an anomalous planet in orbit around a black hole. The Doctor realises that it is impossible for the planet, which is called Krop Tor, to be in geostationary orbit around the black hole, as it should be pulled in like the star systems around it are. He calculates that it would take a phenomenal amount of power to generate the huge gravity funnel stabilising its orbit. The funnel is not a natural phenomenon, and the crew is drilling ten miles underground to the core of the planet in hopes of finding the power source and using it. The origin of the power source is an ancient civilisation that had been on Krop Tor, and the inscription on the wall is a transcription of a stone tablet found on the planet.

The Doctor soon discovers that storage sections 5 through 8 had collapsed as a result of the earthquake-like tremor they had experienced moments after their arrival, dropping the TARDIS, which had been in Storage 6, into a crevasse. With no resources to divert the drilling, Rose and the Doctor are stranded.

It isn't long before a malevolent presence begins to make itself known. Strange messages about the Beast awaking to make war against God emanate from the Ood's translation spheres and the base computer's speakers. Toby begins to hear voices just before he is possessed by the Beast.

The team finally manage to drill down to the core of the planet. The Doctor and Ida journey down the mine shaft and into a massive cavern with ancient giant sculptures along its walls. They head for the power source, guided by sensor readings, and find a large circular disk set in the floor of the cavern, which the Doctor suspects is a trap door of some sort. The edge of the disk is also covered with inscriptions.

Meanwhile in the base, the Ood's telepathic fields rise dangerously to Basic 100, which is high enough to induce brain death, but they are obviously still alive. Finally the beast makes itself known through Toby before seemingly transferring itself to the Ood. The Ood identify themselves as the Legion of the Beast and begin to advance on the crew members, including Rose. All this coincides with the opening of the trap door as the cavern begins to shake and debris rains down. Zack warns everyone that the planet's gravity field is fading and that the planet is heading straight for the black hole. The voice of the Beast speaks through the Ood, and down below, the trap door fully opens.

[edit] Cast notes

[edit] Continuity

  • This is the first episode of the revived series not to have any scenes on or near Earth (nor alternate versions thereof). Although the bulk of "New Earth" took place on another planet, the episode's pre-credits sequence took place on Earth.
  • The Doctor encountered adversaries that used a black hole in The Three Doctors, The Horns of Nimon and The Trial of a Time Lord. The Tractators in Frontios could also control gravity.
  • The TARDIS arrives randomly and the Doctor asks 'her' what's wrong and postulates indigestion. The TARDIS was previously said to be suffering indigestion after 'swallowing' the Master via the Eye of Harmony – also a Black Hole – in the Cloister Room in Enemy Within AKA the TV Movie.
  • Zack mentions that he took over when Captain Walker, the original expedition commander, was lost on the voyage in. Captain Walker appears in the TARDISODE accompanying this episode, seen being given the assignment to go to Krop Tor.
  • In the episode the human government is "the Empire". When reporting Scooti's death, Jefferson gives what appears to be the date as "Forty-three K, two point one". Although no further explanation is given for what the numbers mean, this episode is set no earlier than 200 years before "Planet of the Ood, set in 4126, as the translator devices were created 200 years before that point.
  • Rose refers to the dinner lady job she had in "School Reunion" when talking to an Ood serving food.
  • The Doctor mentions that TARDISes are grown rather than built. However, this seemingly contradicts Warriors' Gate where it is mentioned that K-9 has a full set of TARDIS blueprints and Romana can build one with the help of the time-sensitive Tharils. Omega also boasted that he would be able to build a new TARDIS while stranded on 20th century Earth in Arc of Infinity. Actor John Barrowman mirrored this comment when talking about the piece of "TARDIS coral" Captain Jack keeps in his office at "the Hub" in a special feature in Radio Times October 28–November 3, 2006, he also mentioned a "carving process" which may mean that these previous comments are still correct if one has access to enough "TARDIS coral". Another "grown" spaceship was seen in the Seventh Doctor serial Battlefield (1989).
  • This episode sees Rose's "Superphone" lose its signal for the first time; however, it is still able to receive a message from the Beast. Rose's mobile phone is a different unit from her previous one, as the Doctor gave the old one to Mickey at the end of "The Age of Steel" in order to defeat the remaining dormant Cybermen.
  • At one point toward the end of the episode, the (recently possessed) Ood, begin to list the names that have been used to label "The Beast". One of them happens to be Abaddon, an ancient demon, who features as a major element in the episode End of Days of the spin-off series Torchwood.

[edit] Production

  • Scenes of bodies floating in space were filmed on the underwater stage at Pinewood Studios, the first time the series has used this facility, not counting the charity special Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death.
  • In the accompanying Doctor Who Confidential episode, "You've Got the Look", Russell T. Davies said that he likes to think that the Ood come from a planet near to that of the Sensorites from the First Doctor serial The Sensorites (1964), as he suggests the races are similar in some respects. In "Planet of the Ood", this is confirmed.
  • This is the first episode of the 2005 revival of Doctor Who to use a quarry as an alien planet — quarries were frequently used in this manner in the original series. Other familiar elements include video-overlay holograms (Earthshock, 1982) and the "base under siege" motif used in many Doctor Who stories.
  • This episode features no direct reference to Torchwood, unlike most of the others in this series. However, like "Bad Wolf" in the 2005 series, such references would only appear in one half of a two-part story, as is evident with the one made in "The Satan Pit".
  • For the first time in the 2006 series the tie-in game to this episode[2] is not on the Defending the Earth! website,[3] although it can be found on the BBC Doctor Who website.
  • In the commentary for "The Satan Pit", producer and chief writer, Russell T. Davies, said that an early draft of the script called for the role of the Ood to be filled by Raxacoricofallapatorians, the same species as the Slitheen. Their race would have been enslaved and they wished to awaken the Beast, whom they believed to be a god that could free them.
  • The Ood masks had their eyes in non-human positions, so the actors who played them were essentially blind.
  • During an interview with the production crew, it was noted that the sanctuary base was based on the spaceship Nostromo from the movie Alien.
  • Executive producer Russell T. Davies cited this episode's expensive production as a reason why much of the new series' stories are set on present-day Earth.[4]

[edit] Outside references

  • This episode has numerous references to Hell, and the Number of the Beast, 666. The Doctor states that the power source to generate the gravitational field would have to be "66 every 6 seconds"; a character announces that a computer readout is 66.6; the room where the TARDIS was parked was Base Storage 6; the story's two episodes are broadcast on either side of the week of 6 June 2006 (06/06/06).
  • As they watch Scooti drift towards the black hole, Jefferson recites the lines, "And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, / For the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods," from Macaulay's 1842 poem Horatius, Stanza XXVII, about the heroism of Horatius Cocles.
  • The Doctor's line "This'll be the best Christmas Walford has ever had" is a reference to the long-running soap EastEnders, in which Christmas storylines are generally miserable despite characters proclaiming the above hope.
  • The scenes on Krop Tor and the Pit were filmed in a quarry; the number plate of the quarry manager's car ended in OOD.
  • The differential forms of Maxwell's equations can clearly be seen written on the table that the Doctor and Rose are sitting at while they are watching the Scarlet System being swallowed by the black hole.
  • Certain sound effects, such as the sound of the automatic doors opening, are taken from the video game Doom, which features a story involving a demonic invasion of a base on the Martian moon Phobos.[citation needed]

[edit] Broadcast and DVD release

  • This is the first episode to be given a rating beyond 5 by the BBC's fear forecasters. The episode was given a rating of 6 - Amy, the youngest, rating it a 3, and the other three rating it a six, making the number "666" visible.[5]. The next episode to be given above a 5 on the Fear Forecast was "Blink", which was given a 5.5.[6].
  • Overnight viewing figures for the episode were 5.94 million, peaking at 6.78 million. This is the lowest single rating for the new series to date, though by a slim margin. However, the episode still obtained a 39.8% share of the audience[7] and was the second highest rated programme of the evening, behind Casualty. The final ratings for the episode were 6.32 million viewers.[8]
  • This episode and "The Satan Pit" were released in the UK, together with "Love & Monsters", as a basic DVD with no special features on 7 August 2006.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Doctor Who Magazine #371
  2. ^ Flight Simulator
  3. ^ Defending the Earth! Because friends stick together
  4. ^ BBC: Cost 'keeps Doctor Who on earth'. 19th September 2006.
  5. ^ "Fear Forecast: The Impossible Planet", BBC, June 5, 2006. 
  6. ^ "Fear Forecast: Blink", BBC, June 6, 2007. 
  7. ^ Lyon, Shaun (2007-06-04). Impossible Planet overnights. Outpost Gallifrey. Retrieved on 2007-04-07.
  8. ^ Lyon, Shaun (2007-06-14). The Impossible Planet final ratings. Outpost Gallifrey. Retrieved on 2007-04-07.

[edit] External links

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[edit] Reviews

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Doctor Who series 2 episodes