PRODUCTION INFO
Name
The Satan Pit
Series 2
Episode 9
First Transmitted
10 June 2006
Final Ratings
5.50m
CREW
Written by |
Matt Jones |
Directed by |
James Strong |
Produced by |
Julie Garner and Phil Colinson |
SYPNOSIS
In a shining white office an official-looking woman consults a man called Captain Walker, explaining a planet has been located holding a powerful power-source capable of preventing the world from being sucked into a black hole. If he has go and retrieve it he will have saved the empire. She shows him a series of artefacts that led them to find the planet, including an ancient book of strange symbols apparently detailing the planet’ myths. Walker asks to know more about them but the woman dismisses them, telling him he can overcome them as he is a big strong man with a top ship and a top crew.
She bids him goodbye and good luck and as he goes he passes a slave creature holding a translation orb. It watches him go before claiming the beast shall rise from the pit
NOTES
Coincidentally, this episode was shown in the week of 6/6/06. It followed a wave of Devil-related stories in the media.
During the TARDISode for this episode, the letters”SB6″ (presumably standing for Sanctuary Base 6) are seen on a display changing into the numbers “666”.
The closing scene in which The Doctor tells Rose that they’re”the stuff of legend” was the final scene Billie Piper shot as a regular cast memberon the series, her departure episode, Doomsday, had been filmed months earlier.
According to DWM 401, when the production team couldn’t figure out what would be at the bottom of the pit, they considered using Davros.
Except for the final scene (and footage from the Impossible Planet and Love & Monsters), the Tenth Doctor is not seen in his regular costume at all.
Daemos is the home planet of Azal. (The Dæmons)
The Fourth Doctor met the Kaleds. (Genesis of the Daleks) they were last mentioned on screen in Remembrance of the Daleks
The TARDIS tractor beam has been used before. (The Creature from the Pit, Delta and the Bannermen)
The Tenth Doctor states his people invented black holes. (The Three Doctors, The Deadly Assassin, Remembrance of the Daleks)
The TARDIS uses its tractor beam to tow the spaceship.
Zack identifies the expedition as representing the Torchwood Archive.
The Beast says that “the valiant child” will “die in battle, so very soon”. This foreshadows Rose’s soon-to-come”death”, where she is declared dead in her own universe, but is actually living in Pete’s World. (Doomsday)
Jefferson tells Zack he was a “bit slow” getting to the air vent door, echoing Rose’s words in Dalek
As is routine for post-2005 Doctor Who, a “NEXT TIME” trailer for the next episode is shown at the end of the episode..