Throughout its 63 years on the air and under multiple showrunners, Doctor Who has never pulled any punches with its enigmatic Time Lord. Across multiple regenerations, The Doctor has fought against robot Santas, British legend Peter Kay, his tyrannical arch-nemeses the Daleks, and even himself.
That’s all to say that, when it comes to throwing weird and powerful villains at the Doctor, no showrunner has ever held back in showing off their creativity. However, the Doctor’s resolve was truly tested 20 years ago during season 2 of the 2005 revival, in the two-part episodes “The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit.”
The episode stars David Tennant and Billie Piper as the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler, respectively, as the two land in a sanctuary base on the planet Krop Tor, which is somehow orbiting a black hole. They find a human expedition drilling into the planet to discover what’s preventing it from falling into the black hole. The humans have also enslaved an alien hivemind race known as the Ood, who are seen as docile and happy to serve; however, their telepathic connection leaves them vulnerable to a creature known as the Beast. As the expedition team continues drilling deeper into the planet, the Beast awakens and possesses one of them, Toby (Will Thorp), before taking over the entire Ood contingent.
While “The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit” didn’t quite reach the viewing highs of the episodes immediately before or after it, this two-parter was ahead of its time in putting the Doctor, a character whose defining character trait (depending on the regeneration) has seemingly been being the cleverest person in the room, on the back foot. It makes sense, then, that the villain who did just that was a figure that has long since inspired dread in others — the Devil.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that, as a sci-fi show following a genderfluid alien across time and space, Doctor Who may have an overall negative view of the concept of religion and faith. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Throughout the Doctor’s further regenerations in New Who, there have been episodes like “The Rings of Akhaten,” in which the Doctor and his companion join a religious festival where the young Queen of Years is about to be sacrificed to the parasite of Akhaten. We learn there that the Doctor’s inherent distaste has nothing to do with the act of faith itself but how blind faith allows organizations to wield it to harm others.
However, it’s this 20-year-old two-parter that really tests the Doctor and his belief system. At the first mention of Satan from a possessed Ood, the Doctor expresses his disbelief that Satan (or the Devil) really exists, chalking it up as yet another story spun for religious reasons. However, as time goes on and more and more bodies start to pile up, the Doctor’s belief in whether an ancient evil like that could exist leads him to question his previous certainty.
When the Doctor does come face-to-face with the Beast, what he discovers rattles him. The Beast is an ancient evil beyond time, entrapped on Krop Tor by jailers who knew that doom and destruction awaited the universe if the Beast were to escape. The fact that the Beast seemingly existed before time is, in the Doctor’s mind, an impossibility, one that frightens the Time Lord. With his belief shaken, it’s only when the Doctor focuses and places his faith in Rose, who is dealing with a possessed Toby elsewhere, that he manages to defeat the Beast and save the day.
The Doctor is not easily frightened, so for the mystery of the Beast’s origins — which we won’t spoil, because the two-parter is a must-watch for new fans — to be handled so expertly challenges both the Time Lord and audiences with a truly creeptastic yet masterful episode. More importantly, it shows that Doctor Who can tackle complex topics such as ‘the origin of the Devil’ with sincerity without condemning people’s beliefs.
Faith is a powerful thing, and it’s only through the Doctor’s faith in others that the Time Lord and Rose live to see another day.