Today's edition of Doctor Who Is CLASSIC takes us back to the fall of 1979 with Tom Baker as the Doctor and Lalla Ward as Romana.
The episode is "The Creature From the Pit".
So there's a pit.
And in that pit is... a creature.
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And that about wraps things up for this edition of Doctor Who Is CLASSIC!
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Oh, you want more than that?
Did you pay to get in here?
I know I don't get paid to write this blog!
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The TARDIS receives a distress signal which the Doctor and Romana follow to the lush jungle world of Chloris where metal in all forms is a rare and prized commodity.
The Doctor and Romana runs afoul of the emperious and draconian leader known as Lady Adrasta who has zero patience and less imagination. Her favorite thing to do is to take people who offend her to the pit.
Which she calls "The Pit".
And toss the offending person down the hole into "The Pit" to be consumed by the creature.
Which she calls "The Creature".
The Doctor confounds her plan to throw him into "The Pit" when he jumps into it.
Where he encounters Organon, an elderly astrologer and soothsayer who once sayeth a sooth that Adastra didn't care for. Hence his presence in "The Pit" where has so far eluded being consumed by "The Creature".
The Doctor decides to go talk to "The Creature".
If you won't mention the phallic nature of the appendage from "The Creature", well, I won't mention it either.
"The Creature" is Erato, an alien from a world where the inhabitants need chlorophyll to survive but they have more metal than plants.
Erato made the mistake of coming to Chloris to negotiate a trade deal with Lady Arasta who had no interest in such a deal. Her power over everyone comes from hording what little metal there is on her world.
Meanwhile, Erato's home world has launched an attack (for capturing and possibly killing their ambassador) which will destroy Chloris unless the Doctor can get Erato out of "The Pit" and into space to stop the attack.
Yes, Lady Arasta's a total bitch who deserves to die but let's not take it out on the whole planet.
"The Creature From the Pit" kind of gets a bad rap for being too silly. Case in point: to help him climb out of "The Pit", the Doctor withdraws a book from his coat on Tibetan mountain climbing.
Except it's written in Tibetan.
So the Doctor pulls out a second book: "Teach Yourself Tibetan".
Overt silliness was a complaint by several fans during the 17th season which was overseen by script editor Douglas Adams. But the Doctor is still serious in his scientific curiosity and intense in his desire to see justice done. The comedy does not undermine those crucial elements of the Doctor's character.
While "The Creature From the Pit" was the 3rd episode broadcast for the 17th season, it was the first one shot which means this is actually Lalla Ward's first go 'round as Romana. Her demeanor and her style of dress suggests an imperious persona that she backs off from in the first 2 episodes that were broadcast, "Destiny of the Daleks" and "City of Death".
In the guest star department, Geoffrey Bayldon nearly steals the show as Organon who explains his function as a soothsayer: "The past explained, the future foreseen and the present apologized for". He possesses some intelligence which gives him a leg up on the literal minded people of Chloris but Organon mostly just makes shit up.
Whatever misgivings fans may have about the broad comedy elements, "The Creature From the Pit" remains one of my personal favorites.
Or to put this another way...
So there's a pit.
And in that pit is... a creature.
And THAT wraps things up for this edition of Doctor Who Is CLASSIC!
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