I can't help but to feel that fandom is a little hard on this story. Although it's not a standout, I think this is a relatively solid, average-to-good Doctor Who serial. The plot raises eyebrows in places, but The Creature from the Pit is just good fun, as far as I'm concerned, and so I had no trouble simply sitting back and enjoying it.
It's a fairly well-directed story, with decent lighting and camerawork. This is the last outing of the long-tenured Christopher Barry, who first joined the Who directorial gang with The Daleks way back in 1963. His work has been, on the whole, pretty good, so on this occasion I salute him.
I quite like how lush the jungles in this episode look, and while the titular pit is indeed just another tunnel, the interior sets that make up Adrasta's palace look really good. The inhabitants of the planet are all fairly vibrant, from the domineering Adrasta and her sniveling subordinate Karela, to the Huntmaster and the humorous bandits. Geoffrey Bayldon steals the show as Organon, whose line "... the present, apologized for," gave me more than a small chuckle.
The concept behind the Tythonian ambassador being captured and posed as a monster recalls Ambassadors of Death, which did this particular thread much better, it has to be said. Still, although I have to blush and look away from the Creature more often than not (deary me!) it remains an interesting component of the story.
Admittedly, my one big foible with this story is that it feels like the plot has already wrapped up by the end of Part Three, but it keeps going for another 25 minutes anyway. This makes Part Four feel kind of puzzling, although the space action is kind of neat.
It's interesting to think that this is Lalla Ward's first story recorded as Romana. She's visibly not as at-ease as she was in the two previous stories I reviewed, but nevertheless seems to immediately understand how to mix her arch and playful tendencies to come across well on screen.
I'm indifferent to K9's new voice. It doesn't sound quite right to me since I'm so accustomed to John Leeson, and I have to say that it's missing the more understated sarcasm inherent in Leeson's interpretation that often comes out. Maybe it'll grow on me.
All in all, a decent addition to the canon and a positive sign that this season has more to offer aside from just City of Death.
Nightmare of Eden is next.
(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 4 October 2021.)
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