The Creature from the Pit (TV story)

The Creature from the Pit was the third serial in season 17 of Doctor Who. This was the last story directed by Christopher Barry, who had first worked on the show since 1963. It was the first story produced, though not the first broadcast, to feature Lalla Ward as the Doctor's companion.

This story was one of season seventeen's many "downsized" stories. This meant that the Doctor would be working on a smaller scale rather than saving the universe as he had been throughout the past season.

The serial made use of complicated model work to achieve the space scenes; the original scene had to be filmed again. The Erato prop was also a major problem. A puppet version was unavailable for rehearsals and there wasn't time for a redesign.

Synopsis
The Fourth Doctor and Romana II receive a distress signal and arrive on Chloris. It is a lush and verdant world with only small quantities of metals, all of which are controlled by its ruler, Lady Adrasta. Adrasta keeps order with the aid of her Huntsman and his Wolfweeds - mobile balls of vegetation. A band of thieves, led by Torvin, organise raids on her palace to steal whatever metal they can. But in the mines of Chloris is something huge, a creature thrown into the pit to be forgotten... and the Doctor is about to join him.

Part one
An MK3 Emergency transceiver on the TARDIS identifies a distress signal and brings the craft to the lush jungle world of Chloris, where metal in all forms is a rare and prized commodity. The Doctor, Romana and K9 venture out to discover the remains of an enormous egg in the jungle. The Doctor is immediately beset by Wolfweeds under the control of the Huntsman. He releases the Doctor and orders his death. Karela countermands him and has the Doctor and Romana taken prisoner.

As they travel through the jungle, bandits attack them. Romana is taken prisoner. The Doctor is taken to the palace of the Lady Adrasta, who rules the planet by controlling all the metal.

The Doctor examines the throne room and takes particular interest in a plate upon the wall. Romana uses a dog whistle to summon K9. With his help, she escapes the bandits. The Doctor is taken to a pit to witness the execution of one of Adrasta's men, an engineer who failed to make some of the observations The Doctor made. He is thrown to a creature that lives within the vast caverns below. Romana arrives and tries to help the Doctor escape as K9 attacks the guards. However, the Wolfweeds quickly surround and disable K9. The Doctor then jumps into the pit.

Part two
Romana notices that the Doctor is still alive, clinging to the side of the pit. He signals to keep silent as to his survival. Adrasta decides that Romana may be of use, as will the metal K9. The Doctor loses his grip and falls into the pit.

Meanwhile, Lady Adrasta tries to get information out of Romana. Her guards slowly hammer away at K9. Eventually Romana tells her that only K9 knows what Adrasta wants. In the woods, the bandits decide to attack the palace, believing that the guards will be searching for them.

Within the Pit, the Doctor encounters Organon, an astrologer thrown there by Adrasta. They escape from the creature's tentacle and then burn it to deter it from attacking again. They begin exploring the caverns.

K9 tells Adrasta about the TARDIS. With such a machine, Adrasta no longer needs the creature. She decides that K9 will kill it for her. They venture through a passage into the caverns of the pit.

The Doctor, Organon and a number of Adrasta's guards come across the creature. The guards attack it, to no effect, and the creature squashes the Doctor.

Part three
The guards and Organon retreat. The creature forms a barrier to prevent their return. Within the cavern, the Doctor awakes, seemingly unharmed. Outside the palace, the bandits make their attack and quickly gain access to the throne room. In the pit, Adrasta decides that K9 will destroy the barrier. The Doctor tries to befriend the creature but it has no way to communicate with him. The creature draws a picture of the plate that the Doctor noticed in Adrasta's throne room. At that moment, the bandits are stealing the plate. They are interrupted by the guards and retreat into the cavern. The plate activates and Torvin and Edu fall under its hypnotic effect.

K9 is unable to break down the barrier. It gets stronger with each blow. From the other side, the Doctor bursts through. Adrasta questions how the Doctor did this. He replies that he "asked very nicely". Adrasta admits she knows more about the creature than she admitted. It is a Tythonian. The Doctor uses a mirror to reflect K9's attacks, killing Adrasta's guards and scaring off Karela. The Doctor holds Adrasta despite her pleas. She orders Romana to have K9 kill the creature. The hypnotised Torvin and Edu approach, still carrying the plate, which they place on the creature.

Part four
With the plate, the creature is able to speak through the person touching it. The Doctor uses the plate. The creature's name is Erato. It is the Tythonian ambassador to Chloris. It came fifteen years earlier to negotiate a treaty exchanging metal for chlorophyll. Its craft was the vast egg in the jungle. However, Adrasta, knowing her power depended on control of the planet's metal supply, imprisoned Erato.

Knowing the truth, her people turn on her. The creature exacts its revenge by crushing Adrasta to death. In the woods, Karela meets the bandits and kills Torvin. She tries to convince the bandits to join her in taking the metal. The Doctor arrives and has K9 destroy the metal the bandits stole. With nothing to lose, the bandits and Karela give up.

The Doctor has rescued the Tythonian just in time. Tythonus has declared war on Chloris over the missing ambassador and has dispatched a neutron star to collide with Chloris' star and destroy the system. It will collide within the next twenty-four hours. Working desperately, the Doctor uses the TARDIS to stabilise the star while Erato weaves an aluminium shell around it. The danger is neutralised. The Doctor's last act on Chloris is to push Organon, now one of the de facto rulers, toward a mutually beneficial trade agreement with Erato and the Tythonians.

Cast

 * Doctor Who - Tom Baker
 * Romana - Lalla Ward
 * Voice of K9 - David Brierley
 * Adrasta - Myra Frances
 * Organon - Geoffrey Bayldon
 * Karela - Eileen Way
 * Huntsman - David Telfer
 * Tollund - Morris Barry
 * Torvin - John Bryans
 * Edu - Edward Kelsey
 * Ainu - Tim Munro
 * Guard - Philip Denyer
 * Doran - Terry Walsh
 * Guardmaster - Tommy Wright
 * Guard - Dave Redgrave

Crew

 * Assistant Floor Managers - Kate Osborne, David Tilley
 * Costumes - June Hudson
 * Director - Christopher Barry
 * Director's Assistant - Carol Snook
 * Designer - Valerie Warrender
 * Electronic Effects - Dave Chapman
 * Film Cameraman - David Feig
 * Film Editor - M A C Adams
 * Film Sound - Doug Mawson
 * Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
 * Make-Up - Gillian Thomas
 * Producer - Graham Williams
 * Production Assistant - Romey Allison
 * Production Unit Manager - John Nathan-Turner
 * Script Editor - Douglas Adams
 * Senior Cameraman - Rodney Taylor
 * Special Sounds - Dick Mills
 * Studio Lighting - Warwick Fielding
 * Studio Sound - Anthony Philpott
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
 * Theme arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
 * Vision Mixer - James Gould
 * Visual Effects Designer - Mat Irvine
 * VT Editor - Rod Waldron
 * Writer - David Fisher

The Doctor

 * The Doctor jokingly claims that Time Lords have ninety lives (and that he has used one hundred and thirty of his).

Culture

 * The Doctor and K9 are reading Peter Rabbit. Romana has read a few of the series herself.
 * The Doctor claims a ball of string Romana finds in the TARDIS helped Theseus and Ariadne out of the Minotaur's maze. This may have been foreshadowing The Horns of Nimon.
 * The thieves operate as a democracy.

Species

 * Erato is an ambassador from the planet Tythonus, a world rich in metal, but rapidly depleting its vegetation.
 * Tythonians consume chlorophyll and mineral salts.
 * Tythonians can only communicate via a pentagonal device which allows them to utilise another being's larynx.
 * Tythonians live for 40,000 years.

Spacecraft

 * Erato travelled to Chloris in a spaceship that was an egg woven of living metal.
 * Erato's spaceship is powered by photon drive.

TARDIS

 * The TARDIS has a tractor beam.
 * A MK3 Emergency transceiver can be plugged into the TARDIS console.

Weapons

 * A neutron star is propelled towards Chloris by the Tythonians after the treatment of their ambassador.

Story notes

 * This was the first story for Season 17 to be produced, though it was the third to be broadcast. This makes it the first story produced with Lalla Ward as Romana II, replacing Mary Tamm, and with David Brierley providing the voice for K9, replacing John Leeson.
 * In David Fisher's original script, Lady Adrasta was Queen Adastra, whose name meant "to the stars" in Latin. This was changed by Douglas Adams.
 * Christopher Barry is said to have had differences of opinion with both Tom Baker and Lalla Ward regarding their characters and dialogue during filming of this story. This plus frequent technical problems led to his departure from directing on Doctor Who.
 * The phallic appearance of Erato's proboscis caused uncontrolled laughter in the studio, forcing the producers to add a pair of pincers to the creature overnight. (DOC: Team Erato)
 * Lalla Ward disliked how her dress echoed that worn by Mary Tamm in TV: The Ribos Operation and felt that the story was tailored for that incarnation.
 * A clip of this story was used in the documentary "Synth Britannia", first broadcast on BBC 4 on Friday 16 October 2009. (The clip seems to be from part two or three.)

Ratings

 * Part one - 9.3 million viewers
 * Part two - 10.8 million viewers
 * Part three - 10.2 million viewers
 * Part four - 9.6 million viewers

Filming locations

 * Ealing Studios, Ealing Green, Ealing
 * BBC Television Centre (TC6), Shepherd's Bush, London

Production errors
to be added

Continuity

 * A number of the Doctor's old costumes appear on the TARDIS hatstand. His coats from The Seeds of Doom and The Talons of Weng-Chiang are two of these.

DVD releases

 * This story was first released on DVD in the UK on 3 May 2010. The one disc set includes a restored version of the story, as well as the following special features:
 * Commentary by Lalla Ward (Romana), Myra Frances (Lady Adrasta), Christopher Barry (Director) and Mat Irvine (Visual Effects Designer).
 * Christopher Barry: Director - documentary that examined the career of Doctor Who director Christopher Barry.
 * Team Erato - documentary that examined the special effects group tasked with bringing Erato to life and the problems they encountered.
 * Animal Magic
 * Extended Scene
 * Coming Soon Trailer
 * Radio Times Billings
 * Production Subtitles
 * Photo Gallery


 * Editing for the DVD release was completed by the Doctor Who Restoration Team.

It was released as issue 149 of Doctor Who DVD Files.

Video releases

 * This was released on VHS in the UK in 2002

Digital releases

 * The story is available for streaming in the US through Hulu Plus or Amazon Instant Video in the UK.