The Creature from the Pit (TV story)

The Creature from the Pit was the third story in season seventeen of Doctor Who.

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 with the original scene having to be filmed again. The Erato prop was also a major problem. A puppet version was unable for rehearsals and there wasn't time for a rethinking.

Synopsis
The Doctor and Romana receive a distress signal and arrive on Chloris, a lush and verdant world that has 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 - while a band of scruffy thieves, led by Torvin, organize raids on her palace to steal whatever metal they can.

The Doctor identifies the distress signal's source as a large eggshell-like structure in the forest. He is taken prisoner by Adrasta's guards and, in order to escape, leaps into the Pit - the entrance to a cave system into which all those who incur Adrasta's wrath are consigned to be devoured by an immense green globular creature living within. The Doctor, with the aid of the elderly soothsayer Organon, discovers that the creature is not an unthinking killer but an ambassador from the planet Tythonus, which has a lack of chlorophyll but an abundance of metal.

The Tythonians had hoped to trade with Chloris, but the first person their ambassador Erato encountered on arriving in his eggshell-like ship was Adrasta, who took his communicator device and trapped him in the Pit so as to preserve her monopoly on metal. Erato retrieves his communicator and kills Adrasta.

He then warns the Doctor that the Tythonians have set a neutron star on a collision course with Chloris in retaliation for his imprisonment. With the Doctor's help he is freed from the Pit and, out in space, spins an aluminium shell around the star, allowing for it to be pulled off course by the TARDIS's gravitational tractor beam and thus saving Chloris.

Part one
The use of 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 then orders his death. Karela countermands him and has the Doctor and Romana taken prisoner.

As they travel through the jungle, bandits attack them and 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. He is thrown to a creature that lives within the vast caverns beneath the pit. Romana arrives and tries to help the Doctor escape with K9 attacking the guards. However, the Wolfweeds quickly surround and disable K9. The Doctor jumps into the pit.

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

Meanwhile, Lady Adrasta began trying to get information out of Romana. To do this, she had her guards slowly hammer away at K9. Eventually Romana told her that only K9 new what Adrasta wanted. 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 some time earlier. They escape from the creatures tentacle and then burn it to deter it from attacking again. Together they begin exploring the caverns.

K9 tells Adrasta about the TARDIS. With such a machine, Adrasta no longer sees a need for 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 and the creature forms a barrier to prevent them returning to it. 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 realises that it has no way to communicate with him. In response, 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 disturbed by the guards and so they retreat into the caverns of the pit. The plate activates and Torvin and Edu fall under its hypnotic effect.

K9 is unable to break down the barrier. It simply gets stronger with each hit he gives it. From the other side, the Doctor bursts through. Adrasta questions how the Doctor did this he replies that he asked very nicely. Adrasta lets out that she knows more about the creature than she lets off, revealing it to be a Tythonian. They continue forwards at Adrasta's wish to kill the creature.

The Doctor uses a mirror to reflect K9's attacks, killing Adrasta's guards and scaring Karela away. The Doctor hold Adrasta despite her pleas that the creature must not near her. She orders Romana to have K9 kill the creature. The hypnotised Torvin and Edu approach still carrying the plate, which the place on the creature.

Part four
Through the plate, the creature is able to talk as the person touching it has their larynx used by the creature. The Doctor uses the plate, and the creature reveals its name to be Erato, the Tythonian ambassador to Chloris and came to negotiate a treaty exchanging metal for chlorophyll fifteen years earlier. Its craft was the vast egg found in the jungle. However, Adrasta realised her power was dependent on the control of the planet’s metal supply and so imprisoned Erato to maintain her status.

At the revelation of this truth, her people turn against her. The creature exacts its revenge by crushing Adrasta to death. In the woods, Karela meets up with 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 left to lose, the bandits and Karela give up.

The Doctor has rescued the Tythonian just in time as Tythonus has declared war on Chloris over the missing ambassador, and has despatched a neutron star to collide with Chloris’ star and destroy the system. It is due to collide within the next twenty-four hours. Working against the odds, the Doctor uses the TARDIS to stabilise the star while Erato weaves a metal covering around it and 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

 * The Doctor - 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
 * Guard - Dave Redgrave
 * Doran - Terry Walsh
 * Guardmaster - Tommy Wright

Crew

 * Film Editor - M A C Adams
 * Production Assistant - Romey Allison
 * Film Cameraman - David Feig
 * Studio Lighting - Warwick Fielding
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
 * Theme arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
 * Costumes - June Hudson
 * Visual Effects - Mat Irvine
 * Special Sounds - Dick Mills
 * Studio Sound - Anthony Philpott
 * Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
 * Make-Up - Gillian Thomas
 * Assistant Floor Manager - Kate Osborne, David Tilley
 * Designer - Valerie Warrender
 * Production Unit Manager - John Nathan-Turner
 * Script Editor - Douglas Adams
 * Writer - David Fisher
 * Director - Christopher Barry
 * Producer - Graham Williams

The Doctor

 * The Doctor says that his lucky number is 74,384,338.

Culture

 * The Doctor and K9 are reading Peter Rabbit.
 * 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.

Races and 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' life span is anything up to 40,000 years.
 * Tythonians can only communicate via a pentagonal device which allows them to utilise another being's larynx.

Spacecraft

 * Erato travelled to Chloris in a spaceship that was an egg woven of living metal.

TARDIS

 * The TARDIS has a tractor beam.
 * Mark Three 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 story guest stars Geoffrey Bayldon. Bayldon had been a candidate on previous occasions for the role of the Doctor, and later voiced an alternate version of the Doctor for the Auld Mortality and A Storm of Angels in the Doctor Who Unbound audio series. Bayldon was also a close personal friend of Jon Pertwee.


 * This was the first story for Season 17 to be produced, though it was the third to be broadcast. This technically makes it the first story to feature Lalla Ward as Romana II, replacing Mary Tamm, and to have 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. These plus frequent technical problems led to his departure from directing on Doctor Who.


 * Morris Barry, who played Tollund, had directed Doctor Who stories in the 1960s.


 * Lalla Ward disliked how her dress echoed Mary Tamms (from The Ribos Operation) and felt that the story tailored more for that incarnation.


 * A clip of this story was used in the documentary "Synth Britannia", first broadcast on BBC 4 on Friday 16th October 2009. (The clip seems to be from episode 2 or 3.)


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

Ratings

 * Part 1 - 9.3 million viewers
 * Part 2 - 10.8 million viewers
 * Part 3 - 10.2 million viewers
 * Part 4 - 9.6 million viewers

Myths
to be added

Filming locations

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

Production errors
to be added

Continuity

 * EDA: The Taking of Planet 5 features a vague reference to this story, in the form of the TARDIS' tractor beam.
 * The Doctor uses a stethoscope to listen to the metal egg. The Tenth Doctor also used one. (DW: The Stolen Earth)
 * 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.

Timeline

 * This story occurs after ST: The End of Now
 * This story occurs before MA: The Romance of Crime

DVD releases

 * This story was first released on DVD in the UK on 3rd 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
 * Team Erato
 * Animal Magic
 * Extended Scene
 * Coming Soon Trailer
 * Radio Times Billings
 * Production Subtitles
 * Photo Gallery


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

Novelisation and its audiobook

 * Main article: Doctor Who and the Creature from the Pit


 * Novelised as Doctor Who and the Creature from the Pit by David Fisher.