The Beast (The Impossible Planet)


 * For the parasitic species of the same name, see The Beast.

The Beast was a Demon imprisoned in the centre of Krop Tor, who claimed to have existed before this Universe was created. He identified himself as Satan, among many other religious representations of him.

Biology
The Beast's physical body resembled a massive humanoid with crimson skin, two large ram-like horns (one of which was broken half way projecting from its head) and a corpse-like face.

The Beast could manifest himself through electronic media, including computer voices and hologram viewers. Its mind could leave its body and possess a single hive mind of the Ood collectively or a single human individually, though not more than one at one time. He had the power of telepathy and, through a host, telekinesis. Possession of a human subject affected the host's skin, causing strange markings to appear all over their face and body; and vocal cords, allowing them to speak with different pitches simultaneously. Whether a single human or a hive mind, the eyes of those possessed by the beast glowed a fiery red. The Beast could also project fire from his mouth. His hosts could also physically survive in a vacuum indefinitely. (DW: The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit)

He was known to have a son, Abaddon who was trapped in the Cardiff Rift on Earth. (TW: End of Days)

The Beast was shown to have had a narcissistic personality, constantly exulting himself and his achievements and referring to himself by various grandiose epithets. He was also exceedingly arrogant, dismissing all other creatures as his inferiors and believing himself to be invincible, a belief that could easily be true.
 * Some also called the Beast itself Abaddon. Abaddon had a "nemesis" or "evil twin" known as Pwccm. It is unknown if Pwccm is related to the Beast. (TWN: The Twilight Streets)

Origins
The Beast claimed to have existed before the Universe, a claim that the Tenth Doctor found troubling to accept or consider as he believed nothing could have existed before then.

It is known that the Beast had been at battle with the Disciples of the Light. The Disciples, who themselves existed before the Universe, bound him in giant chains and confined him to a pit in the centre of Krop Tor, a planet in orbit around K37 Gem 5, a black hole. If he ever tried to escape, the field holding Krop Tor in orbit would collapse and the planet would be sucked into the black hole, taking the Beast with it. Despite this, the Beast claimed that he was the basis of the Devil-figure in all religions. The Doctor believed this to be because the Beast's existence seeped into the subconscious of all sentient beings. Deities the Beast inspired included the Kaled God of War and the God of Evil for Draconia and Dæmos. (DW: The Satan Pit)

Encounter with the Walker Expedition
In the year 43K2.1, the Walker Expedition came to Krop Tor, searching for the source of energy that kept the planet from falling into the black hole. The Beast possessed Toby Zed via the text transcribed into the Krop Tor Notebook.

Through Toby, the Beast's first action was to kill Scooti Manista. He used Toby's body to go outside the base, and used his telekinetic abilities to shatter the glass in the section Scooti was in, pulling her out into the vacuum. Later. after Ida and the Doctor went down to investigate the bottom of the mine shaft, the Base's Ood were taken over, causing them to attack the other members of the Expedition. Upon the Ood's defeat, the Beast planned to escape by keeping his spirit in Toby's body, leaving his physical body behind. The Tenth Doctor managed to destroy the force holding Krop Tor in orbit.

His spirit was destroyed when Toby's body was pulled into the black hole, followed shortly by the Beast's original body, which was destroyed along with Krop Tor. However, he claimed that he would never be truly destroyed. (DW: The Satan Pit) This could be supported by the Doctor's words that the Beast is an idea, not to mention the fact that the Beast's mind was detachable from its body, and neither an idea nor a mind can be destroyed by a physical construct, like a black hole.

Other References

 * When Drew Blayney, leader of the Brimstone Skulls motorcycle club, was possessed by one of the ritual motorcycles, he drew upon the image of the Beast as one of his childhood fears. (TWM: Jetsam)
 * Mr Smith once noted that the Beast was on the Judoon's most-wanted list, but was not as high on it as Androvax. (SJAF: Sarah Jane's Alien Files episode 6)

Behind the scenes

 * The "Number of the Beast", 666, has appeared in multiple episodes, with reported appearances including The Christmas Invasion, The Impossible Planet, Doomsday, Voyage of the Damned, Midnight, The Stolen Earth, Planet of the Dead, and TW: They Keep Killing Suzie. Some fans have speculated that this is deliberate foreshadowing an appearance of the Beast, in the same fashion as the 'Bad Wolf' meme.