‘The Creature From The Pit’ (TV)

‘THE CREATURE FROM THE PIT’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Erato on Chloris with the Fourth Doctor, Romana and K-9

So now we come to the third TV story featured in Season 17 of ‘Doctor Who’. Before we begin, I’d like to raise an intriguing insight that you might find baffling when it comes to this story. Apparently, the TARDIS can’t translate Tibetan into English. I’ll delve into this more as we progress through the review.

‘The Creature From The Pit’ is a four-part adventure, starring Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor and Lalla Ward as Romana. Officially, the story is by David Fisher, although that’s a matter of opinion. Apparently, it’s a story considered to be the apotheosis of the Graham Williams/Douglas Adams era.

At least that’s what it says in the DVD sleeve notes for ‘The Creature From The Pit’. Mind you, having watched the ‘Remembering The Creature From The Pit’ making-of featurette on Blu-ray, it was fascinating to hear David Fisher’s insight into the making of the story, particularly with neutron stars.

‘The Creature From The Pit’ was the third story to be shown in TV transmission order in Season 17, however, it was the first made in production history for that season. ‘The Creature From The Pit’ came first; then ‘City of Death’ was made next, then ‘Destiny of the Daleks’ and then it was the rest.

I don’t think this is the first time that this has happened with stories in seasons made out of order in production terms. It’s certainly interesting in that it was Lalla Ward’s first story to play Romana in ‘Doctor Who’ after playing Princess Astra in ‘The Armageddon Factor’. We’ll get into this more later.

I found ‘The Creature From The Pit’ to be…okay as a ‘Doctor Who’ story. There are some things that are worth mentioning in terms of the concepts and ideas having merit. However, there are things about this TV adventure that make it rather weak and laughable at points, particularly ‘the creature’.

Like I said, this story is officially by David Fisher, although from watching it and from what Lalla Ward indicates in the DVD audio commentary; ‘The Creature From The Pit’ does seem to have the influence of Douglas Adams’ writing throughout it, particularly when he was the script editor then. 😐

This includes the humour featured throughout the story as well as the scientific jargon added in. On a side note, I wonder how challenging Douglas Adams found things in terms of juggling between some ‘Doctor Who’ script-editing and doing work on ‘The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy‘ projects.

As established in my ‘City of Death’ review, David Fisher contributed two stories for ‘The Key to Time’ season (Season 16), which were ‘The Stones of Blood’ and ‘The Androids of Tara’. I found those to be solid ‘Doctor Who’ stories by David Fisher, especially with Anthony Read as the script editor. 🙂

Likewise for Season 17, David Fisher contributed two stories for the season, including ‘The Creature For The Pit’ and ‘The Gamble with Time’, which was eventually re-written and it became ‘City of Death’. It’s amazing that one story in Season 17 is credited by David Fisher and the other story isn’t.

With that said, ‘The Creature From The Pit’ doesn’t feel that recognisable as a David Fisher ‘Doctor Who’ story compared to the previous ones he wrote. That might have to do with the fact there’s an overdose of humour in the story compared to the comedy/drama balance in his Season 16 stories. 😐

You can clearly see that it’s Douglas Adams whose taken advantage of his script-editing role for the ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, as he’s adding in his own embellishments of humour and playing around with some of the concepts and ideas featured throughout. David Fisher considered that a mistake. 😦

A thing about script-editing is to try and make the story consistent in terms of its writing. You add extra elements when it’s necessary. I’ve found this when it comes to editing my ‘Doctor Who’ stories on my ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and when I’m working with the Divergent Wordsmiths on stories. 🙂

It could be argued Douglas Adams is over-enthusiastic in the role of ‘Doctor Who’ script editor, without really understanding what the job entailed. I think the argument could be applied to both Douglas Adams and Christopher H. Bidmead in that regard, although both are different personalities.

There are superficial elements of David Fisher’s writing in ‘The Creature From The Pit’ though. One of these elements is the inclusion of female villains. This is something that David did in ‘The Stones of Blood’, when it was revealed that Vivien Fay turned out to be the actual villain of the adventure. 🙂

Female villains in ‘Doctor Who’ stories by David Fisher are based on his experiences of when he had ‘a bunch of awful aunts’ as a youngster. This also matches to the aunts Bertie Wooster had in the ‘Jeeves & Wooster’ stories, which I’ve read in books and seen in the ‘Jeeves & Wooster’ TV series. 🙂

It’s fascinating to notice these parallels from other stories and how they work in a ‘Doctor Who’ context. The actualisation of the female villains in ‘The Creature From The Pit’ like Lady Adrasta and Karela are a matter of debate in terms of the actresses who play them and how they’re developed.

That’s something we’ll address as we go further into the story. To give credit to David Fisher and (to some extent) Douglas Adams, the story’s ideas and concepts are good. I was amazed by some of the twists and turns featured throughout the story. This story did give me inspiration in terms of writing.

At the time of watching ‘The Creature From The Pit’ on DVD in 2010, I was writing my ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘The Space Hotel’ featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Billy. I wouldn’t like to dismiss ‘The Creature From The Pit’. There is some ground level to cover in terms of how it can be a decent story.

Whilst the story’s ideas and concepts are fascinating to check out, it’s a shame they’re ruined when it comes to the overdose of humour and the execution of the creature featured. ‘The Creature From The Pit’ is somewhat let down by weak production values, which is a shame when you think about it.

That’s not in terms of the costumes and the exotic film sequences used for the exterior jungle scenes, filmed in Ealing Studios itself. As far as I’m concerned, they’re spectacular and they deserve credit where it’s due. I can’t fault the effort of the production team in terms of those certain areas. 🙂

As stated, the story’s monster has a lot to be desired. The same goes for the mining pit/cave tunnel scenes. A pity the story wasn’t all on film as opposed to being on film and videotape. The mining pit/cave tunnels scenes on film might have elevated some of the absurdity going on for the creature.

So, what’s ‘The Creature From The Pit’ about then? Well, it has the Doctor, Romana and K-9 in the TARDIS visiting the planet Chloris. Chloris happens to be a planet rich in chlorophyll. The planet’s inhabitants also seem to be obsessed with metal, which happens to be a scarcity on Chrloris. Hmm!!!

Soon, the Doctor, Romana and K-9 become embroiled in a political game of power, stirred by the planet’s ruler, Lady Adrasta. There’s also a large creature that’s lurking within the depths of a mining pit. Adrasta states the creature eats people in the pit, but there’s something far more to it than that.

There are also a group of…caveman-like bandits who have their obsession of stealing metal. I’d like to remind you that this obsession applies to Lady Adrasta and her subjects as well as to the caveman-like bandits. Now to be fair, metal is quite essential in a society that might be on the road to decline.

But it becomes weird when the bandits don’t seem to do anything with the metal they’ve collected. They just harbour whatever metal they can find and don’t use it for essentials like purchasing new clothes. Heck, they don’t even have the decency to shave their beards or cut their hair as bandits. 😐

There’s also a giant eggshell that the Doctor and Romana have found. There are also man-eating ‘wolfweeds’ which are used at Lady Adrasta’s command. As the Doctor delves deeper into the pit, he finds all isn’t so black and white as it seems, especially as he tries to communicate with the creature.

Christopher Barry returns to direct this ‘Doctor Who’ story. He previously directed four episodes of ‘The Daleks’ as well as ‘The Rescue’, ‘The Romans’, ‘The Savages’, ‘The Power of the Daleks’, ‘The Dæmons’, ‘The Mutants’, ‘Robot’ and ‘The Brain of Morbius’. Quite a veteran ‘Doctor Who’ director!

‘The Creature From The Pit’ was the last story that Chris Barry directed for the ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. It’s amazing Chris Barry directed quite a number of ‘Doctor Who’ stories by this point, which spanned for two decades. Things must have changed for him as the 1960s and the 1970s progressed.

I know there was quite a bit of tension between Chris Barry and Tom Baker, especially when Tom Baker took over some of the directing that Chris was meant to be handling. The director might have given guidance to Tom on how to play the Doctor’s character and the actor refused to take it on board.

It must have been quite a contrast compared to when Chris Barry directed Tom Baker in stories like ‘Robot’ and ‘The Brain of Morbius’. Mind you, Tom Baker had been playing the Doctor for six years by this point and his confidence must have been very overwhelming for other production members.

The story’s star is of course Tom Baker as the Doctor. It’s clear that Tom’s relishing the role of the Fourth Doctor and is making use of the dialogue given to him, whether it’s provided by David Fisher or by Douglas Adams. I enjoyed some of the humorous quips that the Doctor made during this TV story.

This is especially when he had scenes with villains like Lady Adrasta and Karela. I also enjoyed the scenes he had with Organon, as he and Geoffrey Bayldon got on very well. Like with ‘City of Death’, there are times when Tom’s Doctor can be pretty funny and there are times when he’s very serious.

Those serious scenes come from when Tom’s Doctor is inquisitive about what’s happening on Chloris, especially when he discovers more about the titular alien creature and what it’s doing in a pit. He gets to work out what Lady Adrasta has done in terms of imprisoning the alien called Erato. 🙂

He also suspects that Erato may not be revealing everything he knows concerning what’s to happen to Chloris in the story’s final act. Thankfully, through working with each other that’s based on trust, the Doctor, Romana and K-9 are helped by Erato to find a way to stop Chloris from being destroyed.

With those positives said, there is a scene featured in the story with the Doctor that I have to address. I consider it to be a silly scene and typical of the Douglas Adams era of ‘Doctor Who’. It’s when the Doctor’s in the pit in ‘Part Two’ and he’s reading a book called…‘Teach Yourself Tibetan’. 😐

Yes! Eleven years later; included in the Season 17 Blu-ray box set of ‘Doctor Who’; and I still find that scene infamous and nonsensical. I recall a clip of that scene used in the Terrance Dicks documentary of the ‘Horror of Fang Rock’ DVD. Terrance’s ‘Doctor Who’ Target books are better. 😀

But yeah, what was the point of that scene? To illustrate the Doctor can’t speak Tibetan when he’s reading from another book which happens to be Tibetan? Why did he need to read the book whilst hanging in the pit? I know it was for him to better understand ‘Everest in Easy Stages’, but seriously!

Surely the Doctor can think a way out of the pit once Lady Adrasta and her party are gone without the need to resort to reading a book and teaching himself Tibetan. I think the Doctor has more experience than that. It also makes him and the scene quite childish in retrospect when viewing it. 😐

Also, shouldn’t the TARDIS be able to translate Tibetan into English. Heck, the Doctor visited Tibet in ‘The Abominable Snowmen’! What, wasn’t the TARDIS able to translate Tibetan into English at the time he, Jamie and Victoria visited the place to deal with the Yeti? The scene doesn’t make sense!!!

Meanwhile, Lalla Ward stars as Romana. As stated, this is Lalla’s first recorded story as Romana following her role of Princess Astra in ‘The Armageddon Factor’. Over the years, Lalla has criticised her performance in ‘The Creature From The Pit’, saying she tried too much to be like Mary Tamm. 😐

She didn’t like the costume she wore either. Nowadays, I can see what she’s getting at, especially when she tries to mimic Mary Tamm, which doesn’t quite work overall. At this point, Lalla Ward was trying to find her character and it probably helped with all the costume changes she went through. 🙂

With that said, as far I’m concerned, I found Lalla Ward rather good as Romana. I couldn’t see anything wrong with her performance. It’s decent enough and I quite like the costume she wore in this story. Somehow it makes her quite pretty. I hope I’ll be able to tell her that the next time I see her.

I suppose when it comes to initially starting a character in production terms, it’s easy to make criticisms on how your first performance went and how you make improvements later in future stories. Perhaps it’s just as well that ‘The Creature From The Pit’ didn’t go out first in Season 17 of the show.

K-9 makes a return to ‘Doctor Who’ in this TV adventure. K-9 was briefly seen in ‘Destiny of the Daleks’ and the Doctor called him by name in ‘City of Death’. But by this point, he hadn’t said a line of dialogue or had a role to play in a Season 17 story. Here, K-9 gets to have something to do here. 🙂

However, K-9 isn’t voiced by John Leeson in Season 17 of ‘Doctor Who’. Instead, he’s voiced by David Brierley. Now I have to say, and this is not to disrespect David Brierley’s talents as an actor, but I’m not a fan of his voice for K-9 in ‘Doctor Who’. I find his voice quite grating at times whenever I hear it.

I’m not sure why John Leeson didn’t return to voice K-9 for Season 17 of ‘Doctor Who’. I know he took a break from doing ‘Doctor Who’, but didn’t the production team invite him at all to come back to voice K-9? Thankfully, John Leeson returned to voice K-9 in Tom Baker’s final season – Season 18. 😀

It’s explained in ‘Destiny of the Daleks’ that K-9 voice had laryngitis, which is absurd. A robot with laryngitis? Really?! It makes things inconsistent for K-9 when some stories that take place in Season 17, particularly the audios, feature the robot dog voiced by John Leeson and not by David Brierley. 😐

In this story, Myra Frances guest stars as the villainous Lady Adrasta. Fun fact: Myra Frances was married to Peter Egan, who played Paul Ryman in ‘Ever Decreasing Circles’. Sadly, at the time of this review, Myra Frances died in March 2021. I enjoyed the performance she gives as Lady Adrasta. 🙂

There are times when Myra Frances balanced the calm and menacing sides to Lady Adrasta’s character well in the story, especially in ‘Parts One and Two’. Mind you, there are times where I did feel that Lady Adrasta’s character was rather over-the-top, particularly by the TV story’s second half.

I also found her motives as a villain to be rather two-dimensional. Why would she be so cruel to a creature like Erato and throw him into a pit, trapping him for 15 years. It might be for political gain, but that angle isn’t fully explored in terms of the relationship between Lady Adrasta and her people.

I might be missing something here, but it’s a shame Lady Adrasta’s potential as a villain never got fully explored, especially when she got killed too early in ‘Part Four’ of the story. I agree with Lalla Ward though. Myra Frances’ enraged delivery of “Point the dog against the rock!” made me laugh. 🙂

Geoffrey Bayldon guest stars as Organon, an astrologer whom the Doctor befriends when they meet inside the pit. Before ‘The Creature From The Pit’, Geoffrey Bayldon played the White Knight in the 1973 BBC production of ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’ with Sarah Sutton. I enjoyed him in that. 🙂

He also appeared in the 1989 BBC production of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’. I’ve also seen him in episodes of the original ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ and an episode of ‘Star Cops’. He is perhaps well-known for playing the Crowman in ‘Worzel Gummidge’. 😀

I enjoyed Geoffrey Bayldon’s performance as Organon. It’s clear that he had a good working relationship with Tom Baker here. It can be argued that the character Geoffrey played is based upon a character created by Douglas Adams from something like ‘The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. 😀

As well as metal, astrology and stargazing is a recurring theme throughout ‘The Creature From The Pit’. I like how Tom’s Doctor respects Organon’s astrological beliefs, despite not believing them. Interestingly, Geoffrey Bayldon would later play an Unbound Doctor for the Big Finish audio dramas.

Eileen Way guest stars as Karela, Lady Adastra’s loyal confidante. Fun fact: Eileen Way appeared in the very first ‘Doctor Who’ story on TV – ‘An Unearthly Child’ – where she played the old mother in the Stone Age. I know that Eileen Way and Tom Baker got on well during the making of this TV story.

Like Lady Adrasta though it’s not clear what Karela’s motives are as a villain. Even after Adrasta’s death, she continues to be trouble when stealing a vital component that belongs to Erato’s ship. It’s funny when K-9 gets annoyed by being called a ‘tin dog’ by Karela and Lady Adrasta in the TV story. 🙂

The story also features David Telfer as the Huntsman, who doesn’t have a name strangely enough (I don’t think he’s named in the Target novelization either). Hmm! The Huntsman is only in ‘Parts One and Four’ of the story. He starts off being loyal to Lady Adrasta before turning against her in the tale.

Morris Barry (who directed ‘Doctor Who’ stories like ‘The Moonbase’, ‘The Tomb of the Cybermen’ and ‘The Dominators’) guest stars as Tollund, whilst ‘Doctor Who’ stuntman Terry Walsh guest stars as Torvin. Tollund and Torvin are Chlorian engineers. They both appear only in ‘Part One’ of this story.

And of course, there’s the ragtag band of caveman-like bandits that live on Chloris. These bandits include John Bryans as Torvin the leader (at least I think he’s the leader), Edward Kelsey as Edu, and there’s Tim Munro (who would later play Sigurd in the ‘Doctor Who’ story called ‘Terminus’) as Ainu.

Honestly, I think the bandits are pretty dopey in this adventure. Lalla Ward’s Romana isn’t impressed by them either. I wonder if the ‘Monty Python’ aspect had got into this story by this point. The bandits should have been menacing and threatening compared to what they eventually ended up. 😦

And of course, we have the story’s main guest star – ‘the creature from the pit’ itself called Erato. I commend the visual effects team of Mat Irvine, Steven Bowman, Steve Lucas and Morag McLean who put a lot of time and effort into making Erato work, even though it wasn’t successful in the end.

But I’m afraid to say this, I laughed when Erato appeared in ‘Part Two’ of the story. I can see why the producer Graham Williams would burst out laughing during the making of this story once he saw Erato for the first time. I think it’s the same for many of the cast and crew who made this adventure.

There are moments where Erato could appear menacing, especially when he glows a fluorescent green at times. There’s also the wide angle shot of the full-size version of Erato in the cave-like pit. I’m not sure how big Erato was meant to be, but I believe he was meant to be like a huge green blob.

However, when you see Erato for the first time in ‘Part Two’, you see his…well, I’m afraid to use the word…you see his ‘dick’. Because that’s what it looks like when it appears on screen. It looks like a huge erect willey. I couldn’t help laugh at that and I’m sure a lot of people had similar reactions to it.

This story could have easily been called ‘The Dick From The Pit’ instead of ‘The Creature From The Pit’. I mean, come on! Just look at it when you see it! It looks ridiculous and feels pretty rude. I’m pleased they changed things with it when it came to ‘Part Three’ by making it look like it had pincers.

Pincers work better compared to…well, you know what. I know it’s down to time and budget with these things, but the visual effects team should’ve checked what they were making before the story went into production. It also makes it look ridiculous and less scary than it should’ve been on the TV.

Mind you, it turns out Mrs. Drabble’s kids were actually scared of Erato according to a reply by Graham Williams to a letter Mat Irvine read out in the ‘Team Erato’ visual effects featurette. WOW!!! Just…WOW!!! To think Erato managed to scare some kids back in 1979 says something, doesn’t it? 🙂

I liked it when the Doctor, Romana and others were able to communicate with Erato when he had that communication shield-like device put on him. Erato uses the Doctor’s larynx as well as Romana’s, K-9’s and Adrasta’s to say its words. It’s a neat concept compared to the actual creature.

The original DVD special features were as follows. There was the ‘Christopher Barry: Director’ interview/featurette, the ‘Team Erato’ visual effects featurette, ‘Animal Magic’ with Tom Baker, a photo gallery of the story, and an extended scene taken from ‘Part Three’ of the story, which features the dopey caveman-like bandits. There was a mono sound audio mix option for the story and an audio commentary with Lalla Ward, Myra Frances, director Christopher Barry and visual effects designer Mat Irvine. There was also an info-text commentary option to enjoy, PDF materials including a ‘Radio Times Listings’ of the story, and a ‘coming soon’ trailer for the ‘Kamelion Tales’ DVD box set (including ‘The King’s Demons’ with Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson, and ‘Planet of Fire’ with Peter Davison, Mark Strickson and Nicola Bryant).

On Disc 3 of the ‘Doctor Who – The Collection – Season 17’ Blu-ray, the ‘Team Erato’ visual effects featurette, ‘Animal Magic’, the extended scene taken from ‘Part Three’, the mono sound audio mix option and the DVD audio commentary can be found on there. The photo gallery and the info-text commentary option have been updated for 2021 on the Blu-ray. The ‘Christopher Barry: Director’ interview/featurette is now included on Disc 6 of the Season 8 Blu-ray box set of ‘Doctor Who’ which contains ‘The Dæmons’.

The new special features on Blu-ray include an extended original edit of ‘Part Three’ (which I’ve seen for this review) and the ‘Remembering The Creature From The Pit’ making-of featurette with behind-the-scenes interviews with writer David Fisher, director Christopher Barry and visual effects designer Mat Irvine. There’s the ‘Behind the Sofa’ feature on ‘The Creature From The Pit’ with Colin Baker (The Sixth Doctor) and Matthew Waterhouse (Adric) as well as Katy Manning (Jo Grant) and Nicola Bryant (Peri) as well as visual effects designer Mat Irvine, costume designer June Hudson and director Graeme Harper. There’s the ‘Lalla Ward Remembers Season 17’ extensive interview; ‘BBC Choice Backstage’ with David Brierley who discusses K-9; BBC trailers and continuity announcements of the story; and a ‘coming soon’ trailer for ‘Nightmare of Eden’ with Tom Baker, Lalla Ward and K-9.

On the PDF front, as well as the ‘Radio Times Listings’ of the story, there are production documents; and scripts for the story, including three rehearsal scripts and four transmission scripts.

Just to mention, I had ‘The Creature From The Pit’ DVD for my birthday as well as the ‘Myths and Legends’ DVD box set back in May 2010. Was ‘The Creature From The Pit’ worth having? Yes, it was! Despite the story having its flaws, there’s a slimy deliciousness to this Fourth Doctor story that I liked.

‘The Creature From The Pit’ is a typical story from the Graham Williams/Douglas Adams era of ‘Doctor Who’. It’s not the greatest ‘Doctor Who’ story I’ve seen from that era (that honour goes to ‘City of Death’), but it’s far from terrible. It has nice concepts in it, despite its badly-realised monster.

‘The Creature From The Pit’ rating – 7/10

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The previous story For the Fourth Doctor was ‘City of Death’ (TV) For Romana was ‘City of Death’ (TV) For K-9 Mk II was ‘City of Death’ (TV)	The next story For the Fourth Doctor is ‘The Romance of Crime’ (Book/Audio) For Romana is ‘The Romance of Crime’ (Book/Audio) For K-9 Mk II is ‘The Romance of Crime’ (Book/Audio)
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