Doctor Who Rewatch: Series 2 “The Satan Pit”

Humanity is in perpetual need of both salvation and stopping.

Every Doctor Who fan has their Doctor, and David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor is my Doctor. After a more uneven first series, the show seemed to find its footing during his run as the Time Lord in the TARDIS. Beginning with “The Christmas Invasion,” his era embodied a trend of a nuanced and complicated portrayal of humans and Earth.

An alien race attempts to enslave humanity using robotic Santas and deadly Christmas trees. (It is a Christmas special after all.) When the Doctor prevents the alien’s plan, he tells them, “And when you go back to the stars and tell others of this planet, when you them of its riches, its people, its potential. When you talk of Earth, then you make sure that you tell them this. It is defended.”

But as the aliens are leaving, the British Prime Minister orders the new agency “Torchwood” to destroy the fleeing ship. She defends the actions by saying the Doctor isn’t always around, and Earth needs to be able to defend itself. “I gave them the wrong warning,” the Doctor says of his previous speech to the aliens. “I should’ve told them to run as fast as they can, run and hide because the monsters are coming. The human race.”

Highlights of the second series include “The Girl in the Fireplace,” where the Doctor saves Madame de Pompadour in 18th-century Paris from time-traveling robots, and a two-episode arc about Cybermen, a classic Who villain, taking over the Earth in a parallel universe. The two-part finale sees the Doctor facing both Cybermen and Daleks attempting to conquer Earth.¹ The only solution is to open a breach that would pull through both enemies but also Rose and her family, separating her from the Doctor in a tearful goodbye.

The entire second series continues the complex depiction of humanity from the first episode—in desperate need of someone to save them but also in desperate need of someone to stop them. This reflects the way C.S. Lewis frequently spoke of humanity in relation to potential alien life.

During David Tennant’s run as the Tenth Doctor, humanity is depicted as in desperate need of someone to save them but also in desperate need of someone to stop them.

In his Space Trilogy, men like Ransom are heroes and treat all life as worthy of respect, but other humans are dangerous and exploitative no matter the planetary location. The Earth is unique in our solar system but because of its fallen nature. Other planets continue their relationship with God unbroken.

In addition to his fiction writing, Lewis also tackled the subject in non-fiction. In “Religion and Rocketry” from The World’s Last Night and Other Essays, Lewis speaks of the different theological questions humans must answer as we consider our relation to any potential alien life. Lewis dreams of exchanging “with the inhabitants of other worlds that especially keen and rich affection which exists between unlikes; it is a glorious dream. But make no mistake. It is a dream. We are fallen.” In our fallen nightmare state, we, as humanity, inevitably mistreat strangers. “Man destroys or enslaves every species he can. Civilized man murders, enslaves, cheats, and corrupts savage man.”

The fall has changed our relation to God and all of nature, including nature across our universe. In “The Satan Pit,” the Doctor is confronted with humanity affected by the fall, as well as a force of evil that says it existed before the universe began and played a role in humanity’s original sin.

The Satan Pit, Doctor Who (S2, E9)

In the previous episode, “The Impossible Planet” (S2, E8), the Doctor and Rose land on a planet that is somehow circling a black hole due to an unexplained gravity field. A human crew served by an alien race known as the Ood is attempting to drill to the center of the planet to discover the source of the field and harness its power.

As the drill nears the center, an earthquake causes several sections of the base, including one with the TARDIS, to fall deep into the planet. The enslaved Ood began speaking about the awakening of the “Beast.” Both the Ood and crew member Toby become possessed by the creature. The Doctor and Ida, one of the crew, go down into the planet and discover a disk covered in strange writing in the floor of the cavern. As more tremors shake the planet, portions of the disk open. A voice calls out from the opening, “The pit is open, and I am free.”

“The Satan Pit” picks up immediately after those events. In a classic horror movie trope, viewers can see Toby remains under the control of the Beast despite those on the show believing him to be free. The episode consists of those above ground trying to escape the Ood and those below trying to figure out what is below the now broken seal. The basic plot elements are fairly standard, but this episode tracks the Doctor when confronted with something beyond his understanding.