Doctor Who (TV Series) The Creature from the Pit: Part One (1979) User Reviews

The opening episode is pretty decent.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 17 April 2018]

I'm on a mission to challenge myself to find some good in my least favourite episode from Dr Who. Creature from the Pit ranks very lowly when I list my favourites, but having not seen it for years I'm watching it with fresh eyes..... Here goes....

The first thing I'm struck by is the obvious care and time that's gone into Romana's costume. She looks something. Indeed the episode is visually rather good,the jungle looks fantastic, hugely atmospheric. The costumes generally look great, Adastra's in particular.

The best thing for me is the performance of Myra Frances, finally a villain who's matter of fact, she's not cackling maniacally or gloating, she's just getting on with her business.

On the downside, David Brierly sucked as K9, he sounded irritating and pompous, lacking any of the warm comic humour that John Leeson has in abundance.

There is something about Season17 that just doesn't work for me,Tom was given too much freedom to add in whatever he wanted, and at times it made the show very silly. Not too much evidence of that in Part one.

Overall, better then I remembered, but worse was to come.

Any Old Iron...

[Xstal · 6/10 · 14 July 2022]

If you happen to pass by the planet Chloris, you'll notice several things, that have gone amiss, a troupe of old Ben Gunns, Wolf Weed you can't outrun, and great urges to cascade things down an pit.

The Blob

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 8/10 · 4 March 2020]

This has serious aspects and themes to add interest but is mostly a mix of amusing humour and entertaining fun. It is nothing special but is just a jolly adventure that passes the time very pleasantly.

The first episode is easily the best. Christopher Barry's direction is great and the first episode especially is filmed beautifully with some great camera work that diverts from shortcomings and adds quality. The initial scenes on the alien planet with its plantlife along with the mysterious 'eggshell' is well realised. In fact, the sets, costumes and overall production standard is very good for the time, pretty impressive for classic era Doctor Who. The first episode is very enjoyable with no major negatives apart from the performances of the group of natives in animal skins and the fact K9 is voiced by the less effective David Brierly instead of the wonderful John Leeson. In episode 1 like it all really with Adastra and her minions all very good, the costumes all very nice and the performances of most characters really enjoyable. The following episodes continue to be good fun but there are more of the less impressive aspects and the story itself diminishes in quality by the end. Overall it remains a decent filler though.

The creature itself is even an okay effort on the budget but it has some design flaws which are showed up particularly when the Doctor tries speaking into a protruding appendage which is not a good look.

The astrologer is a funny guest character and Romana is pleasant but it is Tom Baker mostly who lifts the story with his personality lighting up the screen as usual.

My ratings: Part 1 - 8/10, Part 2 - 7/10, Part 3 - 6.5/10, Part 4 - 6/10. Overall - 6.88/10.

Not Written By Nigel Kneale

[Theo Robertson · 4/10 · 14 January 2014]

Landing on the Planet Choloris the Doctor and Romana find it's under the rule of the tyrant Lady Adrasta who is obsessed with finding metal resources a scarce commodity on the planet . Feeling her wrath the Doctor plunges in to an underground cavern that hosts a mythical creature

This story sees the last contribution to the show of director Christopher Barry and unfortunately for someone whose resume on the programme stretches all the way back to the Dalek debut it's a very poor story to bow out on . It's obvious that the location filming of Destiny Of The Daleks and especially City Of Death has come close to bankrupting the rest of the season meaning the other stories have a painfully cheap and cheerless look to them . This was evident at the time of the broadcast and since then we're used to seeing Hollywood blockbuster production values in Nuwho which means watching Creature From The Pit in 2014 compounds the cheap budget that it was obviously awarded . You could easily recreate this tale by putting some plant pots in your living room and no one would be able to tell the difference

I remember looking forward to this tale the week before it was broadcast simply down to its title which conjured up images of Nigel Kneale inspired horror with the Doctor literally and metaphorically fighting against the military and bureaucrats warning them of an ancient dormant danger threatening to come back to life . No such luck as the suffering audience are subjected to a banal and clichéd pulpish tale of an oppressive regime holding captive a giant blob which despite its appearance is rather benign and misunderstood

That said the four episodes are never embarrassing in the way the Colin Baker , Sylvester McCoy or the Moffat eras could be embarrassing . It's just the cheap production values , seen it all before usually better and lacklustre approach indicative of the Williams producership makes for four episodes of very banal and forgettable television