The Beast (The Impossible Planet)
The Beast of Krop Tor or the Beast or Krop Tor
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The Beast of Krop Tor, (PROSE: Time Traveller's Diary) known also as the Krop Tor Beast (PROSE: The Star Beast [+]Loading...["The Star Beast (novelisation)"]) and simply the Beast (PROSE: "The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit" [+]Part of Creatures and Demons, Loading...{"page":"50-52","namedpart":"The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit","1":"Creatures and Demons (reference book)"}, The Time Traveller's Almanac [+]Loading...{"chaptname":"The Great and Bountiful Human Empires","page":"160-161","chaptnum":"4","1":"The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)"}, Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia [+]Loading...{"page":"24","ed":"2011 reprint","1":"Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia (reference book)"}, The Visual Dictionary: Updated and Expanded [+]Loading...{"page":"84, 104-105","1":"The Visual Dictionary: Updated and Expanded (reference book)"}, The Whoniverse [+]Loading...{"chaptname":"The Early Universe","chaptnum":"1","1":"The Whoniverse (novel)"}, etc.) was a demon imprisoned in the centre of Krop Tor. He claimed to have existed before the creation of the Doctor's universe. He claimed to be the Devil, or rather "the truth behind the myth", having woven his image as the Horned Beast into every culture. After an encounter with the Tenth Doctor which ended with the creature's apparent destruction, the Doctor went back and forth on whether he acknowledged the Beast as truly being the Devil, though he admitted to the possibility of the brute fact that various religions' image of an evil horned figure may have been inspired by the Beast.
Nature
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. (TV: The Satan Pit)
The Beast could manifest itself through electronic media, including communication devices, computer voices, and hologram viewers. Its mind could leave its body and possess a single hive mind of the Ood collectively and/or a single human individually. It had the power of telepathy and, through a host, telekinesis strong enough to shatter reinforced glass. Possession of a human subject affected the host's skin and eyes, causing strange markings to appear all over their face and body with their eyes turning red; as well as their vocal cords, allowing them to speak at different pitches simultaneously. Possessed Ood also had glowing red eyes, though this has been seen on other occasions when strong telepathy was present. The Beast could also project fire from his mouth, as could its possessed hosts. Its hosts could also physically survive in a vacuum. (TV: The Impossible Planet)
Biography
Origins
The Beast claimed to have existed before the universe, a claim the Tenth Doctor found troubling to accept or consider as he believed nothing could have existed before the universe.
The Beast had been at battle with the Disciples of the Light. The Disciples, who themselves existed before the universe, bound it in giant chains and confined it to a pit in the centre of Krop Tor, a planet in orbit around the black hole K37 Gem 5, (TV: The Satan Pit) on 27 October. (PROSE: Time Traveller's Diary) If it 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 it 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 "horned beast" for Draconia, Vel Consadine and Dæmos. (TV: 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 for the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire. The Beast's influence had already begun to corrupt the mission before it even began, taking control of a Ood to serve as its soldier as Captain Walker departed. (WC: Tardisode 8) When the humans established their base at Krop Tor, the Beast possessed Curt (WC: Tardisode 9) and later Toby Zed via the text transcribed into a notebook.
The Beast used Toby's body to go outside, but he was heard by Scooti Manista, the base's maintenance officer, when she went to deliver Toby's expenditure. While investigating, Scooti discovered the possessed Toby standing on the planet's surface. At first it tried to draw Scooti towards it by hypnotising her, but she managed to break free. Angered, the Beast, through Toby, began to use its telekinetic abilities to break the glass in the section Scooti was in. Scooti tried to escape, but the doors had been sealed, trapping her. Soon the glass was shattered and she was pulled out into the vacuum.
After Ida Scott and the Tenth 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. (TV: The Impossible Planet)
Upon the Ood's defeat, the Beast planned to escape by keeping its spirit in Toby's body, leaving its physical body behind. The Tenth Doctor managed to destroy the force holding Krop Tor in orbit.
The Beast's spirit was destroyed when Rose Tyler caused Toby's body to be pulled into the black hole, followed shortly by the Beast's original body, which was destroyed along with Krop Tor. However, it claimed that it would never be truly destroyed. (TV: The Satan Pit)
Other encounters
When Sutekh opened the Circle of Transcendence, the Beast emerged with the King Nocturne, a God of Ragnarok, an Asian dragon, and the Destroyer. (COMIC: Old Girl [+]Loading...["Old Girl (comic story)"])
The Fifteenth Doctor followed a scream through the Time Vortex. It led him to places he had been before, including Krop Tor at a point when the Beast was still imprisoned but with both horns intact. (COMIC: Untitled [+]Loading...["Untitled (FCBD2024 comic story)"])
Personality
The Beast had a narcissistic personality, constantly exalting itself and its achievements and referring to itself by various grandiose epithets, even the third person. It was also exceedingly arrogant, dismissing all other creatures as its inferiors and believing itself invincible, immortal and utterly supreme. The Beast was also quite emphatic about its own importance in the mindsets of other life forms, asserting itself as all of the devils in all religions, "the truth behind the myth".
In addition to being an arrogant narcissist, the Beast was also a ferocious killer. It had an extremely manipulative and cunning nature, and was proud of the acts it set into motion, laughing when the Tenth Doctor deduced its plans to escape Krop Tor. It revelled in its own triumphs, grinning gleefully while on the surface of Krop Tor in Toby's body, and gloating about its freedom as the Pit opened for it.
The Beast would sadistically prey on people's fears and guilty feelings to shake them and leave them feeling vulnerable. It was sadistic enough to taunt Toby with its presence before possessing him, convincing him that if he looked at the Beast he would die. Later on, when he possessed Toby, he cruelly asked Mr. Jefferson if his wife had ever forgiven him, before mockingly telling him she never did, clearly reading the discomfort and horror in the man's reaction.
Able to see into the future, the Beast used this precognitive insight against others, foretelling twisted interpretations of what would befall the members of the Walker Expedition, with enough honesty preserved in his statements to keep them plagued with dread.
The Beast's cruelty, sadism and egomaniacal nature was its own undoing, as it was so caught up with gloating about its own supremacy, immortality and omnipresence in the minds of other beings, that it wasn't ready when Rose Tyler sent it flying into the black hole. (TV: The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit)
Other references
Abaddon was the "son of the Beast". (TV: End of Days)
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. (COMIC: 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. (TV: SJAF 6)
When Sarah Jane Smith and Maria Jackson asked Mr Smith to identify the species of Uvlavad Kudlak, Mr Smith briefly showed them an image of the Beast. (TV: Warriors of Kudlak)
The Tenth Doctor briefly recounted his encounter with the Beast to Donna Noble, calling it "the Devil". (TV: Planet of the Ood)
One of Rose Noble's toys resembled the Beast. (TV: The Star Beast [+]Loading...["The Star Beast (TV story)"], PROSE: The Star Beast [+]Loading...["The Star Beast (novelisation)"])
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 They Keep Killing Suzie.
- On 21 September 2010, comedian Stephen Colbert used an image of the Beast as a visual representation of Satan.
- Though "Abaddon" is mentioned as a name for the Beast in The Satan Pit, the name would later be allocated to a different, related character.
- Although not mentioned as such in any official work of Doctor Who fiction, the Beast has been depicted by marketing as a member of the Pantheon on two occasions. The first was the episode Gods of the Whoniverse of New to Who?, which suggested other possible members of the Pantheon besides those mentioned in The Legend of Ruby Sunday in a tentative manner; the second was a later video of the Doctor Who YouTube channel, posted on 16 August 2024, compiled clips of "the Pantheon of Gods" throughout televised Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures, incorporating clips of the Beast in The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit (alongside the Time Beetle in Turn Left, and the Gods of Ragnarok in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy) in addition to the expected footage of the Toymaker, Sutekh, the Mara, the Trickster, and Sutekh. In fact, the video's original thumbnail used the Beast as one of its two sample members of the organisation alongside the Trickster.
Information from invalid sources
The Beast, far from being killed after passing through the event horizon of the black hole, found itself reconstituted and revived on the other side of the cosmos. It went to Earth where it assumed the form of Martha Jones and used the TARDIS' telepathic circuits to contact the Doctor. As Martha, it asked the Doctor if she could rejoin him in his adventures, but he refused. They were then chased to the TARDIS by the Cybermen, which were actually a psychic projection created by the Beast. Once inside, the Beast revealed itself and told the Doctor that it would use his TARDIS to conquer time and space. The Doctor then asked the Beast to turn into Martha again, so it was small enough to push into the time vortex. The Doctor revealed that he knew all the time it wasn't her, because she would phone him as she didn't know how to use the TARDIS's telepathic circuits. (COMIC: The Beast Is Back In Town [+]Loading...["The Beast Is Back In Town (comic story)"])
