The Satan Pit (TV story): Difference between revisions

Jefferson cocks his rifle on [[Tobias Zed|Toby]], but Rose stops him from killing the now normal-looking and terrified [[archaeologist]]. She reasons that they saw whatever was possessing him pass from him to the Ood. Toby cannot remember much of what happened but believes it was [[the Devil]] who possessed him. Jefferson states that he will shoot Toby if the Devil tries to possess him again.

Down below, Ida explains that Strategy 9 is to throw open the [[airlock]]s while everyone else is safe in lockdown; the Ood will be sucked out into the vacuum. However, as they prepare to be brought up in the lift, the power fails. The Beast, speaking through the Ood, takes control of the viewscreens. To the Doctor's question as to which Devil he is, given that there are so many [[religion]]s, the Beast answers that he is all of them. He explains that the [[Disciples of the Light]] rose up against him leaving him defeated, and subsequently chained in the pit for all eternity. He states this occurred before the creation of this universe, to which the Doctor retorts that this is impossible, but the Beast tells the crew that they know nothing. He begins to speak to each of them in turn, playing on their secrets and hidden fears and insecurities: to the Doctor, he refers to the [[Time War]], calling him the "killer of his own kind", and ominously predicts that Rose will soon die in battle.

The [[human]]s begin to panic. The Doctor tries to calm them by reminding the group of the strengths of the human race, demonstrated by their defiance of conventional belief in even making it to this impossible planet, and pointing out that they are united while the Beast is alone. As if in response, the lift cable snaps, and the Doctor and Ida barely get away before its ten miles of length collapses on top of the capsule, severing communications. They are stuck down there, with just fifty-five minutes of air left. Ida decides to rig up the loose cable so she can explore the pit, but the Doctor tells her that he will go down, not her.

With the power loss, Zack is unable to implement Strategy 9. Meanwhile, the Ood are trying to break through the sealed doors to reach the humans. Rose rallies them, getting them to think of a way out. Zack reroutes energy from [[Sanctuary Base 6 rocket|the rocket]] to restore half power. Danny comes up with a way to disable the Ood: broadcasting a telepathic flare that will reduce their telepathic field to zero, disrupting their brains. However, this can only be done from the central monitor in Ood Habitation. The only access from where they are is through the airless maintenance shafts below the base, but Zack can extend the oxygen field to follow them through the tunnels.

Danny creates the flare programme and stores it on a memory card and the humans scramble down into the tunnels just as the Ood break through the door. Zack directs them towards their goal, aerating each section of the vents and decompressing the previous one before they can go through. However, the Ood are also in pursuit. Jefferson stays behind to hold them off but is too slow in reaching a junction before it is sealed. Knowing that there is nothing Zack can do to prevent his death, Jefferson requests that the [[oxygen]] be removed quickly so he can die before he is killed by the Ood. Zack does this, and Jefferson's life signs wink out on the monitor.

The Doctor finds ancient drawings on the walls of the pit depicting the story of a battle against the Beast, its defeat and subsequent imprisonment. The drawings also depict two double-handed jars, which are standing on separate pedestals some distance apart in front of him. He touches them and they light up, illuminating a section of the cave. The Doctor comes face to face with a gigantic demon chained to the cavern wall, complete with caprine head and humanoid body.

The Beast who previously communicated with the Doctor was intelligent and vocal, but the creature now towering before him appears to be little more than animalistic in nature. The Doctor [[deduce]]s that what he is seeing is only the physical form — the mind, the idea of the Devil, has departed. The Doctor also realises, piecing it together from various clues, that the planet was the perfect prison: if the Beast had ever freed itself, the gravity field keeping the planet balanced would collapse, and the planet would fall into the black hole. The air was not provided by the Beast, but its jailers, so the Doctor could stop its escape by destroying the prison and thus the planet.