In amongst some of the complaints about this series, the one most vocal is about the series being pushed in more radical directions with the emotion surrounding the Doctor and Rose. We’ve seen the Doctor fall in love and being united with an ex companion. We’ve seen Rose realise that she isn’t the only woman in his life along with the turmoil of losing her boyfriend and being united with an alternative version of her deceased father.

Those who complain about this humanisation in some of the episodes of Doctor Who will probably be relieved to know that this is the most traditional story of the series and feels like it part of the classic series. It’s difficult to describe, but imagine if Robert Holmes and Philip Hinchcliffe had seen The Exorcist and Alien and decided to merge the two.

Usually in possession movies, we get either a little boy (Damien in The Omen) or a little girl (Regan in The Exorcist), however the difference between these two 18 rated horror films is that we have a grown up man being possessed by the devil. It would be easy to make this kind of story seem melodramatic rather than scary, but this isn’t the case. While there is no reason for the writing over Toby’s face, it makes for a disturbing physical effect along with the red contact lenses used.

Indeed, the character of Toby makes the transformation seem much more scary as he is a rather passive, anxious character who seems uncomfortable with himself. When he becomes possessed, the body language of the character seems much stronger and more powerful. Will Thorp’s performance as both characters is excellent, while his performance is helped by the vocal talents of Gabriel Woolf in his possessed state.

Just to add to the air of menace which surrounds the story, we have not just one monster but two. The Ood initially appear to be frightening, but they are soon revealed to be dormant. There ood (come on, you try writing a review without making that joke) appearance means that when they are possessed, they look like conventionally menacing Doctor Who aliens.

We then haven the creature at the bottom of the pit, which I’m reluctant to label as the devil as it was not named as much in the story. It looked impressive and given that the original idea involved having a little girl been at the bottom of the pit, it could have been a lot worse. However, despite it’s looks, it’s redundant as it does nothing when it enters the story. When something that impressive appears on the screen, you want it to do something that justifies this look.

The menace is further enhanced by having a claustrophobic space station which actually feels tough and difficult to use. Indeed, with Alien, they were pioneers in space and this is a similar story with them investigating why the planet is orbiting round a black hole. The whole production feels tough with small cramped corridors and even smaller ventilation shafts. The lighting makes it feel dark and horrible while the sets are designed to be as inconvenient as possible. This is the credit of Ed Thomas and first time director James Strong who realises Matt Jones’ script well.

These episodes were hyped as some of the scariest in the series and it comes close to matching Tooth and Claw for the fear factor. Next week sees Love & Monsters, a story that is likely to annoy all of those that loved this two parter.

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