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Classic Novels: THE CREATURE FROM THE PIT

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Author Topic: Classic Novels: THE CREATURE FROM THE PIT  (Read 315 times)
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Vampyros Adric
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« on: February 18, 2011, 09:26:34 pm »


For the purpose of this review I shall cut straight to the back of the box - so we're all on the same page...

The planet Chloris is very fertile, but metal is in short supply and has therefore become extremely valuable. A huge creature, with most unusual physical properties, arrives from an alien planet which can provide Chloris with metal from its own unlimited supplies, in exchange for chlorophyll. However, the ruthless Lady Adrasta has been able to exploit the shortage of metal to her own advantage, and has no wish to see the situation change. The Doctor and Romana land on Chloris just as the creature's alien masters begin to lose patience over their ambassador's long absence. The action the aliens decide to take will have devastating consequences for Chloris, unless something is done to prevent it...Tom Baker, who played the Fourth Doctor in the BBC TV series, reads David Fisher's complete and unabridged novelisation, first published by Target Books in 1975.

The perfect food analogy springs to mind for this story - marmite. You will either love it or hate it. I - sadly - am in the later camp. For some reason the later years of the Graham Williams era (yes, even with the peerless Douglas Adams as Script Editor) was not my favourite period. The fact the Adams was not strong on plot meant that a number of the stories were not as strong as they might have been and I think the Creature from the Pit reflects this. Even Tom Baker's narration is a little too much for me, at certain points he resorts to simply bawling the story at you (like a stroppy Brian Blessed).

I hate to submit an entirely negative review and there are some positives to note. The characterisations are strong, believable and the story premise is a reasonable one. Unfortunately it is a premise that is never fully realised.

Go and buy The Brain of Morbius instead.


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« Reply #1 on: February 19, 2011, 09:52:46 pm »

Not heard this one, but for the reasons you state above I probably won't either. I'm not too fond of the original televised story. It seems to suffer from a bit of a lack of spark, like a lot of the stories in season 17, and has the feeling of being thrown together when a lack of decent story could be come up with. Its a shame because in the tv episodes its all acted well enough, but the efforts are wasted on a lacklustre story that we have seen before and seen better
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« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2011, 10:52:47 am »

Not heard this one, but for the reasons you state above I probably won't either. I'm not too fond of the original televised story. It seems to suffer from a bit of a lack of spark, like a lot of the stories in season 17, and has the feeling of being thrown together when a lack of decent story could be come up with. Its a shame because in the tv episodes its all acted well enough, but the efforts are wasted on a lacklustre story that we have seen before and seen better

I would pretty much have to agree with this. I always got the feeling that towards the end of TBs reign, a lot of the writers were more concerned about whether he would agree to certain scripts and stories as apposed to them laying them out there and he just getting on with it. As a result, I think a lot of the stories were slightly weaker
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