The Creature from the Pit is the third serial of the 17th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 27 October to 17 November 1979.
The use of an MK3 Emergency transceiver on the TARDIS identifies a distress signal and brings the craft to the lush jungle world of Chloris, where metal in all forms is a rare and prized commodity.
The Fourth Doctor and Romana venture out to discover the remains of an enormous egg in the jungle, and when they meet the inhabitants they find a matriarchy ruled through fear by the icy and callous Lady Adrasta.
Lady Adrasta, her lady-in-waiting Karela, the Huntsman, his Wolfweeds, and some guards, enter the Pit and make their way to the Doctor, Organon, and the Creature.
Erato, as the Creature is named, is the Tythonian ambassador to Chloris and came to negotiate a treaty exchanging metal for chlorophyll fifteen years earlier.
The Doctor's last act on Chloris is to push the Huntsman, now one of the de facto rulers, toward a mutually beneficial trade agreement with Erato and the Tythonians.
[1] Although the Doctor's solution to the problem of the neutron star, weaving a shell of aluminium around it, has been criticised as silly, writer David Fisher claimed that the idea was in fact proposed to him by members of the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge.
[3] Director Christopher Barry and visual effects designer Mat Irvine were reprimanded by the BBC management for the phallic appearance of the creature Erato's proboscis; during filming of the first episode it prompted uncontrolled laughter in the studio and a pair of pincers was added to the appendage.
[5] Geoffrey Bayldon, who played Organon, would go on to portray an alternate version of the Doctor, one who never left Gallifrey, in the Big Finish Production Auld Mortality.
Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping wrote in The Discontinuity Guide (1995) that the bandits were clichéd and viewers who enjoyed Douglas Adams' humour would appreciate the serial more.
[10] Cliff Chapman of Den of Geek was also more positive, giving it four out of five stars and highlighting the acting, dialogue, and visual quality aside from the realisation of Erato.