SUMMARY
- Doctor Who’s new era features a pantheon of gods, with Sutekh revealed as the powerful God of Death.
- Russell T Davies explored the concept of gods in his original Doctor Who era by introducing The Beast.
- The Beast and Sutekh share similarities and connections, hinting at a possible return for the former.
The new era of Doctor Who has seen Russell T Davies return to the series as showrunner, and has pitted David Tennant’s and Ncuti Gatwa’s incarnations of the Doctor against a pantheon of gods. The three 60th anniversary specials that kicked off this new era introduced the concept of enemies from beyond the universe in “Wild Blue Yonder” and built on this with the return of the godlike Toymaker in “The Giggle.” The Toymaker warned the Doctor of his incoming legions and spoke of the mysterious One Who Waits — the most powerful of all the gods in Doctor Who’s universe.The new era of Doctor Who has seen Russell T Davies return to the series as showrunner, and has pitted David Tennant’s and Ncuti Gatwa’s incarnations of the Doctor against a pantheon of gods. The three 60th anniversary specials that kicked off this new era introduced the concept of enemies from beyond the universe in “Wild Blue Yonder” and built on this with the return of the godlike Toymaker in “The Giggle.” The Toymaker warned the Doctor of his incoming legions and spoke of the mysterious One Who Waits — the most powerful of all the gods in Doctor Who’s universe.
Doctor Who‘s Season 1 (2024) finale unmasked the One Who Waits as Sutekh, the God of Death. While 2024’s Doctor Who Season 1 was the first time an entire pantheon of gods had featured as the central villains in a season of Doctor Who, it wasn’t the first time the Doctor had faced godlike enemies, nor the first time evil gods had been introduced to the series under Russell T Davies. During his first era as showrunner, Davies started to explore the concept of gods, the supernatural and forces from beyond this reality. The first true god faced by the Doctor in Davies’ original era arrived in the 2006 two-parter, “The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit.”
The Beast was Russell T Davies’ First Doctor Who God
“The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit” aired during the second season of Davies’ first era as Doctor Who showrunner. While the episodes were written by Matt Jones, Davies oversaw their production and had a hand in several key decisions. Davies’ involvement included the creation of the Ood, who first appeared in this story, contributing to the design of the Beast and commissioning Jones to write this particular story. While he may not have written the story himself, “The Impossible Planet”/”The Satan Pit” can be considered Russell T Davies’ first exploration of gods and truly mythical beings on Doctor Who.
“The Impossible Planet” saw the Tenth Doctor (Tennant) and Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) arrive in Sanctuary Base 6, on the planet of Krop Tor — a world that was impossibly orbiting a black hole. Although the Doctor and Rose were surprised to receive a friendly welcome from the Ood, all was not well at the sanctuary base. An earthquake destroyed the section of the base where the TARDIS had landed, leaving the Doctor and Rose stranded. Then, sinister warnings and messages from an entity identifying itself as the Beast were heard by different members of the base’s crew. The Beast’s words were spoken through the Ood, and it called out to archaeologist Toby Zed in its own voice. Eventually, Toby was possessed by the Beast, and it took control of the Ood as its servants.
While Rose and the crew of Sanctuary Base 6 were confronting the possessed Legion of the Beast, the Doctor had traveled with science officer Ida Scott to investigate the base’s drilling operation, which had just reached the planet’s core. They discovered an unearthed cavern, where the walls were covered with the indecipherable writing of the Beast. A vast metal door in the cavern floor opened. Before beginning a winched descent into the revealed pit, the Doctor and Ida made contact with the base over the comms, allowing the Doctor to converse with the Beast via the Ood. The Beast claimed to come from before time and the current universe. It also stated that it was the one true Beast, the reality behind every religion’s and culture’s image of a devil or other horned god. Eventually, the Doctor descended into the pit, having to freefall the last part of his journey.
To his surprise, the Doctor discovered someone had prepared for this eventuality. An air cushion softened his landing and he was able to breathe without his spacesuit’s helmet in the pit’s depths. Here, the Doctor encountered the Beast in its true form — a towering red devil, chained and imprisoned. He learned the Beast had been captured by “the Disciples of the Light” and Krop Tor had been turned into a prison for it.The Doctor was able to destroy the Beast by smashing two urns that preserved Krop Tor’s gravity field, keeping it out of the black hole. However, its mind had already escaped into Toby. Rose managed to release Toby from the rocket that she and the base’s crew were using to escape the planet, letting the Beast fall into the black hole. The Doctor was reunited with the TARDIS in the pit, using it to fly the base’s crew to safety, but he never found out what the Beast really was.
The Beast Could be Connected to Sutekh
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While the two have been treated as separate characters, there are certainly significant similarities and connections between the Beast and Doctor Who‘s most recent villain, Sutekh. Both are presented as the inspiration behind human mythology and both are malevolent creatures of death, with almost infinite power. Interestingly, they had also both been imprisoned in similarly elaborate traps by their enemies. While the Disciples of the Light trapped the Beast in the bowels of Krop Tor with its imprisonment tied to the two urns in the pit, Sutekh was imprisoned beneath a pyramid in Egypt and kept paralyzed by the Eye of Horus — a device created by his native Osirans, which was situated in a pyramid on Mars.
One of the most obvious connections between the Beast and Sutekh was a real-world one. The two dark gods were both played by the same actor, Gabriel Woolf. In the episode of behind-the-scenes show Doctor Who Confidential that accompanied “The Satan Pit,” Davies revealed that he and producer Phil Collinson chose Woolf for the voice of the Beast based on his performance as Sutekh, saying “there has never been a better voice for a monster than… Gabriel Woolf.” In 1975’s “Pyramids of Mars” (the first Doctor Who story to feature Sutekh), Woolf played Sutekh on set, as well as providing the voice. When Sutekh was brought back as a much larger, more evolved creature in 2024’s Doctor Who Season 1 finale, Woolf just provided the voice, as he had done for the Beast.
During the build-up to the reveal of Sutekh as the One Who Waits in “The Legend of Ruby Sunday,” some Doctor Who fans had theorized that the mysterious head of the pantheon of gods might instead be revealed to be the Beast. Other contenders included the Rani, the Trickster and Fenric. While the Beast was not featured or even mentioned in “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” or “Empire of Death,” it is clearly an entity that would fit in with Doctor Who‘s new pantheon. Given the clear connections between the Beast and Sutekh, it’s possible that Sutekh’s recent return and subsequent defeat could pave the way for the Beast to return, as perhaps one of the few beings in the Whoniverse who could rival Sutekh’s extreme power.
Russell T Davies Explored Gods and the Supernatural in his First Doctor Who Era
Beyond the Beast, other hints and suggestions of Davies’ interest in exploring gods and unknowable forces crept into the showrunner’s first era of Doctor Who. Even his first season finale, 2005’s “The Parting of the Ways,” featured a Dalek Emperor who had taken to calling himself the God of All Daleks. The Dalek Emperor was no true god, in the sense of characters like the Toymaker, Sutekh or the Beast, but he still represented an interesting examination of the concept of godhood on Doctor Who. The Dalek Emperor had created new Dalek life from scratch, creating an unexpected moral opposite to the Ninth Doctor, who planned to wipe out the Daleks with a Delta Wave that would have killed humanity along with their Dalek oppressors.
Notions of forces from beyond the universe and from other realities were also present from early on in Davies’ first Doctor Who run. “Father’s Day,” a Series 1 episode, introduced the Reapers. These terrifying man-eating beasts lived in the Time Vortex and had previously been held at bay by the Time Lords. Now, the paradox created when Rose changed history to save her father’s life, had let the Reapers in, and they were intent on destroying everything in the affected portion of time. As with Sutekh and other recently seen gods, the Doctor seemed powerless to combat the Reapers. Later, Series 3 would introduce the witch-like Carrionites, who utilized a different form of science to humanity, basing their science on words and language, rather than mathematics. This would be echoed in the Goblins of “The Church on Ruby Road,” who were not gods themselves, but who also hailed from beyond the universe and who may have entered the Doctor’s reality in the Toymaker’s wake.
Doctor Who‘s spinoff series from this era further built on the realm of the gods and the supernatural. The Sarah Jane Adventures introduced the Trickster, who was mentioned in “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” as “the God of Traps.” The Trickster was said to represent the Pantheon of Discord, and relied on deals with humans to influence events in the universe, feeding on the chaos his actions created.Torchwood, the Doctor Who spin-off aimed at adult audiences, introduced a godlike villain with direct ties to the Beast. Abaddon laid waste to Cardiff and was said to be the son of the Beast. Doctor Who‘s current pantheon of gods featured familial ties between the Toymaker and Maestro — perhaps the Beast and Abaddon could be related to characters like Sutekh.
