The Doctor and Rose Tyler will soon be reuniting in theaters, opening the door for more Doctor Who double features to be reimagined for the big screen, including its most terrifying horror story ever. As the longest-running sci-fi series on television, Doctor Who has over six decades of incredible adventures through time and space to look back on. One of these thrilling chapters will soon be re-released in theaters to celebrate 63 years of Doctor Who.
Released 20 years ago in June 2006, Doctor Who’s “The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit” double bill will soon be released in over 1000 cinemas worldwide as one feature-length episode. Featuring David Tennant and Billie Piper as the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler, the extended version of The Satan Pit will see deleted scenes restored into the story, creating something new amid an uncertain future for Doctor Who. More double features could follow, including one of Doctor Who’s scariest.
“The Impossible Planet” & “The Satan Pit” Are Getting Re-Released
Scheduled to re-release as The Satan Pit on November 23, 2026, this extended cut of an iconic Doctor Who Season 2 double featureis bringing attention back to the series amid behind-the-scenes turmoil. After the BBC recently put Doctor Who out to tender, the future of the legendary sci-fi series is unclear, so it’s a great idea to revisit some of the show’s most immersive classic episodes.
“The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit” are a fantastic first step. In the double feature, the Doctor and Rose Tyler arrive in a Sanctuary Base on the planet of Krop Tor, which is locked in perpetual, impossible orbit around a black hole. After an earthquake separates them from the TARDIS, the Doctor and Rose prepare to stay with the base’s human crew.
The crew is drilling 10 miles beneath the surface to find the source of a gravity funnel that lets them safely enter or leave the black hole’s vicinity. While the Doctor heads down with science officer Ida Scott (Claire Rushbrook), Rose stays on the surface to deal with archaeologist Toby Zed (Gabriel Woolf) and a legion of Ood, who become possessed by a dark intelligence that may have inspired the idea of Satan.
The Doctor finds the Beast’s body deep in the planet’s pit, while its mind tries to escape Krop Tor in Zed’s body, but the Doctor and Rose thwart its plan, even while separated. The Satan Pit extended cut will restore deleted scenes previously available only on DVD, along with never-before-seen extended footage.
Remembered for its scale, horror, and emotional stakes, “The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit” are regarded as one of the greatest modern Doctor Who double features, making it perfect for a re-release. If successful, it could open the door for more double features to get the same treatment.
Doctor Who’s Best Horror Story Should Be Re-Released Next
After The Satan Pit, which will celebrate 63 years of Doctor Who, several other iconic horror-inspired double features from the show’s history deserve a big-screen reimagining. While “The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit” defined the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler’s era, another double feature did the same for the Tenth Doctor’s predecessor.
Before Tennant stepped into the role, Christopher Eccleston excelled as the Ninth Doctor, who also traveled through time and space with Rose. Doctor Who Season 1, revived by Russell T. Davies after a 16-year hiatus in 2005, had standout episodes, but “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances” are widely regarded as two of the season’s most chilling and memorable.
The double feature follows the Ninth Doctor and Rose as they travel by warship to London in 1941, where the Doctor investigates a young boy wearing a gas mask and searching for his mummy, while Rose is taken in by the charismatic Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman). Together, they learn that the young boy searching for his mummy was killed during the Blitz but resurrected by nanogenes.
The nanogenes thought he was the template for all humanity, so his condition spread across London like a virus, transforming dozens into gas mask-wearing zombies all searching for the boy’s mother, Nancy (Florence Hoath). Their reunion teaches the nanogenes where they went wrong, allowing everyone to be repaired and, much to the Doctor’s glee, allowing everyone to live.
This double feature was the first horror-inspired episode in the revived Doctor Who, making it perfect for a reimagining. It showcased Eccleston’s immense acting range and grasp of emotional stakes, much like Tennant’s in “The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit.” His chemistry with both Billie Piper and John Barrowman, who was introduced to Doctor Who in this double feature, was also electric.
Few Doctor Who stories explore the human condition as beautifully. Nancy’s plight in feeding the children of London during the Blitz, her accepting the fact that she is the young Jamie’s (Albert Valentine) mother, and Eccleston’s striking performance—including his dancing—make “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances” one of the most beautiful, immersive, and gut-wrenching Doctor Who stories ever.
The double feature also introduced one of the show’s most haunting and long-lasting villains. Fans would love to see it reinvented for a modern-day re-release in theaters.
Many Other Doctor Who Double-Features Should Get Big-Screen Re-Releases
It’s no wonder “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances” were such a popular double feature. It was the first canonical story written by future Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat, and it covered all bases from heightened emotional stakes, spine-chilling fear and terror, and even a happy ending with a dance sequence.
“The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit” replicated these themes, with high intensity, true horror, a clever and thought-provoking antagonist, and a happy ending, making them both perfect for re-releases. If The Satan Pit is a successful experiment, it would be fantastic to see even more Doctor Who double features stitched together as feature films.
“The Empty Child” could be just the beginning; many other brilliant double episodes deserve a theatrical re-release. For instance, Doctor Who Season 3’s “Daleks in Manhattan” and “Evolution of the Daleks” spotlighted classism in 1930s New York while pitting the Doctor and Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) against their greatest enemy—perfect for the big screen.
“Human Nature” and “The Family of Blood,” however, contribute to Doctor Who Season 3’s more universally acclaimed double feature, while Season 4’s “Silence in the Library” and “Forest of the Dead” are considered one of David Tennant and Catherine Tate’s most incredible Doctor Who stories.
“The Impossible Astronaut” and “Day of the Moon” gave Matt Smith his best double feature as the Eleventh Doctor, while “World Enough and Time” and “The Doctor Falls” gave Peter Capaldi a shocking ending as the Twelfth Doctor. Jodie Whittaker’s “Spyfall” double bill as the Thirteenth Doctor introduced a new version of the Master (Sacha Dhawan), while Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor got his best double feature in “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” and “Empire of Death.”
With the future of Doctor Who looking uncertain after some less-than-well-received adventures, these feature-length re-releases might be the perfect direction for the series for the foreseeable future, so The Satan Pit could just be the start of something special.
- Release Date
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2005 – 2021-00-00
- Network
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BBC
- Directors
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Graeme Harper, Euros Lyn, Douglas Mackinnon, Jamie Magnus Stone, Charles Palmer, Rachel Talalay, Joe Ahearne, James Strong, Jamie Childs, Saul Metzstein, Toby Haynes, Wayne Che Yip, Nick Hurran, Richard Clark, James Hawes, Daniel Nettheim, Colin Teague, Keith Boak, Azhur Saleem, Adam Smith, Andrew Gunn, Nida Manzoor, Lawrence Gough, Paul Murphy
- Writers
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Steven Moffat, Russell T. Davies
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Jodie Whittaker
The Doctor
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