Rate & Discuss: The Beast Below
The Doctor takes Amy to the distant future, where she finds Britain in space. Starship UK houses the future of the British people, as they search the stars for a new home. But as Amy explores, she encounters the terrifying Smilers and learns a deadly truth inside the Voting Booth.
It’s been one week since the Eleventh Doctor foiled Prisoner Zero using a homemade computer virus (as you do!), but 7 days is nothing compared to the long years Amy Pond spent waiting for the return of her beloved blue box. Tonight she finally embarked on her maiden voyage!
And her first trip in the TARDIS took her to Starship UK, a spaceship housing the future of the British people as they search the stars for a new home. Onboard, she learnt a terrifying secret inside the Voting Booth and encountered the deadly Smilers, learning a lot more about her ’imaginary’ friend in the process…
Was it one of Steven Moffat’s finest or would you rather forget it ever happened? Leave your post-Beast Below thoughts and reactions as a comment on this discussion article.
The man above might say hello, if you stop to leave your thoughts below…
I liked it but thought the Star whale would have been cooler if it was the alien that was on the torchwood episode “Meat”
I thought this was a very good episode. Not every story has to be a constant mad dash from killer monsters, and this one displayed that quite well. That said, it’s still much faster paced than the classic stories, and even after five years I still find it disconcerting to see stories go by so quickly.
Matt and Karen are definitely a perfect team, they play off each other in just the right way. I enjoyed the scene in the Beast’s mouth. It’s early days, so I don’t think it’s fair to judge Matt at all yet on just a couple of episodes, but I think he’s doing well. He has the eccentricity down just right with his own bits added, like more hand gestures. He’s also less manic that David was, and can be quieter too, which I find is a good contrast.
The bit about the star whale being exploited by the people reminded me a bit of Planet of the Ood, but I like that this time it was merely out of sad ignorance rather than explicit racism and greed. It was also nice to see Amy find the solution. It’s nice to know she’s observing and learning already. I like a companion who can make clever leaps just like the Doctor.
The last bit I like about this episode is how Moffat is keeping past continuity in mind. The Doctor talking about humanity abandoning Earth because of solar flares in the 29th century directly links up with the Tom Baker classic “The Ark in Space”. There’s not always a lot of this in Doctor Who after nearly 50 years, so it’s good to see when a story that established some future bit of history is referenced again.
I was a bit scary, when the Doctor was gonna kill the Star whale, and yes it reminded me “Meat”, but i was happy that Amy saved everyone, she’s great!!!
I’m pleased others enjoyed this episode. My previous posts were slightly negative. I’m going to watch the BBC3 repeat tonight; I’m sure I’ll change my mind about what felt like a slow episode. Next week’s ‘Victory of the Daleks’ looks great though and it’s written by Mark Gatiss, a superb writer.
Just a couple more points: is anyone else fond of Matt Smith’s ‘Ha-Ha!’s? I like those knowing laughs. Less keen on the BBC ruining end credits. I think they played the extended Murray Gold theme tune at the end last night but I couldn’t hear it because of the continuity announcer going on about ‘Over the Rainbow’!
I thought the episode was so much better than The Eleventh Hour, I enjoyed it so much more! The storyline wasnt perfect, never really got how/why Amy recorded a message to herself but Matt and Karen made up for it! Amy really shined in this episode and I loved Matt’s performance when he had to choose between the whale and humans! Wonderful, and hopefully next weeks will be just as good!
I have majorly mixed feelings on that episode.
The whole premise of the Protest/Forget thing is very good and I loved the internal struggle of Liz 10 when she found out what the truth was.
I also loved Amy being able to work it out in the end. It showed that she is going to be a proactive and worthwhile companion who is not streets behind the Doctor intellectually like Rose was. It seems she’s closer to Donna and will actually challenge the Doctor at times.
Speaking of challenging the Doctor, I loved his angry moment towards the end. It really tugged at me to see him displaying such emotion and that is definitely something that reflects well on Smithy as an actor. He is shaping up to be very good as the Doctor and, dare I say it, even better than Tennant.
However, I do think that parts of the plot were a bit flimsy and I also think that they wasted the Smilers. They were an excellent creation and were shaping up to be really creepy, but then they just sort of stopped appearing and their purpose was never properly explained. This was a waste as they did seem like one of those monsters that Moffat writes so well.
So yes, it was a good episode and definitely shows that Moffat is taking Doctor Who in the right direction. I look forward to seeing how he tackles the Daleks next week.
A good story, that I think will need a second viewing to properly appreciate.
It wasn’t the smash of episode one, but I think some of that is down to cramming too much into the timeframe; basically this story needed more time to breathe.
Creepy, full of some pretty bonkers ideas, a good second episode.
OK, I eat my words. Have just watched ‘The Beast Below’ again on BBC Three and enjoyed it a great deal more second-time around. Moffat’s script was quite beautiful, actually!