Doctor Who - The Beast Below review

Written by Paul Cryer Monday, 12 April 2010 12:18

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“This isn't going to be big on dignity”

The second episode of Steven Moffats reign with Matt Smith as the Doctor brings us a little sci-fi fairy tale with some good scary moments and again something for all the family to enjoy. It may not be as strong as 'The Eleventh Hour', but if this is one of the series weaker entries, season 5 should be more than a pretty good season.

The episode starts off with a great, creepy little sequence where children are waiting for school results, one boy in particular seems scared and we find out it is because he gets a 0. The school teacher is a wonderfully scary doll, like the old fashioned fortune tellers you find in funfairs, its head turning round to reveal either a happy or displeased face. We find out the boy can't now travel around the spaceship (a giant floating United Kingdom, named Starship UK) due to his failure, but he gets in a lift anyway. Inside one of the creepy headers (called Smilers) turns round to reveal a real nasty face, the bottom of the lift falls away and the boy falls into the fiery looking hole.

The Doctor and Amy now arrive and quickly deduce something is wrong due to a crying child. After telling Amy not to meddle, the Doctor is soon meddling. As we proceed through the episode the Doctor works out that the ship has no engines and meets a possible masked ally. Amy meanwhile watches a video which tells you about the ships history, we don't get to see this, but the watcher has two choices, to forget what they've seen or protest. Amy chooses to forget and we find out that everyone chooses to forget. The Doctor arrives and presses the protest button, the floor opens up the same as in the first scene and they find themselves inside the mouth of a monster. After getting spat out, they are rescued by the masked ally from earlier, who we find out is the Queen, Liz 10. She is now fighting to help her people against what appears to be a police state. Liz 10 is actually quite old, having had her bodyclock slowed so she can rule for a long time.

They are soon captured by the mysterious security force, who are also the Smilers. They are taken to a control room, where we find that the ship is actually built on a space creature called a Star Whale which arrived at Earth before the planet was burnt up and was captured by the UK who built the ship around it. We also find out Liz 10 is actually hundreds of years old, not the 30 or so she believed. they watch a video that Liz recorded long ago telling us all about what happened, Liz can either choose to forget or to abdicate, which will release the Star Whale but destroy the ship, thus killing everyone.

The Doctor now is stuck in a quandry, save the creature, which is in great pain due to its capture and torture, save the humans or lobotomise the Star Whale so it at least doesn't feel the pain. Furious with the humans and Amy, who chose to forget instead of tell the Doctor what she had learnt, the only decision he can make is to lobotomise it. However, Amy notices that the Star Whale interacts with the ships children (we also found out earlier that many people are 'fed' to it, but it won't eat the children) and that the Star Whale came to Earth to save the children of a dieing planet, with it being the last of its kind, it couldn't see humans destroyed and children dieing, just like the Doctor can't. she hits the abdicate button, the Star Whale is released but doesn't leave. She was correct.

After returning to the TARDIS, the phone inside rings, it is Winston Churchill, he needs the Doctors help and we see the shadow of a Dalek.

The biggest problem with this episode for me was the choppyness of it. I wonder if there is a 60 minute cut at the Beeb somewhere, as the 45 minute cut seems to jump around too much. The middle of the episode is fine, but the start has no real explanation, however creepily great it is, it serves little purpose. The ending also seems very rushed, with decisions, explanations and things being tied up in a whirlwind when it needed more time to breath. The storyline is a pretty standard Doctor Who story again and again it is the writing, characters and dialogue that keep it being entertaining fare. I am enjoying the new energy the show now has, the Doctor seems to have some vibe back in his life, he is enjoying just travelling over the place with a companion again and doesn't seem to have the weight on his shoulders that Tennant seemed to carry in the last season or two.

Things I noticed about this episode bullety pointies ...

The Smilers were classic Doctor Who creepy, bet they scared the kids. Even I didn't expect them to come to live and start walking out the booths!
Amy's marriage seems to be playing a big part, it is mentioned numerous times
There were a good few Star Wars references here
I loved the ending with the Doctor getting angry with the decision he'd been stuck with, just wish it had some time to breath and expand a bit
The Demon Headmaster was a welcome cast member!
Loved the Liz 10 line "I'm the Queen, so basically, I rule" cue shooting two Smilers
Loved how the Doctor was giving Amy a lecture on not getting involved, next thing we see him on the TV screen getting involved
Could have done with a bit more subtlety re. the Doctor/Star Whale comparison plus the crack in the side of the ship

Rating - 6.5/10

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