What did you think of this episode?
Sonic!
Good!
Bumpy-wumpy!
Exterminate!
The Beast Below is the second episode of Matt Smith’s run as the Eleventh Doctor, and it was a whole lot better than I remember. Set aboard the Starship UK, a massive ship carrying the last remnants of Britain (minus Scotland) through space, and it looked bloody good.
This is Steven Moffat's The End of the World episode, a new companion whizzed to the far future aboard a spaceship in distress, all set before the next episode where the companion is whizzed back in time to meet an historical figure in distress. I never realised how similar each series was until the sixth series broke the trend and opened with a two parter.
Even though this was better than what I remembered I do struggle to think of a weaker Moff story. I sound negative, but that is very much a tip of the hat to Steven Moffat, this is a decent episode, and I cannot think of another episode of his that I would describe as just decent.
"The impossible truth. In a glass of water. Not many people see it. But you do. Don’t you, Doctor?"
The most recent series has got a bit of stick over how it seems we should just assume Ruby has been travelling with the Doctor and their friendship has grown off screen rather than on it. I might be completely wrong here, but Amy seems to know far too much about the Doctor by the end of the episode, maybe I missed all the information being thrown at her but I don't think I did.
Her knowledge of the Doctor and calmness in a situation of killing a massive beast that will in turn kill everyone on the ship is actually pretty grating for me, I didn't like it one bit. I like a companion as much as the next person, but Amy seems overly confident to me. She just happens to work out the Star Whale was helping the children because she knows the Doctor is old and the last of his kind. A nice sentiment sure, but I didn't think this ending was earned throughout the episode.
The episode itself was good. I enjoyed the continuation of the new take on the Doctor, the more alien, more humorous, more old and more young Eleventh Doctor. Having rewatched these episodes I have now realised it takes a while to get a fully formed Eleventh Doctor, the Doctor that I have engrained in my head.
This Doctor also seems to just loose his shit out of nowhere, it happens here, and I believe it happens in the next couple of stories at least.
"If this is just a mouth I’d love to see the stomach!"
The Smilers and the Winders have the potential to be scary villains, but they never really get much chance to shine here. Potentially they are wasted. The same could be said of Liz Ten played by Sophie Okonedo, she had the potential to be a great character, but ended up being under developed and a bit of a wet weekend. Were we supposed to think she was a great leader because I did not get the memo.
All in all this was a solid Doctor Who episode with a bit of an irritating ending. Annoyingly for me, I get a similar ending in the next episode. This just left me wanting just a little bit more.
RATING: Good!
BEST LINE: "Sorry. Checking all the water in this area. There’s an escaped fish."
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