DW 31x02: The Beast Below

[Captain Seafort]

Starts in 2 1/2 hours.

[Sionnach Glic]

I'm a bit iffy on this one. The first two thirds of the episode were great. We have a strange new place to explore, a mysterious threatening presence and an interesting plot. Liz 10 was pretty cool (Though why is she black? Come the hell on, people!) and Amy's instant hitting of the Forget button and her message to herself to just get the Doctor out of Starship UK immediately was great.

Then we get to the ending, and it all just sort of falls down the stairs. So the big evil secret of ultimate awfulness was that they were zapping one of Blackstar's space whales to keep the ship travelling? How on Earth is that so horrifying a revelation that everyone who learns it immediately wants to erase all their knowledge of it? Sure, it's not exactly a pleasant thing to know that you're doing for your own survival, but I can't imagine anyone having the reactions we see in the episode to it.

The revelation that Liz 10 was really behind it all was a pretty neat twist, though. And the Starwhale looked cool. But all in all it just seemed a bit off. The episode as a whole felt rushed, and all the tension it built up as to what was at the heart of Starship UK felt wasted. The Doctor bitching at Amy for hitting the Forget button seemed a bit off, though.

All in all, I give it a 3. Not a bad episode, but one that felt like it just wasted some great potential. The Starwhale thing was nice, it's just that it seemed to waste the great sense of forboding that the episode had built up.

[Captain Seafort]

I'd rate it a bit higher than a 3, albeit due more to the performances than the plot. The robots were pretty creepy, if not anywhere near the Angels or some of Moffat's other creations.

The two things that really jumped out at me:

1) some of the Doctor's mannerisms were nearly identical to Troughton's, from that frustrated fist-clenching gesture where he looked like he was about to start crewing his knuckles, to the very tone of his voice in some scenes. Indeed, you wouldn't need many changes to turn this into a typical Second Doctor episode. I don't know if it was intentional or not on Smith's part, but if it was it was bloody brilliant.

2) Who else recognised the Demon Headmaster?

Oh, and Winnie apparently has the Doctor's phone number.

[Sionnach Glic]

I'd rate it a bit higher than a 3, albeit due more to the performances than the plot. The robots were pretty creepy, if not anywhere near the Angels or some of Moffat's other creations.

I really liked the robots, myself. They were nicely creepy and weird.

[Graham Kennedy]

I liked it; good, not fantastic, but a good solid episode.

Creepy setup, yeah. Left me wanting to know what was going on.

Why would the queen be black? Um... because her mother/father were black? It's actually a problem that some black people married into the royal family at some point in the next thousand years? Seriously?

I loved the way they presented the whale as being used, tortured, and people choosing to both accept this and not know about it. Frankly I think that's what most people do in real life - we know that there are things like seal clubbing and whale hunting and all that stuff going on, and we feel bad about it, so for the most part we just turn away and put it out of our heads... maybe throw a few quid to a charity so we can feel that we've done our bit. But if you could simply push a button and "un-know" an unpleasant fact, I think a LOT of people would do it. Just look at how many people out there want to deny global warming or evolution or whatever.

And I absolutely love the dilemma the Doctor had... free the whale and kill all the Humans, or lobotomise it so it could be used forever. His anger was very real I thought, especially the "No human has anything to say to me today!" line. And then Amy's realisation of another solution... and seeing it because she sees the parallel with the Doctor himself, something he was blind to for all his smarts... that was just great.

Also loved the phone call. "You have a phone?" "Well it is a phone box." "It's the Prime Minister." "Which one?" "The British one." "Which British one?" And Amy's face when she said "Um... Winston Churchill wants to talk to you..." Brilliant.

The idea of British Daleks has me kind of curious...

[Reliant121]

Yes, I agree on the lines you picked out. And the British Daleks thing also has me curious...

[Captain Seafort]

Also loved the phone call. "You have a phone?" "Well it is a phone box." "It's the Prime Minister." "Which one?" "The British one." "Which British one?" And Amy's face when she said "Um... Winston Churchill wants to talk to you..." Brilliant.

Indeed. Just finding out when the Doctor gave Churchill his number should be interesting.

The idea of British Daleks has me kind of curious...

From the trailer it looks like they were created on Churchill's orders. Where they got the technology and genetic base from is anyone's guess, but I suspect that this lot will be around for a while - re-establishing them with far more limited technology is the only way to restore an ongoing Dalek threat without the stupidity of RTD's cycle of revivals and "final" defeats, or the unstoppable force a Time War-level Dalek Empire would pose without Gallifrey to divert them or keep them in check.