Doctor Who - "The Beast Below" Review

So, we're now moving right along into the new Doctor Who season, with "The Beast Below". In some aspects it was a bit of a disappointment, but in many more aspects it worked quite well. I dare say it worked better than many other immediately-after-the-premiere episodes, which routinely introduce the companions formally into the world of the Doctor.

Our episode begins with an introduction to the Smilers, the robotic, booth-dwelling entities overseeing various aspects of life on the massive ship that is apparently Britain. They lump praise onto every child in the class except for one, Timmy, who gets a zero after the Smiler's head spins, changing the face to an unhappy one. Timmy is told by Mandy (his sister?) that he's not allowed to ride the lift back to London due to getting a zero, but he jumps onto another lift instead. What follows is a slightly creepy poem recited by a mysterious girl on a small monitor on one of the lift walls, after which the lift descends rapidly as the head of the Smiler in the lift spins to reveal blood red eyes and an angry, snarling mouth before the floor opens to drop Timmy into what appears to be a fiery pit.

Let me stop here for a moment to address the Smilers. One of the things I think Doctor Who has done especially well over the years is crafting villains and creatures that are simple but very much evil and/or surprisingly creepy, and the Smilers certainly fit into the 'creepy' category. Am I saying that they scared me? Not at all. But I can appreciate the creepiness in the fact that, when you think their heads only have two relatively normal faces, they suddenly turn around and reveal that they somehow have another one that you simply know would really freak you out if you saw it in person. It's like the Weeping Angels from the Series 3 episode "Blink" and the upcoming "The Time of Angels" and "Flesh and Stone". The concept is so simple: Extremely fast creatures with a taste for killing (though "killing" might not be an entirely correct term), but with the weakness that instantly turns them to stone the moment anyone looks at them, meaning that as long as someone is looking at them, you're safe. But that means that there cannot be a moment when someone is not looking at them, and you cannot even blink. THAT is frankly incredibly creepy, and WORKED as a concept.

Back to things...we then get to see a light-hearted moment of the Doctor holding Amy by the ankle as she floats outside the TARDIS doors in the middle of space. Afterwards, she somehow ends up outside the TARDIS again, except now holding onto the ship for dear life, and that's when we first spot the huge ship carrying all of the UK except for Scotland. The Doctor explains to Amy that they never get involved in the affairs of the people living wherever and whenever they land (I'd like to call bullshit right now, please), before slipping out unnoticed by Amy until she sees him bump into the crying Mandy on the screen. Amy and the Doctor then wander through the hall they've landed in, with the Doctor telling Amy to be more perceptive about everything around her, meanwhile testing a few random things. The Doctor observes: 1.) There is no characteristic rumbling in the floors that would be felt if there were engines propelling the ship, 2.) Nobody is comforting the upset Mandy because they all likely know why she's crying to begin with, and 3.) People are making actual efforts to stay away from the Smiler booths. The Doctor sends Amy off to follow Mandy while he does what he "always does: stay out of trouble...badly". (That's more like it!) Meanwhile a man in robes alerts a grey-haired man in a control room somewhere about the Doctor's actions, and he alerts a woman, clad in red and carrying a mask.

Amy follows Mandy (who knew she was being followed by Amy and the Doctor due to the four clumsy attempts by the Doctor to get Mandy's wallet by bumping into her and the fact that they were watching her in the station), and ends up not only getting attacked by a strange, stinger-like appendage coming from a hole in the floor covered by a tent but also being taken away by more people in robes. Meanwhile the Doctor meets the woman who was alerted to his presence, who introduces herself as "Liz 10" and points out that he knew to check for the rumble of engines by setting a glass of water on the floor, confirming that there cannot be traditional engines propelling the ship. We return to Amy, who is in a room where she's informed that she will be told the truth behind what is happening, with the choice to "Protest" or "Forget". We don't actually get to see what the truth is yet, but in a wonderful bit of foreshadowing, we're flashed forward to the moment after Amy hits the "Forget" button, which is when she watches a video she recorded before hitting the button, frantically insisting that she take the Doctor and get him off the ship before he can investigate too much further. She's then joined by the Doctor, who hits the "Protest" button, sending them falling down the same sort of hole in the floor as Timmy. They end up in a gigantic mouth, and after some physical comedy involving their escape, they find themselves in a hallway with a door that only allows them to select "Forget" in order to open it, and at the other end, we see two Smilers actually leave their booths, increasing their creepy factor, but the door opens, revealing Liz 10 and Mandy. Liz 10 pulls a gun and shoots both Smilers.

It's at this point that Doctor Who continues to show it's great love of continuity. Liz 10 reveals herself to know of the Doctor, and reveals that she is, in fact, Queen Elizabeth the Tenth, making several cracks about past events involving the royal family (referencing the Doctor being knighted AND exiled in the same day by Queen Victoria in "Tooth and Claw", being chased by Elizabeth the First's men in "The Shakespeare Code", and apparently marrying Elizabeth the First prior to the events of "The End of Time"), which I thought were excellent. The Doctor and Amy are taken to the Queen's chambers for fresh clothing, before more men in robes appear and insist on everyone coming with them. It is of course at this moment that we find out that at least one of the men is also a Smiler, as out of nowhere his head spins to the creepy Smiler face and informs the Queen that they are acting under her orders. They are taken to the "Tower of London", the lowest point on the ship, where the Doctor and Queen are outraged to find that the ship is actually flying on the back of a massive "Star Whale", which is being tortured with electrical blasts to it's exposed brain to keep it moving. The Queen then learns that she undergoes essentially the same procedure as her people every ten years, learning of the truth and then being given the choice to "Forget" and allow everything to continue as normal, or "Abdicate" and free the Star Whale, destroying the ship in the process. The Doctor knows that Amy was trying to keep him from reaching this point and having to make such a difficult moral decision, and becomes very much enraged, finally showing what appears to be a hint of Sixth Doctor ("Nobody talk to me. No human has anything to say to me today!"), and even goes so far as to threaten to take Amy home immediately when the situation is resolved.

And here is yet another thing that makes Doctor Who such a strong show at times: Moral decisions that are not as simple as being black or white. We see them all the time. The Doctor has to choose between different outcomes where not everyone can be happy. The Eleventh Doctor finds himself with three tough choices: Allow the innocent Star Whale to continue being tortured for human survival, force the Queen to abdicate and save the Whale at the cost of all the human lives on the ship, or deliver a mercy killing to the Whale, killing it but ending it's suffering and allowing the humans to continue living. And at this point, we see Amy already growing as a character, noticing the Whale's tender treatment of the children and piecing it together with the bits of story given by the Queen's associate, Hawthorne, about the Whale's refusal to eat children. She realizes that one of the choices will have different results than expected, and forces the Queen to abdicate. But, instead of the Whale leaving and the ship being destroyed, the Whale moves faster. Amy reveals that, much like the Doctor, the Whale was the last of it's race and, witnessing the tragedy of solar flares destroying the Earth, couldn't bear to see the human children in such a situation and had actually volunteered itself to the humans, negating the need for the torture. The episode ends with the Doctor and Any reconciling, and with Amy about to tell the Doctor about the wedding set for the day after she left in the TARDIS, but she's interrupted by a phone call from Winston Churchill, asking the Doctor for help, with the silhouette of a Dalek in the background.

Overall, the episode felt rushed, but was still quite good. I have to wonder why Timmy was dropped into the mouth of the Whale simply because he rode a lift after getting a zero in class. But the episode was still filled with some great quotes and humor, some character development, and more of Moffat's creepy creations. Plus, it did have a certain "Classic series" feel to it, with the reduced emphasis on action and a greater emphasis on problem solving. As much as I'll definitely miss Tennant as the Doctor, I certainly think I could get used to Matt Smith's version.

I may write up a review of "Victory of the Daleks" in the next day or two, but I'm not sure. I've got a few things in my head I'd like to write about, so it'll be a battle of priorities.