Mark Watches ‘Doctor Who’: S05E02 – The Beast Below

In the second episode of the fifth series of Doctor Who, the Doctor and Amy travel to the 29^th century and find that Britain has become a colony spaceship. Upon learning that people are mysteriously disappearing, though, the two become involved in a heartbreaking series of events. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Doctor Who.

What really intrigues me about Amy Pond as a companion is that her troubled history is not only completely acknowledged by Moffat, but it’s entirely caused by the Doctor. I commented in my last review that I was interested in the concept of meeting the Doctor’s companion when she was so young, but in “The Beast Below,” we get to see the two of them working off of this knowledge and interacting more as a team.

This episode starts off beautifully, with the Doctor holding Amy as she floats out in space. I don’t think a single Doctor before this would do such a thing, and I think, like this and other moments to come, Matt Smith’s Doctor seems all the more playful, willing to entertain moments of fancy and joy. We’ll get to what that ultimately means, as Amy spells it out, but I feel that it’s going to be very hard not to enjoy this new Doctor’s infectious persona.

Starship UK also presents us with a fascinating idea about Earth’s future. Deadly flares caused the people of Earth to seek a new place to live, becoming immigrants in a way, always moving. I loved the joke that Scotland chose to use a separate speaceship as well. A floating spaceship that’s an entire country. I LOVE IT. I love the small details, like the different parts of the country labeled with bright neon signs. (I saw Surrey a lot in many of the shots.)

This setting is still surprisingly claustrophobic, despite its size, and Moffat’s own personal stamp of terror is all over “The Beast Below” because of it. But it’s not just a clever use of the set that helps give an unsettling vibe to this story. The Smilers are REALLY NOT MY FAVORITE THING EVER. How does this man keep doing this? How does he know precisely what to exploit to make my stomach hurt with anxiety? We all know those fortune teller dolls in carnivals and arcades are some of the creepiest things on the planet, but here, they are signs of imminent disaster. THEY HAVE A THIRD FACE. How is that even goddamn possible.

I worried that this would be another CREEPY CHILD episode, but oh good lord, I was never prepared for how unendingly depressing this ends up being. The Doctor is so incredibly talkative in this version of the character, and it’s almost impossible to follow along if you’re not giving these episodes your full attention. But Amy is quick to devote her mind and focus to this new friend of hers, though she did seem a bit irritated that the Doctor was giving her tasks to do while he went off on his own adventures.

What Amy finds is alternately horrifying and confusing. She goes after Mandy, a young girl who they observed crying silently out in public, where she learns that Mandy lost her friend to what she called “the beast below,” referencing the cold open of the show. (Yeah, an elevator with a floor that slides out and drops a kid into a pit of orange mystery. Ok, no. Just no. Thank you for even more nightmare fuel, Moffat.) What is living under this spacestation? Why do kids get sent down there if they get a “zero”? Amy doesn’t discover the answers to this, but she does do a little seeking of her own. I love how she seems to have no fear about breaking open the lock on the tent that she finds with Mandy. She’ll be a good fit for the Doctor at this rate, as everything else that happens to her still doesn’t scare her off. I mean…she discovers a TENTACLE INSIDE THE HOLE. A TENTACLE. And then those weird dudes in robes gas her and kidnap her and SHE’S STILL TOTALLY ON BOARD WITH ALL OF THIS.

This could have been just a simple monster-of-the-week story, but what happens to Amy right after this catapults a pretty familiar trope into something truly unbelievable. Amy wakes up in a room with a bunch of TV screens, a set of white buttons, and a video begins to play. Every adult on board the Starship UK gets to vote after watching a video about the origins of their ship. They have two choices: protest the reality, or choose to forget everything they’ve seen. Amy initially finds this quite silly, until the video begins to play and a vast selection of images flashes before her. Her eyes quickly well with tears and without a moment of hesistation, she chooses to forget. The video had to have been THAT terrifying to her. She even takes a moment to record a video to warn the Doctor that he needs to get off this ship as soon as possible.

When the Doctor arrived, Amy has forgotten what she’s seen, but she doesn’t show the Doctor the video she just made either. Ever the curious one, he decides it’s probably best to hit the “Protest” button, which sends the two of them INTO THE MOUTH OF THE BEAST BELOW. LITERALLY. (I loved the visual reference to Star Wars here, with a strong resemblance to the trash compacter scene.) So the Starship UK was FEEDING CHILDREN AND PROTESTORS TO THE BEAST? This is a wonderful and joyous community of people that we should model ourselves after.

The two of them manage to escape with the help of Liz 10, who turns out to be the QUEEN. THE QUEEN HERSELF. They still have the monarchy in the 29^th century, everyone. Is that some like super deep commentary or something. Does that anger some of you.

On topic! Are we at all remotely prepared for what happens next? Like even a little bit? YOU MIGHT BE, BUT I WAS NOT EVEN SLIGHTLY PREPARED. The reason the Doctor placed a cup of water on the ground? Because there was no engine vibration. This starship was powered by something other than that engine. When those creepy robe wearing dudes take Liz 10, the Doctor, Amy, and Mandy to the Tower of London (THERE’S A TOWER OF LONDON!!!), basically I watched with my mouth open the entire time. The Starship UK is powered by the beast below. It’s a star whale. And it is the last of its kind. And it suffers from agonizing pain because in order to steer the whale, powerful jolts of electricity are sent directly to the whale’s brains. And its cries of terrifying pain are constantly being hidden, every second of every day.

Liz 10 ordered this, but has her memory wiped every ten years so she doesn’t remember, so she won’t act against the best interests of the citizens. And she created the voting boxes to prevent citizens from acting up themselves. And THIS IS SERIOUSLY FUCKING AWFUL. Holy god, they are exploiting an animal’s entire lifeforce in order to keep them alive.

I was confused by the Doctor’s immediate reaction of rage and disgust at Amy. I understood that the Doctor didn’t like being out of the loop, but Amy quite literally forgot what she had seen. She didn’t maliciously keep this information from him. It’s just unfortunate how the Doctor had been through this situation before, where he had to choose between letting one being survive over others. I get that he would be upset at having to make a decision like this, but I feel he unfairly assigns all the blame to her. I mean…LIZ 10 DID IT. YOU SHOULD BE MAD AT HER, DUDE.

Conversely, though, this is why I love that Amy is the one to figure it out, as a way for her to prove to the Doctor that she is not this person he is making her out to be. Yes, the parallel is so directly spelled out that it’s beyond obvious. But two creatures, the last of their kind, do whatever they can do to help those that cannot. To watch Amy fly into action like she does in “The Beast Below” is just fantastic, and I’m glad we’ve got a companion who, right at the beginning of the series, can be at the same level as the Doctor.

I already love this series SO MUCH. Oh god, CAN APRIL 23 GET HERE SOON SO I DON’T HAVE TO WAIT TOO LONG AFTER I CATCH UP.

Oh wait WINSTON CHURCHILL AND DALKES. A;dskfja a;lksdjf a;sdklfja d;fk a;dkfh a;sklj ak;ldjsf;dfjklsa

THOUGHTS

• “You look human.” “No, you look Timelord. We came first.”
• “In bed above or deep asleep, while greater love lies further deep. This dream must end, this world must know. We all depend on the beast below.” Oh god, Amy Pond, I already love you with the ferocity of a thousand dying suns.
• Ok, like…Karen Gillan and Matt Smith have really attractive faces. It is so distracting.