‘Doctor Who’ Season 5 Episode 2 ‘The Beast Below’ Recap
As a long-time ‘Doctor Who‘ fan, let me begin by saying that while this week’s episode wasn’t quite as good as last week’s, it was still pretty darn good. Matt Smith is very quickly adjusting to his role as the Doctor and Amy Pond is proving herself to be a good match for him and every bit as capable, particularly given her role at the end of the episode.
All this being said, I felt as if the writing of the episode (by ‘Doctor Who’ showrunner Steven Moffat) wasn’t up to his usual standard of excellence. Also, Moffat suffers from the burden of creating too many great villains, as the latest ones weren’t quite as scary as the previous ones. More detailed and spoiler-ific criticism after the jump.
Let me start the criticism with the Smilers. I didn’t understand exactly what exactly they were supposed to be. Were they robots or cyborgs? Did they represent the police of an authoritative state? Where did the third face (the “mean” one) come from? While ‘Doctor Who’ is supposed to be geared towards children, it’s usually fairly intelligent children that are the target audience. Moffat’s previous two monster creations (the Weeping Angels and the Vashta Narada) were incredibly scary and had enough elements of realism to even make me use the nightlight when going to bed. The Smilers just seemed silly.
Then we have the Star Whale, which was the “beast” of the title. While the basic story of the episode was a good concept, there were unexplained details. What was the purpose of the scorpion tail protrusions out of the Star Whale’s skin? Were they to sweep bits of meteor rock off the skin? They seemed a convenient plot device without explanation of their function. Also, what did the residents of Starship UK eat? Whale blubber? There were cafes and eateries on the ship, but where do they keep the farms for the cows and vegetables and whatnot? And what about a water supply? If anybody has answers for these questions, please leave them in the comments.
It seemed odd that everybody that voted “protest” would be fed to the Star Whale. Social satire has a long tradition in ‘Doctor Who’ and I simply accept it as Moffat’s euphemism for the things people ignore as the cost of maintaining a society.
Despite all this, there were many enjoyable elements of the episode. The Doctor and Amy were fun to watch, both individually and interactively. I liked the revelation of Liz 10’s identity. For those who follow all incarnations of ‘Doctor Who’, the solar flares making the Earth uninhabitable in the 29th century was a plot point of the classic episode ‘The Ark in Space,’ so Moffat and company are still trying to follow ‘Doctor Who’ continuity, such as it is.
This episode was still better thought out science-wise than your average Russell T. Davies episode. We also have the continuing mystery of the cracks in the universe, which seem to be following Amy around.
Watch ‘The Beast Below’ Episode Online
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