Doctor Who: The Beast Below

[eve11]

Interesting. I think this episode aimed higher than it managed; it was entertaining but it seems like it wanted to be longer. Like it would have been better as an Old school 4x25 romp. Perhaps I will have to re-watch it to get my full feelings about it.

Things I liked:

Liz 10 was cool. And she is apparently the actress who plays Alison Cheney in Scream of the Shalka, which is doubly cool. I like her as the Action!Queen, and I like her giving the Doctor the rundown on stories about him from "the family", ha!

The Doctor never interferes? What? Since when?

I like Amy's character in this episode; she's quite plucky and seems very much like an Old School companion, running about and getting into trouble. In her nightie, which is, well, different.

I like the "Protest:Forget" buttons, and the glass of water on the deck. The visuals were pretty cool in this ep; the juxtaposition of old and new technology kind of reminded me of City of Lost Children.

The Doctor is much less manic in this episode, and seems to be settling down into a very Professorial kind of personality-- very much more Troughton in this episode I think, from what I've seen of Troughton. It's... different, but I think I will get used to it.

Loved the Doctor and Amy's conversation in the voting room-- "it doesn't register me as human", and the look she gives him. Also loved how it said she was 3000 years old and her reaction to that.

Winston Churchill on the phone, ha! But it really was a bit too "cute" of a teaser, I think. Also, there's another crack in the world, I see. They stopped trying to be subtle about these clues after Bad Wolf, didn't they?




Nitpicks and Things What Bugged me a Bit:

So...it's a benevolent Space Whale that nonetheless eats protesters. Um. If it's smart enough to come to the aid of crying kids as a volunteer, why wouldn't it be smart enough to... you know, talk to some protestors or something? I suppose since it's been in agony for a while it can't really think straight.

The whole heavy-handed metaphor of Doctor = Space Whale bothered me. Like, I really don't want to think of the Doctor as a giant space whale. Not at all. I think the whole revelation of this plotline/resolution was what made me think this needed to be a longer story. It was (dare I say) a bit clunkily crafted in an otherwise subtle albeit swift episode.

Liz 10 was way cool but apparently also set up a police state complete with creepifying smilers and a "flush the protesters into the belly of the beast" clause. Even if she doesn't remember it!

It seemed to me that this episode would have been better suited for later in the series' run. Amy and the new Doctor barely know each other in this episode but suddenly at the end they are almost a platonic OTP.

I think I almost automatically assumed the Space whale had shown up on its own to help out, which is why maybe the reveal didn't grab me so much. I think this is because of the timing/pacing of the episode.

And think of it, ten minutes ago (last week) the Doctor was all "Amy Pond, the girl who waited, you've waited long enough" and now not a half-hour later or so (she's still in her nightie), he's like "You're going home!". Yeah, I think that's settled into a personality a bit TOO quickly.

Anyway, I'm going to watch it again, see whether I like it more or less the second time around. I want to like it more. I think it had a lot of good ideas, though perhaps too many good ideas, that were quite cool and visually interesting, but that didn't really gel together into a gripping tale.

Comments

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

I think I'd agree with you on just about all of the above points - there was a lot to like here, but it could have done with being a two-parter, and there were a couple of real head-scratching moments. All in all, I was prepared to be blown away after last week's very likeable intro, but this just didn't quite do it for me, and I'm sad about that... I find myself, like you, wanting to like this more, because I WANT Eleven to be a runaway success and make the hardcore no-Doctor-but-Ten lobby eat their words, DAMMIT! :D

Still, next week - Winston Churchill and Daleks, and Spitfires in SPAACCE... and Bill Patterson seems to be in it too. What can possibly go wrong?!

[eve11]

I hope they are still just ironing out the kinks. I really hope that Moffatt isn't sacrificing character to cram too much creepy plot into an episode. This just really seemed like it should have been about a year into their travels. Seriously, I'm pretty sure Amy has NO IDEA how old the Doctor is--why would she of all people peg him as the vast 'ancient and forever' guy? he's just a time-traveler who halped her out and then kept disappearing on her.

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

I was struck by how the Doctor seemed to be trying to convince himself he wasn't going to interfere.... ;)

The reaction he had to Amy made me ponder how he might see Amelia the child at the same time he was seeing Amy the adult. A bit like a double exposure. And if that would drive home how she's embedded in time while he skates over it. Er...hopefully that makes sense.

For me the episode had the flavor of some scifi stories I grew up with. So it packed a punch for me in that way. Not sure how else to articulate that, will ponder and watch again.

[eve11]

lol, and astrogirl2 was reminiscing fondly about Farscape what with the vomit and space whales. I actually liked that sequence very much :D I think they did the little things right in this episode but got the bigger things wrong. which is odd for Teh Moff, I believe.

There's still a pool of writers for this series, right? Or were they all penned by Moffat?

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

I think the credits said Moffat. Hmm....I wonder what he's got planned for the season.

And also wondering how they process the development of each episode, who's got what input etc. :)

[kay-brooke.livejournal.com]

This episode seemed a bit like it was trying too hard, and I couldn't get much of a handle on the Doctor's behavior. Maybe it seemed like it was one that should have come later in the season? I don't know.

I love pretty much every scene between the Doctor and Amy. They're fabulous together.

[eve11]

Yeah, I think I feel the same way. Loved the character conversations, but less the anvilicious comparisons of the doctor to the star whale, especially since Amy has very little actual knowledge of the doctor's history. why would she make that comparison, now of all times?

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

It was, as you say, an interesting episode.

I don't really feel like the Doctor's settled into a personality so much as still trying them on to see what fits. The whole 'You're going home' bit seemed a lot like Nine. He said pretty much the same thing to Rose in Father's Day, when he was freaking out, and then once things calmed down he forgave her. And then the whole "nobody human talks to me today" bit sounded a lot like Ten whenever he freaked out, especially in the later seasons, being all melodramatic and bipolar.

I think we've had a few glimpses of who Eleven is going to be, ('Ah, the next word is kind of a scary word. You probably want to take a moment, get yourself into a calm place. Go oohmmm.') and I like those glimpses. I just can't tell if it's the writing, Matt Smith's acting choices or some combination of the two that make this Doctor so referential to his previous selves.

Anyway, I agree it would have been better if it had been allowed to develop a little more slowly, in a two-parter later in the season. That whole business of Amy knowing how the Doctor would respond to the Space Whale and trying to prevent it from happening struck me as implausible when she's only known him for a few hours, in one particular situation.

What I really loved, though, was that after all the Doctor's blather about seeing the details to put the picture together, Amy turned out to be rather better at it than him, and she was the one to save the day while he was dithering around being, once again, all melodramatic and "I'll have to change my name after this because I won't be the Doctor anymore." I wonder if this sulkiness is going to be a permanent part of Eleven's personality. It's not terribly attractive, but I like my Doctor flawed.

[eve11]

I thought even his shouty rant in the tower was actually quite Two-ish; seemed like it was less because he was angry at the people around him and more because he was frustrated and sad. In that sense it wasn't the usual righteous indignation you got from Ten; it was something different. But that was just my reading of it.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

Well, considering I've maybe, maybe seen one episode with Two, I'll bow to your expertise on his personality. :)