The Beast Below
- Episode aired Apr 24, 2010
- TV-PG
- 42m
IMDb RATING
7.6/10
7.5K
YOUR RATING
The Doctor takes Amy to the future inside Starship UK, which contains in addition to British explorers, an intimidating race known as the Smilers.The Doctor takes Amy to the future inside Starship UK, which contains in addition to British explorers, an intimidating race known as the Smilers.The Doctor takes Amy to the future inside Starship UK, which contains in addition to British explorers, an intimidating race known as the Smilers.
Chris Porter
- Smilers
- (voice)
- …
Ruari Mears
- Smiler
- (uncredited)
- Directors
- Andrew Gunn
- Euros Lyn(uncredited)
- Writers
- Steven Moffat
- Sydney Newman(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWhen Amy and Mandy arrive at the "hole", a sign can be seen above the workman's tent that says "Magpie Electricals", a company crucial to the plot of The Idiot's Lantern (2006).
- GoofsAfter Amy wakes up in the chair and the computer verifies her identity, the display shows "Age: 1,308", but the voice announces "Age: 1,306".
- ConnectionsFeatured in Doctor Who Confidential: All About the Girl (2010)
- SoundtracksDoctor Who Theme
(uncredited)
Written by Ron Grainer
Arranged by Murray Gold
Performed by BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Featured review
The Beast of Believability
This is decent TV entertainment but for Doctor Who it is not on the level of the usually high standards imo, it just falls a bit flat for me.
On the plus side there are some good aspects of character based drama and emotion and Matt Smith does a great job as the 11th Doctor showing depth and range as well as being amusing.
There are things I find problematic though:
Amy Pond is a good character with a very good actress Karen Gillan making her really engaging in the previous episode. But personally I am not so keen on an aspect of how Amy is written in this episode (which is an issue that returns in later episodes). I find she is presented as too over confident and takes totally reckless actions.
At the start she says she is nervous to help the Doctor as they investigate aboard a huge spacecraft which represents the UK. The Doctor says he perceives oppression and wants to investigate that and the fact he sees evidence suggesting there is no engine powering the ship. Yet by the end when they discover an innocent, endangered, giant creature (a Star Whale) is being tortured and exploited to power the ship Amy makes the snap decision to risk the lives of the millions on board by taking an action without even consulting the Doctor first. It seems a rather unlikely course of action to me as she could easily have told him to stop and explained her theory to him. It just does not quite ring true for me. The Doctor gives up too easily and it just stood out to me as a bit contrived.
The whole premise of the far future retro society with fairground machine dolls ('Smilers') holding people in fear, people voting on whether to forget how the ship is powered or protest and get fed to 'the beast' is ok and a fun concept but is a little bit gimmicky perhaps.
Writer Steven Moffatt himself apparently described this episode as "a mess" and I do feel there are distractingly messily executed aspects such as the whole 'Liz 10' thing which is a bit of a cringe-making, silly aspect I think. It just felt off to me.
There is also a badly done interior of the star whale's mouth where the tongue is clearly a plastic sheet.
These issues knock the score down but I do not wish to overstate the issues as it is not terrible. This episode is pretty fun TV and there is some entertainment and good aspects to enjoy. There are a couple of thoughtful scenes of dialogue and Matt Smith is pretty impressive but it has some silly concepts and I see it as just an acceptable but slightly under par filler.
I rate it as the same score as stories like RTD era's The Long Game or 2nd Doctor future society story The Krotons. They are similar in that they are all in futuristic settings and have good aspects but have other aspects that just didn't convince me or impress me. I find it less fun than Voyage of the Damned but it shares that kind of vibe I think. It is ok.
My Rating: 6.5/10.
On the plus side there are some good aspects of character based drama and emotion and Matt Smith does a great job as the 11th Doctor showing depth and range as well as being amusing.
There are things I find problematic though:
Amy Pond is a good character with a very good actress Karen Gillan making her really engaging in the previous episode. But personally I am not so keen on an aspect of how Amy is written in this episode (which is an issue that returns in later episodes). I find she is presented as too over confident and takes totally reckless actions.
At the start she says she is nervous to help the Doctor as they investigate aboard a huge spacecraft which represents the UK. The Doctor says he perceives oppression and wants to investigate that and the fact he sees evidence suggesting there is no engine powering the ship. Yet by the end when they discover an innocent, endangered, giant creature (a Star Whale) is being tortured and exploited to power the ship Amy makes the snap decision to risk the lives of the millions on board by taking an action without even consulting the Doctor first. It seems a rather unlikely course of action to me as she could easily have told him to stop and explained her theory to him. It just does not quite ring true for me. The Doctor gives up too easily and it just stood out to me as a bit contrived.
The whole premise of the far future retro society with fairground machine dolls ('Smilers') holding people in fear, people voting on whether to forget how the ship is powered or protest and get fed to 'the beast' is ok and a fun concept but is a little bit gimmicky perhaps.
Writer Steven Moffatt himself apparently described this episode as "a mess" and I do feel there are distractingly messily executed aspects such as the whole 'Liz 10' thing which is a bit of a cringe-making, silly aspect I think. It just felt off to me.
There is also a badly done interior of the star whale's mouth where the tongue is clearly a plastic sheet.
These issues knock the score down but I do not wish to overstate the issues as it is not terrible. This episode is pretty fun TV and there is some entertainment and good aspects to enjoy. There are a couple of thoughtful scenes of dialogue and Matt Smith is pretty impressive but it has some silly concepts and I see it as just an acceptable but slightly under par filler.
I rate it as the same score as stories like RTD era's The Long Game or 2nd Doctor future society story The Krotons. They are similar in that they are all in futuristic settings and have good aspects but have other aspects that just didn't convince me or impress me. I find it less fun than Voyage of the Damned but it shares that kind of vibe I think. It is ok.
My Rating: 6.5/10.
helpful•49
- A_Kind_Of_CineMagic
- May 19, 2014
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Filming locations
- Neath Abbey, West Glamorgan, Wales, UK(Tower of London)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime42 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 16:9 HD
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