The Beast Below is the second episode of Series 5 of Doctor
Who after the 2005 reboot with Matt Smith as the Doctor and Karen Gillan
gracing our screens as his companion Amy Pond. Though this was Smith’s second
episode as the Doctor I think it is the episode where you really got to know
the Doctor he would turn out to be. The first episode of the series showed off
the Doctor’s playful gleeful side, his determination and the power of his mind,
this second episode shows his compassion and understanding but most of all his
anger.
The Beast Below, both beautiful and heart-breaking at the
same time, finds the Doctor and Amy exploring the space ship that houses the
entire population of the United Kingdom as it stood the day they fled the earth
and its burning sun.
This episode introduces some sinister looking androids that
appear to be terrorising the people of the British space centre. These ‘Smilers’
put you in mind of an old fashioned carnival freak show, they’re mounted in
booths where they watch the citizens checking for rule breakers and
underachievers. The smilers have rotating heads each with an expression more
hideous than the last showing varying degrees of anger and when an unruly
citizen is located the smilers can climb from their booths to apprehend them.
Though not very pretty to look at the smilers aren’t all
that scary, they can do no more to you than any human can and in reality they
are merely a security system used to maintain the peace, they are not the real villains
of this story. The true villain is humanity itself.
The plight of the last Star Whale is the nucleus of this adventure;
she is a beautiful, hypnotic creature of magnificent size that has been captured
by the people of the UK. A ship has been built around her and she has been
tortured via shockwaves to keep her swimming through space saving the people
from their burning sun. This story explores the concepts of cruelty,
desperation and ignorance in a very real and relevant way as we learn of this
tragic truth and it is here that we learn just what the eleventh Doctor is made
of.
When the doctor learns of what the humans have done his
anger is overwhelming, he finds himself once again with the choice between
wiping out one race or another, destroying the very last of an ancient and
beautiful species or wiping out thousands of men women and children. Furious
with humanity and all that it stands for the Doctor makes his decision telling
Amy that he will be taking her home as soon as he is finished. It takes quick
thinking from Amy’s un-blinkered view of the world to realise that the Star
whale would have helped the people of Britain even if they hadn’t forced it to
because it, like the Doctor, couldn’t stand to hear a child cry.
A beautiful touching story about kindness and selflessness
that reminds the Doctor that he isn’t perfect and sometimes he isn’t the
cleverest man in the room.
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