The Beast Below

Well, what can we say, a solid episode, great acting from the cast but for me the direction lacked something... our new production team settling in still?

Certainly some positives, with a strong storyline, a welcome improvement from previous seasons, although suffering slighly from lack of time to explore the complex ideas presented, but it somehow lacked dramatic impact. Perhaps I spoiled it for myself, by having already gathered enough information on the episode to put most of the plot toether!

I liked the last Star Whale concept, but couldn't help wondering what those sharp pointy teeth where for. Or those 'tendrils' whilch kept popping up, which I think had been visualised poorly.


One of my little pet hates are aliens which seam to break concepts of evolutionary biology, and whilst I can stretch to inter-planetary 'Star Whales', the teeth just made me cringe. Why would a space dwelling organism need teeth? Are there bigger things out there that they eat? Would it not have been better for it to be a filter-feeder, just like our oceanic whales?

I also didn't buy the concept of the whole UK nation being on the starship. A city, perhaps (I'm sure we can all imagine Liverpool or Manchester being left beind on Earth), but for the whole UK nation to have had no evacuation plan seams a little shortsighted. Surely we would have come up with something? Or perhaps the national debt got too much and we couldn't afford anything. And again, the visual representation just didn't do it for me, not being nearly big enough in scale or imagination to carry the concept. From the size of Starship UK I'm a bit worried about our future gene pool and inbreeding.

Another worrying trend is that the Doctor is again recognised, by Liz Ten, and then called at the end of the episode by his 'old friend' Winston Churchill. And as we know, we still have the return of River Song, Daleks, Wheeping Angels and Silurians to come. Is our new Doctor going to be recognised wherever he goes? I hope not, I prefer it when we forget all this super hero stuff.


So, whilst I enjoyed the show, I'm gonna give it a pessamistic 6/10, with hopes for improvement - perhaps even a mention of tea - in the next episode.

The BBC official website has all the usual photo galleries and stuff, including online viewing (if your in the UK!), as well as the odd production images which I find interesting.