Read on Twitter
The Beast Below is a very interesting episode to revisit. Despite Moffat calling it in February 2013 "a bit of a mess" and his least-favourite episode among those he wrote for the show, I think it's aged rather well in retrospect.
I mean, in 2010 the idea that Britain would just pack up and leave everything to get on a spaceship might have seemed purely the realm of science-fiction.
After 2016, it seems a lot closer to home.
After 2016, it seems a lot closer to home.
Similarly, Beast revolves around a population who are wilfully blind every election, and vote to continue a shameful system of torture and injustice by simply forgetting about it, rather than actually confronting the issues.
Hmmmm...
Hmmmm...
Obviously, Moffat couldn't have foreseen the election of Trump or Brexit, but that just makes the whole thing even better.
What was once a kind of middling affair becomes a whole lot more prescient with the benefit of hindsight.
What was once a kind of middling affair becomes a whole lot more prescient with the benefit of hindsight.
"You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets, unless there's children crying?"
The Moffat Era's focus on children returns, with both the Doctor and the Star Whale doing what they do for the sake of the children.
The Moffat Era's focus on children returns, with both the Doctor and the Star Whale doing what they do for the sake of the children.
Indeed, the episode even makes the recurring nature of this theme explicit by including footage of the Doctor in seven-year-old Amy's house in 1996 from The Eleventh Hour in Amy's montage of revelation.
This theme will run even beyond the Eleventh Doctor, into the final speech from Twelve:
"If their hearts are in the right place, and the stars are too, children can hear your name."
"If their hearts are in the right place, and the stars are too, children can hear your name."
"All that pain and misery and loneliness, and it just made it kind."
This also ties into the Twelfth Doctor's assertion that he does what he does "because it's kind..."
This also ties into the Twelfth Doctor's assertion that he does what he does "because it's kind..."
but it's also a really nice affirmation that you can have horrible, painful things happen to you, and still help others.
"I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can. And then I find a new name, because I won't be the Doctor anymore."
Again, semi-foreshadowing of the idea from Series 7 and The Day of the Doctor that "Doctor" isn't just a title or a name, it's an ethos.
Again, semi-foreshadowing of the idea from Series 7 and The Day of the Doctor that "Doctor" isn't just a title or a name, it's an ethos.
And the idea of the Doctor as a flawed individual is repeated again.
In The Eleventh Hour we had his inadvertent abandonment of and false promise to Amy, as well as his treating her as a puzzle to be solved.
In The Eleventh Hour we had his inadvertent abandonment of and false promise to Amy, as well as his treating her as a puzzle to be solved.
Here, what we get is rather more alarming. He's prepared to turn the Star Whale into a vegetable, albeit reluctantly.
It's only Amy who figures out the full picture in time, and it's Amy who saves the day. Which is the ideal situation for a companion's first proper story.
It's only Amy who figures out the full picture in time, and it's Amy who saves the day. Which is the ideal situation for a companion's first proper story.
All this isn't to say The Beast Below doesn't have problems, mind.
While Sophie Okonedo (she who formerly played Alison in Scream of the Shalka) is great as Liz 10, the other characters are kind of neglected.
While Sophie Okonedo (she who formerly played Alison in Scream of the Shalka) is great as Liz 10, the other characters are kind of neglected.
Hawthorne, for instance, only has eight lines in the episode, despite being a pretty important person in the whole "imprisoned Star Whale" plot.
The Smilers are also somewhat underused, although effectively realised.
The Smilers are also somewhat underused, although effectively realised.
Also, despite being introduced as being really distraught over Timmy's "death," Mandy gets over it pretty quickly. Maybe they were trying to illustrate how normal it is in this society to have friends and family just disappear, but it felt weird nonetheless.
