Another new episode of Doctor Who! Oh, how lucky are we? Doctor Who on air is one of my favorite times of the year, and I can honestly barely wait in between episodes.
This week, we have “The Beast Below” – a dark little episode which puts the new Doctor and Amy Pond on their first real adventure away from Earth. With the mad Matt Smith laying the ground rules for how his life as the Doctor will be, as well as Karen Gillan running around in her night gown for the entirety of the episode, how does it pan out?
Let’s find out:
In this episode, the Doctor and Amy arrive on a futuristic dystopian Starship UK, a space ship that contains the entirety of the British population floating through the galaxy searching for a new home. For those that remember the excellent film Sunshine, imagine that this would be the result of the story if they hadn’t managed to reignite the sun at the end. The only problem is, however, that a very curious and strict regime runs the population, surrounded by EXCESSIVELY creepy (but very fitting for Who) statues called “Smilers.” The Smilers sit in Zoltar boxes and contain three moods – happy, annoyed, and angry, all expressed by a very eerie turn of the head. As the Doctor and Amy move through out the Starship UK, they discover a rather twisted moral dilemma laying at the bottom of it.
This is another solid episode in an already promising run, and it’s just the second episode. The madness of the Doctor is a bit toned down, but Matt Smith’s portrayal of the character is still great. Smith has definitely made this character his own and it’s a much whackier departure from Tennant, that’s for sure. I believe I said something like this in my previous review of Who, but where Tennant is Brad Pitt from 7 Years In Tibet, Smith is Brad Pitt from 12 Monkeys. He just has such a great way of bringing a large element of comedy into his portrayal which, under the oddest of moments (like being vomited out of a giant creature) , become great comic relief. On top of that, Smith shows that he understands the complexity of the Doctor where, by the end of the episode, we see the first notion of his “dark side” when a difficult conundrum is placed at his feet.
Meanwhile, Karen Gillan’s Amy Pond is a bit less endearing in this episode. While Amy Pond is still a great character, her role as the companion is a bit less charming and a bit more clueless. She’s not as good at taking action as others have been, and especially at the end of the episode seemed a bit more apt to apologize and ask for direction than take action. This statement is, of course, challenged by her final triumphant move, but for a large part of the episode, she seemed stagnant. Another thing that I feel odd about Amy Pond is that she seems fairly dumb in comparison with the other companions. What I mean by this is – most of the other companions seemed to understand the idea of their space/time travel, and Amy doesn’t. She spends a large part of the episode wondering what it is that happened in her past without realizing that she’s wondering about her future. She wants to know what she does on her wedding day, yet she doesn’t get the basic time travel logic of it not having happened yet. This obviously seems to be playing towards a plot thread that will exist throughout the entirety of the show and her and the Doctor’s relationship, but it just seems odd.
Moffat once again writes this episode, though, and he keeps up the same styles that I’ve always enjoyed his writing for. He appears to have an affinity for snake/tentacle alien monsters this season, but that’s alright. The cool thing about Doctor Who is it has always taken unique angles in the idea of it’s villains and antagonists, and the Smilers (alongside the Blink aliens) are a great addition to the mythos. They were hideously creepy. On top of that, this episode showed a great balance between humor and heart. An important thing about the Doctor is that the character has a heart the size of the universe, and Moffat seems to understand his love of all living things. The final scene where Smith rambles about needing a new name was great, and it gives me more faith in Moffat already. The end definitely got an emotional reaction from me, and I’m once again left counting down the days until I can watch a new episode.
Of course, the odd thing about Moffat is that – as far as continuing arcs go – he is far less subtle about it. Those who have watched the previous four seasons of Who are familiar with the little clues hidden throughout each episode that don’t reveal themselves until somewhere in the last three episodes of the season (such as Bad Wolf and Harry Saxon). However, the big notion of the first episode was the odd crack in the wall, and this episode takes a moment to zoom into a crack on the Starship UK, and instead of it being a slow and ominous zoom, it’s practically a jump cut, throwing the pace of the final scene off. This is probably the only thing I’m a bit concerned with because, as much as I like this “crack in reality” idea that they’ve got going on, I prefer the subtle touch of flyer posters in the background, or simply the words Bad Wolf spray painted on the walls. It’s a much creatively subtle way to move the show along.
Never the less, “The Beast Below” is another great episode of Doctor Who. We’re two episodes in, but I’m already a fanboy of this season. For those still not on the Doctor Who bandwagon, I highly implore you to jump in now while the getting’s good.
