The Beast Below
Encyclopedia
"The Beast Below" is the second episode of the fifth series
of the British
science fiction
television series Doctor Who
. It was written by showrunner Steven Moffat
and broadcast on BBC One
and BBC HD
on 10 April 2010.
In the episode, the Doctor
—a time travelling
alien played by Matt Smith—and his new companion
Amy Pond
(Karen Gillan
) arrive on the Starship UK, a ship constructed to house the United Kingdom when it abandoned Earth due to harmful solar flares. However, they discover that the government of the ship secretly tortures a Star Whale that guides the ship, the abandoment of which is believed will destroy the ship and kill everyone on board.
The episode, which featured the first time Amy was away from her home world, was designed to show how important she was to the Doctor and his need for a companion. As part of the second production block
of the series, the episode's production took place in the fall of 2009. "The Beast Below" was seen by 8.42 million viewers on BBC One and BBC HD, the fifth most-watched programme in the week it was broadcast. It was met with generally positive to mixed review from critics; many praised the chemistry between Smith and Gillan, but some critics thought that there were too many imaginative concepts that did not make a satisfying conclusion, or that the message of the episode was not as strong as it should have been.
and Amy
arrive on the Starship UK, a colony spaceship containing the population of the United Kingdom (with the exception of Scotland, which has opted for a separated ship) who has left the planet to escape deadly solar flare
s. They come across a crying girl, Mandy, whom all the other adults aboard consciously ignore. The Doctor, having discovered that the ship does not seem to be powered by normal engines, tells Amy to follow Mandy while he explores the engine room. There, he finds the engine controls to be a false front, and encounters a masked woman called Liz 10, who also is aware of the ship's oddness and of the Doctor's identity.
Meanwhile, Amy confronts Mandy, who explains she had lost her friend to the "beast below" after he refused to follow Starship UK rules and ran afoul of the robot-like Smilers that watch over the ship. Amy discovers a tent covering a hole in the ship, which Mandy attempts to dissuade her from exploring. Amy finds a tentacle-like creature reaching up from the pit and quickly backs out of the tent into the monk-like Winders, who police the ship. Amy is taken to one of the many voting booths on the ship, where an automated video explains that each adult votes after being shown the truth of Starship UK. After the video, Amy is given the opportunity to either protest the truth or have the booth make her forget it. Amy chooses to forget, but not before recording a video warning herself to get the Doctor off the ship to show herself after the memory wipe. The Doctor and Mandy arrive; Mandy explains that the voting takes place every five years and everyone chooses to "forget". The Doctor manipulates the booth's equipment and triggers the "protest" sequence, sending him and Amy into the bowels of the ship.
Finding themselves in the mouth of a giant creature, the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver
to make the creature throw them up; with Liz 10's help, they evade the Smilers waiting for them upon their escape. Liz 10 reveals herself to be Queen Elizabeth the Tenth and the Doctor begins to question her age, which she believes is around 50, although her body clock was slowed to retain its youthful appearance. The Winders arrive and take Liz 10, the Doctor, Amy, and Mandy to the Tower of London
, where it is revealed that all of Starship UK rides atop a giant Star Whale that provides the ship's locomotion. The Star Whale, believed to be the last of its kind, arrived at Earth at the time of the solar flares; it was captured and the ship was constructed around it. However, in order to direct the whale, the pain center of its brain has been exposed to receive frequent jolts of electricity. The Winders show Liz 10 that she ordered this, centuries ago, but every ten years she finds her way to the Tower and chooses to have her memory wiped to prevent herself from remembering. She implemented the voting programme to do the same to the population, out of fear that remembering the truth would lead to the populace demanding the whale be freed, destroying the ship and killing everyone aboard.
The Doctor becomes distraught, realizing he has to choose between saving the humans or the Star Whale, and angrily chastises Amy for choosing to forget about the whale so he would not face such a choice. He then decides to alter the controlling device programming to render the Star Whale brain-dead, allowing it to continue through space but no longer feeling the pain. As the Doctor works, Amy sees Mandy has found her friend alive, as the whale refuses to eat children. Amy, considering all she has seen and heard, takes control and uses Liz 10's hand to strike the "abdicate" button that disables the controlling device. To everyone's surprise, this serves to make the whale move faster and does not kill the ship's inhabitants. Amy explains to the Doctor that she saw the similarities between him and the Star Whale, which came willingly to Earth to save the children at the time of crisis. As they return to the TARDIS
, Amy is about to tell the Doctor of her impending wedding when she is interrupted by a call to the TARDIS from Winston Churchill
, who is face-to-face with a Dalek
.
and The Sontaran Experiment
. Liz 10 mentions the Doctor's previous encounters with British monarchs, including Victoria
("Tooth and Claw
"), Elizabeth I
(seen in "The Shakespeare Code
" and referenced in The End of Time
) and Elizabeth II
(Silver Nemesis
). Liz 10 herself is later seen again in "The Pandorica Opens
" guarding a "Royal Collection" of art in the 52nd century. The workman's tent investigated by Amy is in front of a shop called "Magpie Electricals". A shop of the same name is featured in "The Idiot's Lantern
". The episode also continues the story arc
of the crack pattern, where it appears at the end of the episode on the side of the Starship UK.
wrote the episode as an introduction for Amy into the role of the Doctor's companion
. The episode showcases her first adventure away from her home world and her first time in space. The climax of the episode, where the Doctor decides the best thing he can do is kill the Star Whale as painlessly as possible but Amy comes up with an alternative solution that is more human, was designed to stand out in the Doctor's memory as a failure of a huge scale. It also reinforced the Doctor's need for a companion and showed how important Amy would be to him.
"The Beast Below" was in the second production block
of the series. The read-through
for the episode took place 20 August 2009. Scenes set in Liz 10's Buckingham Palace were filmed at Margam Country Park
, Port Talbot
on a night shoot on 22 September 2009. The interior of the orangery
was used as the Palace. The room in the Tower of London where the climax takes place was filmed at Neath Abbey
. The industrial streets of Starship UK were filmed in a disuesed factory in Mamhilad
, with the art department designing it in accordance to Moffat's specific description in the script. Gillan put in some of her own wonder at the set into the scene where Amy admires the street for the first time.
The set for the whale's tongue was challenging for both the art department and the actors. With guidance from the stunt co-ordinator, Smith and Gillan were required to slide down a short slide before dropping six feet. Gillan stated that this was the "most bizzare" moment of filming for her. For the opening scene in which the Doctor holds Amy's ankle while she is suspended in space, Gillan was hoisted on wires above the TARDIS prop in front of a greenscreen while a wind machine created the effects of being in space.
Both Sophie Okonedo
and Terence Hardiman
, who played Liz 10 and government head Hawthorne respectively, both have had experience in Doctor Who related roles. Okonedo previously portrayed Alison Cheney, a companion of the alternate Ninth Doctor
known as the Shalka Doctor
in the online flash-animated serial Scream of the Shalka
. Hardiman later voiced King Sitric in the Big Finish
audio play The Book of Kells.
on 10 April 2010. Unofficial overnight viewing figures stated that 6.4 million viewers watched on BBC One with an additional 330,000 watching a simulcast
on BBC HD
. This meant that the show was the most watched show of the day. When time-shifted figures were added, the viewing figures on BBC One were 7.93 million while BBC HD's ratings rose to 494,000, making the final consolidated figures for the episode 8.42 million. It was the fifth most-watched programme on BBC One for the week ending 11 April 2010 and the 11th for the week across all UK channels. The episode received an Appreciation Index
of 86, considered "excellent".
"The Beast Below" was released in Region 2 on DVD and Blu-ray with the episodes "The Eleventh Hour
" and "Victory of the Daleks
" and special features on 7 June 2010. It was then re-released as part of the complete series five DVD on 8 November 2010.
, awarded the episode five
stars, praising Matt Smith's "mercurial" Doctor, Sophie Okonedo's acting, and the concept of the episode. However, he worried that Moffat "may not be as interested in the Time Lord as the rest of his fans", referring to scene in which the Doctor dismisses the death of his people
as a "bad day". Keith Watson in Metro
praised the developing relationship between the Doctor and Amy. Sam Wollaston in The Guardian
noted the parallels between the future UK and modern Britain, and also confessed to "being in love with Amy Pond".
Dan Martin, also of The Guardian, praised the story for testing the characters' relationhips rather than being just a visit to the Starship UK to make it better, though he commented that the "anti-vivisection message" seemed to be lost along the way. He praised the way the Doctor was portrayed in terms of his more inhumane insticts in contrast to the Tenth Doctor
and rated the episode as "four out of five". Radio Times
reviewer Patrick Mulkern said that the episode "neither moved [him] to wave a Save the Starwhale banner nor reach for the nearest harpoon" and made him feel "out of the loop" as it seemed more directed at children than adults. However, he praised the acting of Smith, Gillan, and Sophie Okonedo, as well as the creation of the Smilers. SFX Magazine Russell Lewin gave "The Beast Below" four out of five stars, calling it "immensely satisfying". He particularly praised the two lead performances and Amy's characterisation as companion, as well as the writing and dialogue.
IGN
's Matt Wales was more mixed, rating it a "good" 7 out of 10. He considered it it imaginative with "more brilliant ideas...than most other shows can muster in an entire season", but he thought the episode "never quite brought its cacophony of ideas together to form a satisfying whole", and the conclusion "failed to resonate effectively against the hodgepodge of insane ideas and action". Because of the large amount of ideas, Wales also pointed out that the characterisation was "scant", especially on Liz 10 and the Smilers. However, he praised Smith's and Gillan's chemistry and Moffat's "crackling dialogue".
Doctor Who (series 5)
The fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 3 April 2010 with "The Eleventh Hour" and ended with "The Big Bang" on 26 June 2010. The series was led by head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat, who took over after the departure of Russell T Davies. The...
of the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. It was written by showrunner Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat is a Scottish television writer and producer.Moffat's first television work was the teen drama series Press Gang. His first sitcom, Joking Apart, was inspired by the breakdown of his first marriage; conversely, his later sitcom Coupling was based upon the development of his...
and broadcast on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
and BBC HD
BBC HD
BBC HD is a high-definition television network provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007...
on 10 April 2010.
In the episode, the Doctor
Eleventh Doctor
The Eleventh Doctor is the eleventh incarnation of the protagonist of the BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. Matt Smith plays this incarnation, replacing David Tennant's Tenth Doctor in the 2010 episode "The End of Time, Part Two"...
—a time travelling
Time travel in fiction
Time travel is a common theme in science fiction and is depicted in a variety of media. It simply means either going forward in time or backward, to experience the future, or the past.-Literature:...
alien played by Matt Smith—and his new companion
Companion (Doctor Who)
In the long-running BBC television science fiction programme Doctor Who and related works, the term "companion" refers to a character who travels with, and shares the adventures of the Doctor. In most Doctor Who stories, the primary companion acts as both deuteragonist and audience surrogate...
Amy Pond
Amy Pond
Amelia Jessica 'Amy' Pond is a fictional character portrayed by Karen Gillan in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
(Karen Gillan
Karen Gillan
Karen Sheila Gillan is a Scottish actress and former model who is best known for her current portrayal of Amy Pond in the British science fiction series Doctor Who.-Early life:...
) arrive on the Starship UK, a ship constructed to house the United Kingdom when it abandoned Earth due to harmful solar flares. However, they discover that the government of the ship secretly tortures a Star Whale that guides the ship, the abandoment of which is believed will destroy the ship and kill everyone on board.
The episode, which featured the first time Amy was away from her home world, was designed to show how important she was to the Doctor and his need for a companion. As part of the second production block
Production blocking
Production blocking is a common problem in brainstorming groups. It is a tendency for one individual to block or inhibit other people during a group discussion. For example, if six people are in a group and one person is talking about his or her idea, then the other five people are "blocked" and...
of the series, the episode's production took place in the fall of 2009. "The Beast Below" was seen by 8.42 million viewers on BBC One and BBC HD, the fifth most-watched programme in the week it was broadcast. It was met with generally positive to mixed review from critics; many praised the chemistry between Smith and Gillan, but some critics thought that there were too many imaginative concepts that did not make a satisfying conclusion, or that the message of the episode was not as strong as it should have been.
Plot
In the distant future, the DoctorEleventh Doctor
The Eleventh Doctor is the eleventh incarnation of the protagonist of the BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. Matt Smith plays this incarnation, replacing David Tennant's Tenth Doctor in the 2010 episode "The End of Time, Part Two"...
and Amy
Amy Pond
Amelia Jessica 'Amy' Pond is a fictional character portrayed by Karen Gillan in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
arrive on the Starship UK, a colony spaceship containing the population of the United Kingdom (with the exception of Scotland, which has opted for a separated ship) who has left the planet to escape deadly solar flare
Solar flare
A solar flare is a sudden brightening observed over the Sun surface or the solar limb, which is interpreted as a large energy release of up to 6 × 1025 joules of energy . The flare ejects clouds of electrons, ions, and atoms through the corona into space. These clouds typically reach Earth a day...
s. They come across a crying girl, Mandy, whom all the other adults aboard consciously ignore. The Doctor, having discovered that the ship does not seem to be powered by normal engines, tells Amy to follow Mandy while he explores the engine room. There, he finds the engine controls to be a false front, and encounters a masked woman called Liz 10, who also is aware of the ship's oddness and of the Doctor's identity.
Meanwhile, Amy confronts Mandy, who explains she had lost her friend to the "beast below" after he refused to follow Starship UK rules and ran afoul of the robot-like Smilers that watch over the ship. Amy discovers a tent covering a hole in the ship, which Mandy attempts to dissuade her from exploring. Amy finds a tentacle-like creature reaching up from the pit and quickly backs out of the tent into the monk-like Winders, who police the ship. Amy is taken to one of the many voting booths on the ship, where an automated video explains that each adult votes after being shown the truth of Starship UK. After the video, Amy is given the opportunity to either protest the truth or have the booth make her forget it. Amy chooses to forget, but not before recording a video warning herself to get the Doctor off the ship to show herself after the memory wipe. The Doctor and Mandy arrive; Mandy explains that the voting takes place every five years and everyone chooses to "forget". The Doctor manipulates the booth's equipment and triggers the "protest" sequence, sending him and Amy into the bowels of the ship.
Finding themselves in the mouth of a giant creature, the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver
Sonic screwdriver
The sonic screwdriver is a fictional tool in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spinoffs. It is a multifunctional tool used by The Doctor. Its most common function is that of a lockpick, but can be used to perform other operations such as performing medical scans,...
to make the creature throw them up; with Liz 10's help, they evade the Smilers waiting for them upon their escape. Liz 10 reveals herself to be Queen Elizabeth the Tenth and the Doctor begins to question her age, which she believes is around 50, although her body clock was slowed to retain its youthful appearance. The Winders arrive and take Liz 10, the Doctor, Amy, and Mandy to the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
, where it is revealed that all of Starship UK rides atop a giant Star Whale that provides the ship's locomotion. The Star Whale, believed to be the last of its kind, arrived at Earth at the time of the solar flares; it was captured and the ship was constructed around it. However, in order to direct the whale, the pain center of its brain has been exposed to receive frequent jolts of electricity. The Winders show Liz 10 that she ordered this, centuries ago, but every ten years she finds her way to the Tower and chooses to have her memory wiped to prevent herself from remembering. She implemented the voting programme to do the same to the population, out of fear that remembering the truth would lead to the populace demanding the whale be freed, destroying the ship and killing everyone aboard.
The Doctor becomes distraught, realizing he has to choose between saving the humans or the Star Whale, and angrily chastises Amy for choosing to forget about the whale so he would not face such a choice. He then decides to alter the controlling device programming to render the Star Whale brain-dead, allowing it to continue through space but no longer feeling the pain. As the Doctor works, Amy sees Mandy has found her friend alive, as the whale refuses to eat children. Amy, considering all she has seen and heard, takes control and uses Liz 10's hand to strike the "abdicate" button that disables the controlling device. To everyone's surprise, this serves to make the whale move faster and does not kill the ship's inhabitants. Amy explains to the Doctor that she saw the similarities between him and the Star Whale, which came willingly to Earth to save the children at the time of crisis. As they return to the TARDIS
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
, Amy is about to tell the Doctor of her impending wedding when she is interrupted by a call to the TARDIS from Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, who is face-to-face with a Dalek
Dalek
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...
.
Continuity
It is noted that the Earth was abandoned in the 29th century due to solar flares. This was a central plot point of the classic serials The Ark in SpaceThe Ark in Space
The Ark in Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 25 January to 15 February 1975.-Plot:The TARDIS materialises in a darkened room on board the station...
and The Sontaran Experiment
The Sontaran Experiment
The Sontaran Experiment is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was originally broadcast in two weekly parts on 22 February and 1 March 1975.-Synopsis:...
. Liz 10 mentions the Doctor's previous encounters with British monarchs, including Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
("Tooth and Claw
Tooth and Claw (Doctor Who)
"Tooth and Claw" is the second episode in the second series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and was first broadcast on 22 April 2006. In 1879 Scotland, the Doctor and Rose meet Queen Victoria...
"), Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
(seen in "The Shakespeare Code
The Shakespeare Code
"The Shakespeare Code" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 7 April 2007, and is the second episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series. According to the BARB figures this episode was seen by 7.23 million viewers and was...
" and referenced in The End of Time
The End of Time
The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Our Understanding of the Universe, also sold with the alternate subtitle The Next Revolution in Physics, is a 1999 science book in which the author Julian Barbour argues that time exists merely as an illusion.-Auto-biography:The book begins by describing how...
) and Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
(Silver Nemesis
Silver Nemesis
Silver Nemesis was the 25th anniversary serial of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast in the UK in three weekly parts from 23 November 1988, to 7 December 1988....
). Liz 10 herself is later seen again in "The Pandorica Opens
The Pandorica Opens
"The Pandorica Opens" is the twelfth episode, and first in a two-part story, in the fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who, broadcast on 19 June 2010. The Doctor's friends send him a warning; he deals with a message on a cliff, a mysterious box and a love story that...
" guarding a "Royal Collection" of art in the 52nd century. The workman's tent investigated by Amy is in front of a shop called "Magpie Electricals". A shop of the same name is featured in "The Idiot's Lantern
The Idiot's Lantern
"The Idiot's Lantern" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on 27 May 2006.-Plot:...
". The episode also continues the story arc
Story arc
A story arc is an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, boardgames, video games, and in some cases, films. On a television program, for example, the story would unfold over many episodes. In television, the use of the story...
of the crack pattern, where it appears at the end of the episode on the side of the Starship UK.
Production
Showrunner Steven MoffatSteven Moffat
Steven Moffat is a Scottish television writer and producer.Moffat's first television work was the teen drama series Press Gang. His first sitcom, Joking Apart, was inspired by the breakdown of his first marriage; conversely, his later sitcom Coupling was based upon the development of his...
wrote the episode as an introduction for Amy into the role of the Doctor's companion
Companion (Doctor Who)
In the long-running BBC television science fiction programme Doctor Who and related works, the term "companion" refers to a character who travels with, and shares the adventures of the Doctor. In most Doctor Who stories, the primary companion acts as both deuteragonist and audience surrogate...
. The episode showcases her first adventure away from her home world and her first time in space. The climax of the episode, where the Doctor decides the best thing he can do is kill the Star Whale as painlessly as possible but Amy comes up with an alternative solution that is more human, was designed to stand out in the Doctor's memory as a failure of a huge scale. It also reinforced the Doctor's need for a companion and showed how important Amy would be to him.
"The Beast Below" was in the second production block
Production blocking
Production blocking is a common problem in brainstorming groups. It is a tendency for one individual to block or inhibit other people during a group discussion. For example, if six people are in a group and one person is talking about his or her idea, then the other five people are "blocked" and...
of the series. The read-through
Read-through
The read-through, table-read, or table work is a stage of film and theatre production when an organized reading around a table of the screenplay or script by the actors with speaking parts is conducted....
for the episode took place 20 August 2009. Scenes set in Liz 10's Buckingham Palace were filmed at Margam Country Park
Margam Country Park
Margam Country Park is a country park estate in Britain, of around 850 acres . It is situated in Margam, about 2 miles from Port Talbot in south Wales it was once owned by the Mansel Talbot family and is now owned and administered by the local council, Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council...
, Port Talbot
Port Talbot
Port Talbot is a town in Neath Port Talbot, Wales. It had a population of 35,633 in 2001.-History:Port Talbot grew out of the original small port and market town of Aberafan , which belonged to the medieval Lords of Afan. The area of the parish of Margam lying on the west bank of the lower Afan...
on a night shoot on 22 September 2009. The interior of the orangery
Orangery
An orangery was a building in the grounds of fashionable residences from the 17th to the 19th centuries and given a classicising architectural form. The orangery was similar to a greenhouse or conservatory...
was used as the Palace. The room in the Tower of London where the climax takes place was filmed at Neath Abbey
Neath Abbey
Neath Abbey was a Cistercian monastery, located near the present-day town of Neath in southern Wales, UK.It was once the largest abbey in Wales. Substantial ruins can still be seen, and are in the care of Cadw...
. The industrial streets of Starship UK were filmed in a disuesed factory in Mamhilad
Mamhilad
- History & Amenities :Mamhilad has a pub, the Star Inn and the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal passes the village. There is another pub at Croes-y-Pant, the Horseshoe....
, with the art department designing it in accordance to Moffat's specific description in the script. Gillan put in some of her own wonder at the set into the scene where Amy admires the street for the first time.
The set for the whale's tongue was challenging for both the art department and the actors. With guidance from the stunt co-ordinator, Smith and Gillan were required to slide down a short slide before dropping six feet. Gillan stated that this was the "most bizzare" moment of filming for her. For the opening scene in which the Doctor holds Amy's ankle while she is suspended in space, Gillan was hoisted on wires above the TARDIS prop in front of a greenscreen while a wind machine created the effects of being in space.
Both Sophie Okonedo
Sophie Okonedo
Sophie Okonedo, OBE is a British actress, who has starred both in successful British and American productions. In 1991, she made her acting debut in the British critically acclaimed coming-of-age drama, Young Soul Rebels...
and Terence Hardiman
Terence Hardiman
Terrence Hardiman is an English actor, sometimes wrongly credited as Terence Hardiman. He is best known for playing The Demon Headmaster in the children's television series of the same name, and also for Reinhardt in the 1970s drama series Secret Army.-Career:Hardiman is often seen playing...
, who played Liz 10 and government head Hawthorne respectively, both have had experience in Doctor Who related roles. Okonedo previously portrayed Alison Cheney, a companion of the alternate Ninth Doctor
Ninth Doctor
The Ninth Doctor is the ninth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by Christopher Eccleston....
known as the Shalka Doctor
Shalka Doctor
The Shalka Doctor is the common fan name given to the character that appeared as an alternate incarnation of the Doctor in the flash-animated serial Scream of the Shalka in 2003 and the later short story The Feast of the Stone which were based on the British science fiction television series,...
in the online flash-animated serial Scream of the Shalka
Scream of the Shalka
Scream of the Shalka is a flash-animated series based on the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was produced to coincide with the 40th Anniversary of the series and was originally posted in six weekly parts from 13 November to 18 December 2003 on bbc.co.uk's Doctor Who...
. Hardiman later voiced King Sitric in the Big Finish
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
audio play The Book of Kells.
Broadcast and reception
"The Beast Below" was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC OneBBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
on 10 April 2010. Unofficial overnight viewing figures stated that 6.4 million viewers watched on BBC One with an additional 330,000 watching a simulcast
Simulcast
Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often...
on BBC HD
BBC HD
BBC HD is a high-definition television network provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007...
. This meant that the show was the most watched show of the day. When time-shifted figures were added, the viewing figures on BBC One were 7.93 million while BBC HD's ratings rose to 494,000, making the final consolidated figures for the episode 8.42 million. It was the fifth most-watched programme on BBC One for the week ending 11 April 2010 and the 11th for the week across all UK channels. The episode received an Appreciation Index
Appreciation Index
The Audience Appreciation Index is a score out of 100 which is used as an indicator of the public's appreciation for a television or radio programme, or broadcast service, in the United Kingdom. Until 2002, the AI of a programme was calculated by BARB, the organisation that compiles television...
of 86, considered "excellent".
"The Beast Below" was released in Region 2 on DVD and Blu-ray with the episodes "The Eleventh Hour
The Eleventh Hour (Doctor Who)
"The Eleventh Hour" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD on 3 April 2010....
" and "Victory of the Daleks
Victory of the Daleks
"Victory of the Daleks" is the third episode in the fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is written by Mark Gatiss and first broadcast on BBC One on 17 April 2010....
" and special features on 7 June 2010. It was then re-released as part of the complete series five DVD on 8 November 2010.
Critical reception
The episode received positive to mixed reviews by television critics. Andrew Billen, writing in The TimesThe Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, awarded the episode five
stars, praising Matt Smith's "mercurial" Doctor, Sophie Okonedo's acting, and the concept of the episode. However, he worried that Moffat "may not be as interested in the Time Lord as the rest of his fans", referring to scene in which the Doctor dismisses the death of his people
Time War (Doctor Who)
The Time War, more specifically called The Last Great Time War, is a conflict within the fictional universe of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
as a "bad day". Keith Watson in Metro
Metro (Associated Metro Limited)
Metro is a free daily newspaper in the United Kingdom published by Associated Newspapers Ltd . It is available from Monday to Friday each week on many public transport services across the United Kingdom.-History:The paper was launched in London in 1999, and can now be found in 14 UK urban centres...
praised the developing relationship between the Doctor and Amy. Sam Wollaston in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
noted the parallels between the future UK and modern Britain, and also confessed to "being in love with Amy Pond".
Dan Martin, also of The Guardian, praised the story for testing the characters' relationhips rather than being just a visit to the Starship UK to make it better, though he commented that the "anti-vivisection message" seemed to be lost along the way. He praised the way the Doctor was portrayed in terms of his more inhumane insticts in contrast to the Tenth Doctor
Tenth Doctor
The Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...
and rated the episode as "four out of five". Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
reviewer Patrick Mulkern said that the episode "neither moved [him] to wave a Save the Starwhale banner nor reach for the nearest harpoon" and made him feel "out of the loop" as it seemed more directed at children than adults. However, he praised the acting of Smith, Gillan, and Sophie Okonedo, as well as the creation of the Smilers. SFX Magazine Russell Lewin gave "The Beast Below" four out of five stars, calling it "immensely satisfying". He particularly praised the two lead performances and Amy's characterisation as companion, as well as the writing and dialogue.
IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's Matt Wales was more mixed, rating it a "good" 7 out of 10. He considered it it imaginative with "more brilliant ideas...than most other shows can muster in an entire season", but he thought the episode "never quite brought its cacophony of ideas together to form a satisfying whole", and the conclusion "failed to resonate effectively against the hodgepodge of insane ideas and action". Because of the large amount of ideas, Wales also pointed out that the characterisation was "scant", especially on Liz 10 and the Smilers. However, he praised Smith's and Gillan's chemistry and Moffat's "crackling dialogue".