April 16/2010 :: Doctor Who 5x02

Day 84
Mood: Worn out (I don't even remember how I fell asleep last night...)
Weather: Pleasant
Quote of the Episode: "Sorry, checking all the water in this area; there's an escaped fish."

I have a LOT to talk about with regards to my trip to Dublin. However, due to technical issues half of my pictures are on other people's cameras. Therefore I shall be waiting a little bit to write a blog because I require the pictures. Let's just say it'll be a 2-parter though: Dublin + the trip back home.

However, I wanted to do an update with my thoughts on Doctor Who Season 5 Episode 2, The Beast Below.

Okay, so I have rewatched the episode and I have my opinions.

Be warned...there be spoilers ahead!

So the episode focuses on the above, the Smilers. They seem to be running a ship out in space. It takes place after the sun expands and roasts the Earth. The people of Earth take to large vessels and move to space to find a new home. The UK is the ship the Doctor and Amy land on. But something seems to be wrong...there are no engines but the ship seems to be running.

There's some sort of conspiracy going on and every 5 years, when people vote, they always choose to forget the information they learned and continue their lives oblivious of the dark secrets of the ship.

This episode once again brings up concepts of human beings as a weaker species. So powerful and intelligent but capable of such darkness. It also brings up a dark choice in the end...who do you save? A single alien, the last of its kind, or a million human beings that chose to hurt this alien? It's an awful question that the Doctor has had to face many a time...this time though it's the humans that were the villains.

I found it riveting! The writing was amazing. There were moments of humour mixed along some really dark themes of torture, responsibility and memory.

On to characters.

In this episode we followed along with the Queen of the UK

Elizabeth the 10th. She is trying to find out the secrets of her country but it turns out she's been a part of it all and has chosen to forget about it time and time again for the sake of her people. She was powerful and very 'kick-ass'. I've probably mentioned this before but I really like my female characters to be 'kick-ass'. She definitely was!

Matt Smith further separated himself from David Tennant in this episode and solidified his position as the Doctor. At the end he's faced with a difficult choice and he does something I can't imagine Ten ever doing. He tells someone he's taking them home because they've made a mistake. He doesn't put up with crap and I like that...though it's a bit painful to watch sometimes.

It's Amy who saves the day in this episode and she's quickly becoming a favourite character of the entire show. She's fiesty and she's the smart one in this episode. She's the one who solves the problem. I was very proud of this.


I only had a single problem with this episode. Amy knew something she shouldn't know. She knew that the Doctor was the last of his kind and an alien, he told her these things. But how did she know he was 'very old'? I don't recall him telling her his age. Maybe I missed it but I don't think I did.

But that's a minor problem.

Altogether a strong episode and very enjoyable.