The Beast Below

"A horse and a man, above, below
One has a plan but both must go,
Mile after mile, above, beneath,
One has a smile, and one has teeth
Though the man above might say hello
Expect no love from the Beast below." - The Poem Girl

Following the school day from hell for an underachieving pupil (who is somewhat harshly punished by being ejected from a plummeting lift), we are treated to a more fairy tale sequence of Amy 'flying' in space, as proof by The Doctor his box really is a spaceship. A quick look down brings the discovery of Starship UK, one of the many Arks for mankind to flee the earth after the sun starts to fry it in the 29th Century.

"But they're just things..."

Oh how right you were Amy. Immediately obvious is the striking appearance of the Smilers, automated oppression keepers amongst the residents of the ship. These fair ground inspired granny police have three moods, beaming away when all is oppressed. Sternly frowning when the status quo is upset and rabidly growling when free will is asserted. We discover that these quirky and refreshing pieces of design actually work to protect the dark secret at the bowels of the ship. Whilst I maintain a love of these curiously enticing things I was disappointed by the fact they didn't actually do anything. On one occasion they had a bit of a walk about but failed to actually kill anything.

"Democracy in Action"

Moffat's writing is always peppered with subtle themes. In The Empty Child it was sex almighty, Blink encouraged you to seize the day and Silence in the Library implored you to always feed your shadows. In this we have the subject of the upcoming election worked in there, but the main one is likely animal cruelty. See, Starship UKminusScotland doesn't have an engine, but instead a Starwhale, imprisoned and tortured to speed the ship along. This is the horrible truth that encourages everyone to forget what they've learned upon voting. The whole thing does tug at the pulmonary arteries, especially when we discover the whale volunteered to help Britain. Nice of Moffat to imply the Scots were too morally opposed though.


The episode carries off a nice overall style, with my favourite area being the great escape from the whale, and the appearance of Queen Elizabeth X or 'Liz 10' as her Daily Mirror inspired nickname goes. The whole episode goes off well overall, though there is some missed potential in the Smilers, and interesting to see homage being paid to Star Wars in a couple of blusteringly obvious moments.