This is a weekly feature (Wednesdays) where Christa of Hooked on Books and myself will be watching and discussing all of the reboot of Doctor Who. Posts will contain spoilers for that episode and ones before it, so you may want to watch the episode before reading. I hope you’ll join us in enjoying this fantastic show, and don’t forget to check out Christa’s post (with past posts over here) as well! Allons-y!
The Beast Below by Steven Moffat
The Doctor and Amy travel to the future. Earth is gone and entire countries of humans travel the stars searching for a new home. But the UK Starship has a secret. A secret so terrible that everyone chooses to forget it.
I tend to have a love-hate relationship when it comes to Steven Moffat episodes. On one hand, every episode feels epic. On the other hand, he really doesn’t know how to write characters without pissing me off. I love the idea of this episode. The world, the history, it’s all breathtaking. It is a storytelling masterpiece, but then he does something stupid like have the Doctor freak out on Amy for hiding something from him. I want you to keep this in mind for season six.
I also feel like the fact that Liz X is a person of colour would be stronger if her manner of speaking was still royal-like. Maybe that’s me nitpicking, or whatever, but it just really bugged me.
I did love that it was Amy who worked everything out, but then they lessen the fact that she worked it out rather than the Doctor because he can’t see it because it’s himself: only she’s seen it before. Right. Or maybe this time Amy was just better than the Doctor. It’s a thing that can happen sometimes.
It’s fine. I can look past all this because Matt Smith and Karen Gillian are basically flawless human beings…but seriously. Seriously.
