The Beast Below (TV story)

The Beast Below was the second episode of the fifth series of BBC Wales Doctor Who. It was notable for featuring Amy Pond's first trip in the TARDIS. It also brought up some of the past interactions with royalty that the Doctor had in his other incarnations and what effects they've had, seen with the introduction of recurring character Liz 10.

Synopsis
For Amy Pond's first trip in the TARDIS, the Eleventh Doctor brings his new companion to the 33rd century, where all of Britain's citizens live onboard Starship UK, searching for a new home amongst the stars as the Earth is being roasted by solar flares. However, the Doctor soon finds something amiss onboard the vessel. The citizens appear to fear "the smiling fellows in the booths" and ignore crying children. What is going on? What secrets does Starship UK hold at its depths, and who is hiding them? Soon, the Doctor is forced to make an impossible choice. No matter what he chooses, death is the only outcome.

Plot
On Starship UK in the year 3295, children sit in class waiting to be graded by their instructor, a Smiler. Timmy does not want to line up, and so he joins at the very end; the Smiler calls Timmy a bad boy and gives him a zero. As the students walk out, Timmy's friend Mandy reminds him that he cannot take the vator; students aren't allowed to if they have a zero. She leaves in one, promising to wait for him back in London. Not wanting to walk twenty decks to get there, Timmy enters the second vator as it arrives. On the monitor, a little girl recites a poem.

Instead of heading to London, the vator drops down to Floor 0, with the floor in the vator opening to a red chasm beneath him as the Smiler in the vator shows its anger. Timmy screams in terror, and falls in...

Amy is suspended in space outside the TARDIS, the Eleventh Doctor standing at the ledge holding her ankle to keep her from floating away. Pulling Amy inside, the Doctor asks her if she believes him now; she does. However, she then questions how they can be breathing with the doors open; the Doctor calmly explains that he's extended the TARDIS's air shell. He then looks below them, seeing Starship UK and racing back to the console, going on to explain that in the 29th century, solar flares burned the Earth and forced the entire human race to flee to the stars until it was all over. However, he notices Amy hasn't followed after him and is repeatedly calling his name; the doors accidentally hit her in the rear and she's holding onto the TARDIS for dear life.

Pulling Amy back inside, the Doctor puts Starship UK up on the circular monitor, going on to say its the same Britain, only metal. Amy asks if they can go onboard. The Doctor agrees, but goes through the rules: they are observers and cannot interfere, something that he has always (tried) to stick to doing in his travels. Amy compares them to filmers of a wildlife documentary. But when they spot Mandy crying silently on the scanner, the Doctor suddenly appears on the screen, asking Mandy if she needs help. The little girl runs away from him, and the Doctor beckons for Amy to join him outside.

Amy exits the TARDIS, and is immediately overwhelmed by everything around her. Once Amy says she's been dead for centuries, the Doctor is less than amused: "you're a cheery one!" The duo explores the area, known locally as the London Market, with the Doctor encouraging Amy to notice everything as there are "secrets, shadows, lives lived in fear."

Abruptly, he stops and takes a glass of water off a nearby table, setting it on the floor and observing it for a brief moment before returning it; he tells those he took it from that "there's an escaped fish". He informs Amy that this is a police state: the government controls everything. The Doctor spots Mandy crying across the room, and they move towards her, followed closely by a dark-robed individual. The figure phones Hawthorne, controller of the Smilers, to report what he's seen.

Hawthorne, likewise, calls a cloaked woman sitting on a bedchamber floor amidst a sea of water glasses; he tells her that there has been a sighting. She asks him if he "did the thing"; yes, he did. The woman tells him that she will take a look at the monitors, and grabs a porcelain mask before leaving.

The Doctor and Amy observe Mandy from a bench. The Doctor explains that children cry because they want attention or they're hurt; when they cry silently, it means they can't stop. He tells her that any parent would know that, making Amy ask if he's a father; the Doctor doesn't answer. He goes on to explain that several possible parents are passing Mandy and are not even bothering to talk to her, meaning it's highly likely that they know what's making her cry, and it's something that they're too afraid to talk about. The Doctor encourages Amy to follow the little girl, and ask her about the Smilers, because they are everywhere; even more disturbing is that the cases they're in are clean. The Doctor tells Amy "it's either this, or Leadworth", prompting Amy to comply with his orders. As for himself, the Doctor explains that he's going to do what he always does — "stay out of trouble. Badly." As they part ways, Amy asks the Doctor if he interferes with other lives and planets if children are crying. The Doctor confirms this with a grin.

Searching for Mandy, Amy encounters her in a street. They discover a sealed-off part of the road — which Mandy refers to as a "hole" — which Amy investigates despite Mandy's warnings that they are not allowed; it has something to do with the Smilers and "below". She asks Amy whether she's Scottish, informing her that Scotland has its own ship, something that amuses Amy. Meanwhile, the nearby Smiler's face turns angry as Amy enters the tent. Inside, she discovers a giant tentacle rising up through the ship from below; it attacks her and forces her back out of the tent, where she is immediately surrounded by a group of hooded men who put her to sleep with a gas in one of their rings as Mandy looks on.

Meanwhile, the Doctor descends a ladder into the ship's "engine" room. After examining the surrounding area, he meets the masked woman, who tells him that she is conducting an investigation similar to the Doctor's and demands to know why he thought to put the glass of water on the floor in the marketplace earlier. He relays his suspicions that, in a ship of this size, the engines would have created some sort of disturbance on the surface of the water — and yet there was none. In fact, it would appear that the ship has no engine at all. The woman replies in the affirmative and offers him a device that will lead him to Amy. The Doctor inquires how he can find her again, learning she is Liz Ten, and she will find him.

Amy regains consciousness in a voting booth as she's scanned by a machine, confirming her name and reading her age as 1,306 years — which amuses her — and her marital status as "unknown", which unsettles her. The screen switches to a video narrated by a man in a smart suit who tells her that she will now be shown the truth of the ship's travels; afterwards, she will be faced with the choice to "forget" everything she's learned in the booth or to "protest". Should only one percent of the population protest, the project will be discontinued "with consequences for you all". She is shown the film — a succession of subliminal images that suggests a huge influx of information — then suddenly finds herself having pressed the "forget" button and has no idea what she just saw.

A recording she made prior to forgetting appears on the screen, where, crying, she says to find the Doctor and get him off Starship UK to keep him from investigating. The booth's door opens, with the Doctor and Mandy waiting for her outside; Amy quickly stops the message before the Doctor can see it.

From a scan with the sonic screwdriver, the Doctor deduces that a machine in the lamp above Amy's head has made her forget the last twenty minutes. Mandy explains anyone 16 and older can choose to use a booth once every five years; the Doctor jokes that everyone choosing to forget is "democracy in action." The Doctor brings up his not being a human, and is forced to tell Amy about the Time Lords, all of whom died on a "bad day".

The Doctor makes a decision. "Hold on; we're bringing down the government!" He slams his fist on the "protest" button, making the door shut and the floor open to the red abyss that Timmy fell into. While Amy screams in terror, the Doctor is overjoyed, telling her to instead say, "Wheee!" Both plummet down a chute. Liz Ten goes over to Mandy, who recognises her without her mask.

Amy and the Doctor land in a rubbish dump at the heart of the ship, which the Doctor jokes is Lancashire. He then notices that only food refuse is down there with them, and Amy notices the floor is all squishy. A scan from the sonic tells him the truth: they're in a mouth of a large beast. As pipes have been surgically implanted in the beast, they can try using the normal "entrance" to escape; however, it is "closed for business". Amy tries walking to the teeth, accidentally causing the swallow reflex. To avoid being digested, the Doctor uses the sonic to make the beast vomit.

Amy awakens to find herself in an overspill pipe, where the Doctor explains that she has no injuries and is covered in sick. The Doctor sees that the only way they can get back into the ship is to press another "forget" button. When they refuse to press the switch, the Smilers at the end of the corridor not only become angry, but physically step out of their booths and move to attack them. They are rescued by the mask-less Liz Ten, who enters from the other side of the door and shoots the Smilers down with a gun.

Liz explains that she tracked the device she gave the Doctor; she heard everything they did through it. Liz jokes that the Doctor is a bit hard to miss; "Mysterious Stranger M.O.; intelligence of higher alien life forms, hair of an idiot". Walking through a hall, Liz goes on to explain the Doctor was old drinking buddies with Henry 12, "Vicky" knighted and exiled him on the same day, and he at least once shared tea and scones with Liz 2. "And so much for the 'Virgin Queen', you bad, bad boy!" The Doctor immediately realises who Liz is: Queen Elizabeth X. Liz Ten. She makes them duck, and shoots down more Smilers. "I'm the bloody Queen, mate; basically, I rule".

Walking through another corridor, they notice another root coming from the creature pounding against a barred opening. Amy explains her previous encounter with the root that burst through the road; the Doctor confirms that the roots are part of the same creature whose mouth they were just inside, and that it's reaching out. Liz wonders if the beast is infesting the kingdom, but is more angry that someone is feeding her subjects to it. Explaining that there is a high-speed vator to her quarters nearby, Liz walks off with Mandy. Watching the roots continue banging against the bars, the Doctor sadly tells Amy that they shouldn't have come here. Amy remembers her message to herself and follows them. Hawthorne sees them on the monitor and calls it in, saying that since Liz has seen the truth, it's time to activate the pre-agreed protocol.

In Liz's room, Amy fixes her hair as the Queen goes on to explain that she has been investigating the creature for ten years, ever since she came to the throne at the age of forty. Liz had the ageing process slowed down; "keeps me looking like the stamps." With everyone knowing who she is, Liz wears her mask for anonymity; the Doctor notes that, because the mask is made of air-balanced porcelain, it must have been made to perfectly fit her face. He points out, though that it's at least 200 years old.

At that moment, the hooded men enter Liz's room and demand that she come with them. However, when she protests, their heads rotate to show angry Smiler faces; they are half-human, half-Smiler. Called Winders, they're in charge of keeping the peace on Starship UK. Liz tells the Winders that she is still their Queen; they agree, but tell her that, on the highest authority, she must go to the Tower of London.

They are taken to the Tower of London in the bowels of the ship, where Liz meets Hawthorne, a senior member of the government. The Doctor reveals that the creature, whom they previously thought was malevolent, is, in fact, the ship's means of flying; the ship was constructed on its back. They have a laser placed above the exposed pain centre of the creature's brain that repeatedly zaps it, torturing it into continuing.

Seeing children being put to work, they question this; Hawthorne explains that protesters and citizens of limited value are fed to the beast. However, it for some reason won't eat children. He calls the Doctor and Amy lucky for being the first adults its spared.

The Queen demands the creature's immediate release. Hawthorne insists that he is simply obeying the orders of a higher authority. Liz protests, calling herself the highest authority on the ship. The Doctor brings her attention back to the impossibility of her mask. How could a mask have been made for her specifically 200 years before when she's only 50? The Doctor answers his own question: "They slowed your body clock, all right, but you're not fifty. Nearer... three hundred." She's reigned the same ten years over and over again, each time choosing to forget the truth.

Hawthorne plays a recording of Liz Ten; she explains that the British people were faced with destruction when Earth was devastated by the solar flares, and the children screamed in pain. All other countries had taken to the sky, but they lacked the resources to build their own spaceship. But then, "like a miracle", the creature — the last of the star whales — appeared to them. The government trapped it, and built their ship around it, using the creature in place of an engine. The recording once again gives Liz the option: "forget" or "abdicate". Pressing abdicate will release the star whale — but in doing so will destroy the ship and kill everyone onboard.

The Doctor allows the humans present to hear the star whale's screams of pain through the use of the sonic screwdriver. He declares that there is no choice but a mercy killing. He will kill the conscious functions of the creature in order to keep it from feeling any more pain and allow it to continue to sustain Starship UK; it is the only choice other than either leaving the creature to endure more torture for centuries or killing every human on the ship... then states that he intends to abandon the name "the Doctor" once the deed is done. The Doctor expresses his fury towards all of the humans who have allowed this situation to arise; he is also angry with Amy for trying to keep the truth from him by pressing "forget". Amy tries to apologise but he isn't interested, and tells her that he'll be taking her back to Leadworth after this is all over.

However, as the Doctor sets up the massive electrical charge which will render the star whale brain-dead, Amy remembers the Doctor's encouragement that she notice everything; she quickly ascertains that, while the roots will attack adults, they do not attack children. Amy watches as a root plays with Mandy and Timmy. She realises that the star whale is, in fact, benevolent and has been voluntarily propelling the ship for the humans because of its compassion for the children. She makes Liz Ten press the "abdicate" button, and the brain stimulus halts. The star whale's freed. The whole ship shakes.

However, much to their surprise, the creature continues to power the ship, with Hawthorne observing that they have actually increased speed. Explaining her actions, Amy says that "if you are very old and the last of your kind" like the star whale — and also just like the Doctor — then "you just can't stand there and watch children cry."

On an observation deck, the Doctor looks out into space, deep in thought over the events that have just transpired. Amy walks up behind him, handing the Doctor Liz's mask as a souvenir from their adventure there. She explains that Liz has decided that there will be no more secrets in Starship UK; everyone will know the star whale is to thank for their salvation from the inferno on Earth. Calmly, the Doctor points out to Amy that she could have killed the entire British nation if she was wrong. Amy points out that he could have killed the star whale. She knew how it would react because of its similarities with the Doctor — "Very old and very kind, and the very, very last. Sound a bit familiar?" They share a hug.

They walk through the market street, back to the TARDIS, as Amy wonders if it's really okay to leave without saying good-bye. The Doctor tells her that they'll wonder about that and come up with stories, saying it's a big day tomorrow. Amy, shocked, stops and asks him what he means. The Doctor tells her that it's always a big day tomorrow for him because he skips the little ones. Amy, relieved that he didn't know about her wedding, asks him if there was anything he ever ran away from because he was scared or just because he could. The Doctor says yes, but it was a long time ago; his travels through time and space were the end result. Amy tries revealing the reason she wants to go back the morning after they took off, but the sound of the TARDIS phone ringing distracts them.

Inside, the Doctor works on the TARDIS console as Amy answers the phone. Learning that it's his old buddy British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the Doctor takes the call. Winston tells the Doctor that he's in a bit of tricky situation; he asks the Doctor for help — as the shadow of a Dalek glides into view. The Doctor and Amy set off to help Churchill.

Amy recites a poem, a positive reprise of the verses spoken by the young girl from the Vator monitor.

The star whale continues to ferry humanity through the stars. The people will enjoy newfound freedom and liberation from their police state, but — unbeknownst to the residents of Starship UK — a luminous, white crack has appeared on the hull of the ship. One rather like the one on Amy's bedroom wall...

Cast

 * The Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
 * Liz 10 - Sophie Okonedo
 * Hawthorne - Terrence Hardiman
 * Morgan - Christopher Good
 * Timmy - Alfie Field
 * Peter the Winder - David Ajala
 * Mandy - Hannah Sharp
 * Poem girl - Catrin Richards
 * Winder - Jonathan Battersby
 * Voice of Smilers / Winder - Chris Porter
 * Winston Churchill - Ian McNeice

The Doctor

 * The Doctor tells Amy that he is the last of the Time Lords.

Individuals

 * The Smiler praises Mabel, Alfie, Tabitha, Ranjit, Chloe, Ben and Mandy before calling Timmy a "bad boy".

Theories and Concepts

 * Mandy tells Amy that Scotland wanted its own ship, and Amy says, "Nothing changes", a joke about Scottish independence, which was a hot topic at the time.
 * The Vators resemble and use the London Underground logo, as well as warn people to "mind the doors" ("mind the gap").
 * The message shown in the voting booths resembles older 20th century BBC news broadcasts.

Story notes

 * Sophie Okenedo is credited as 'Liz 10' on-screen, and as 'Liz' in Radio Times.
 * A cut line, revealed in an Eleventh Doctor Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition, would have stated there were other nation-ships and there used to be travel between them, but that Starship UK sealed off its 'borders' several decades ago.
 * Like TV: The End of the World, this episode featured the Doctor taking a new companion into the distant future for her first trip in the TARDIS. It also featured a scene comparable to the moment the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler stared out of a large window into space. Rose mentioned that her mother would no longer be alive by this time, and Amy made a similar comment about herself. In both cases, the Doctor was not impressed.
 * Also like TV: The Doctor Dances, the resolution to the main problem of the plot is solved by an action people at first believed would cause another effect, and so tried to avoid. Nancy tried to avoid Jamie for fear of becoming infected by the Empty Child, whilst Liz 10 always chose to forget since she believed releasing the star whale would destroy Starship UK.
 * Another crack can be seen at the very end of the story, in roughly the same shape as the crack on Amy's wall and the TARDIS monitor in TV: The Eleventh Hour, continuing the Series 5 theme of cracks appearing throughout the universe.
 * Amy stopping the Doctor from lobotomizing the star whale echoes Donna Noble's pleas for the Tenth Doctor to stop his attack on the Racnoss and her children in TV: The Runaway Bride. This time, however, Amy was able to stop the Doctor from acting on his plan.
 * This is the first average length Doctor Who episode (forty-five minutes) since TV: The Stolen Earth. The intervening episodes were all specials or extended, not including the amalgamated Dreamland.
 * A red telephone box, exactly the same as the one destroyed by the sonic screwdriver in Leadworth, appears in the background.
 * This episode aired on the same day as the K9 episode Sirens of Ceres was first broadcast on Disney XD in Britain. It also aired on the same day that Liberation was first broadcast on Network Ten in Australia.
 * This is the only episode to use the new Eleventh Doctor opening theme in the "Next Time trailer".
 * Sophie Okonedo (Elizabeth X) previously played Alison Cheney, the companion of a non-canonical Ninth Doctor, in WC: Scream of the Shalka.
 * This is currently the last episode to feature the "Middle Eight" in the closing credits.
 * Amy Pond is nearly kicked off the TARDIS for bad behaviour ("When we're done I'm taking you home"); however, her actions save the day, unlike Adam Mitchell whose actions got him expelled from the TARDIS permanently. (TV: The Long Game)
 * The resolution of this episode bears a resemblance to that of TV: Rose. In both cases, a relatively new companion is responsible for saving the day, rather than the Doctor. Also, on both occasions the Doctor speaks with disdain about humans, and is surprised by his companion's resourcefulness. In both stories he expresses keen sense of the motions of his surroundings, or the lack thereof.
 * Winston Churchill calls the Doctor at the end of the episode, and the shadow of a Dalek is seen. This episode leads straight into TV: Victory of the Daleks.

Ratings
6.7 million - First broadcast

8.42 million - Final BARB ratings

Filming locations

 * Mamhilad, Monmouthshire, Wales

Rumours

 * It was originally rumoured that Sophie Okonedo was to play the character called "Liz Ten" which then was rumoured to be "Queen Elizabeth X". Sophie Okonedo was confirmed as playing the Masked Woman. In dialogue, it was confirmed that her character was indeed "Elizabeth X". In the credits, she was listed as "Liz 10".
 * It was rumoured that the Doctor and Amy will be swallowed by a creature, 'the Beast', and have to make the 'Beast' regurgitate then to escape. This is proven more likely with them both being drenched (having wet clothes) in the trailer. The Doctor and Amy actually managed to escape being swallowed, only entering the creature's mouth, but are still covered in "sick"..
 * This episode was believed to be titled Meddling Monks by fans prior to transmission.

Production errors

 * When Timmy boards the elevator at the beginning of the episode, the Smiler is smiling at the occupants' standing area. However, before it rotates to its "frown face", it is already seen with its frown face aimed toward the standing area in the external view-shot of the elevator.
 * When Amy's age is given as 1306, the computer screen reads 1308 instead.
 * When the Doctor and Amy are in the star whale's mouth, the light given off by the sonic screwdriver is the previous version's blue, instead of the usual current green. The sonic screwdriver's diode is shown to change colours in TV: Cold War.
 * The star whale's mouth is clearly depicted at the end of the episode as being in open space. However, when the Doctor and Amy are "ejected" from said mouth, they land inside the ship, as opposed to outside of it. No logical explanation is given for this. We can assume that after the torture ended, the whale's mouth could have been freed from attachment to the ship, also giving explanation to the violent shakes of the ship.
 * After being thrown out of the mouth of the star whale, the Doctor's fringe is on his forehead. The next shot, it is pushed back. It returns to normal in all following shots.
 * In the scene where the winders kidnap Liz 10, the Doctor and Amy, despite only the winder's head rotating, the creature's whole body appears to have turned round in its clothes.

Continuity

 * Amy is considerably more amused by being recognised and accepted by the British government as 1,306 years old than Barbara Wright was when Vicki Pallister calculated the latter's age as 550 years, but not as tickled as Ian Chesterton was by Barbara's reaction. (TV: The Rescue)
 * A sign with Magpie Electricals can be seen. The brand was first created by Mr Magpie (TV: The Idiot's Lantern) and has continued to appear attached to various electronics years later. (TV: The Sound of Drums, etc.)
 * The advent of the Earth being rendered uninhabitable by solar flares not long before the 30th century was also why humans entered suspended hibernation in Space Station Nerva. (TV: The Ark in Space/The Sontaran Experiment)
 * The First Doctor also encountered humans escaping to another planet on a spaceship due to the imminent destruction of the Earth. There, the Doctor also concluded he was on a spaceship through the vibrations detected in the ground. (TV:The Ark).
 * Liz Ten is the queen of Starship UK. She mentions that the Tenth Doctor was knighted and exiled by Queen Victoria, (TV: Tooth and Claw) that he had a relationship with the "Virgin Queen", (TV: The End of Time, The Shakespeare Code, The Day of the Doctor) that he was an old drinking buddy of Henry XII, and that he had tea and scones with "Liz 2" (TV: Silver Nemesis).
 * The crack, previously seen on Amy's wall and the TARDIS' monitor (TV: The Eleventh Hour), is seen on the side of Starship UK.
 * The Doctor's, "You look human/You look Time Lord", exchange with Amy mirrors a similar conversation between his previous incarnation and Lady Christina de Souza. (TV: Planet of the Dead) The Doctor also mentions that the Time Lords came before the human race. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks, The Trial of a Time Lord, The Sound of Drums, etc.)
 * The star whale's exposed brain being restrained by humans is similar to the Ood Brain. That brain was also released in the end, and the restrained creature was freed. Similarly, the Doctor allows the beast's screams of pain to be heard by others, just as the Doctor uses his telepathic powers to let Donna hear the Ood's song. (TV: Planet of the Ood)
 * The Smilers are clockwork (or at least clockwork-based) androids. (TV: The Girl in the Fireplace)
 * Amy asked the Doctor if he was a parent and he ignored the statement; he did the same to Rose's, "What?", when he told her he was a dad once. (TV: Fear Her)
 * The star whale bears some semblance to the creature from TV: Meat.
 * The Sixth Doctor previously encountered space whales. (AUDIO: The Song of Megaptera)
 * The message also resembles that of the "elections" on Varos. (TV: Vengeance on Varos)
 * The Doctor's temptation to renounce his name is a subtle indicator of a past incarnation that actually did. (TV: The Name of the Doctor, The Night of the Doctor, The Day of the Doctor)
 * The Doctor's called for help on the TARDIS phone. (TV: The Big Bang)
 * Meanwhile in the TARDIS (scene 1) leads directly into this episode.

Home video releases

 * BBC Video - Doctor Who Series Five - Volume One was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 7 June 2010 (UK only), featuring The Eleventh Hour, The Beast Below, Victory of the Daleks, and the featurette The Monster Diaries.