DW: The Beast Below--Reaction Post--More Thinky Toughts

[amberfocus]

I was very happy with this episode.  I loved the plot, I loved the child actress, the monsters were sufficiently freaky, the CGI was a bit better though still not to the quality I got used to in the first four seasons (did they get a budget cut or does Moff just like fakey looking monsters?), and  I did not once think it was Matt Smith playing Ten like I did last week several times, so that is a definite plus for me.  Actually, I didn't tend to think this was Matt Smith playing Eleven, either.  I was more, "well, he feels like the Doctor now."  He felt like his own man, which was nice.  I've been through...eight regenerations now and I think it can be a bit easier for me to accept a new Doctor than maybe someone who only started watching with Nine.

I got a real feeling of him being an alien this week, which I honestly never got with Ten and only occassionally did I get it with Nine.  To be truthful the only tmes I've ever really felt the Doctor was truly alien all the time was with One, Three, Six, and Seven.  I've not seen Two except in The Three Doctors and The Five Doctors so I can't really say on him at all.

I enjoyed the Doctor as much as I enjoyed Amy this time, which is definitely a positive.  I didn't feel like the plot was at all recycled.  The only thing I did kind of flinch at was England on the back of a giant space whale.  It felt a bit Disc World to me.  I'll grant that it was a space ship and a whale and not a flat planet on a giant space turtle and there were no elephants involved at all, but the concept felt a tiny bit...borrowed because of it.  I don't know, maybe there are no original ideas left anymore.  The shout out to Star Wars and Princess Leah I liked though.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy it.  I liked the story a lot.  I liked the concept of crying children being what makes old things, the last of their kind, interfere.  I loved the parallels drawn by Amy between the Doctor and the whale.  I loved Amy being smart enough to open her eyes and see what was really going on and stopping the Doctor from making a horrible mistake.  Because as we all know the Doctor often needs someone to stop him.  I do hope this is something that will be balanced though.  I like Amy and I don't want to see her turn into "Wesley saves the ship" week after week.

I really like that we got to see some of Amy's reasoning on why she ran off from her important "thing," i.e. the wedding.  Her leaving without a word to her fiance is one of the only things that I disliked about her character.  Rose was a jerk about it, but she told Mickey she was going.  He knew.  Amy just went and I hated the disrespect that was shown there.  But seeing that she does have issues about it, is good.  I liked the way it was compared to, and at least this is what I got out of it, the Doctor stealing the TARDIS and running off to explore the universe.  Obviously it's not the same, but it shows how both characters are impulsive.

I didn't like the Doctor saying he was going to take her home because she pressed the forget button, though.  He doesn't know what really happened there for her and judging it so quickly felt a bit...well, judgmental.  Especially considering he was going to kill the whale himself.  I don't want to see that be a reoccuring theme, either, Amy screws up and the Doctor threatens to take her home, because that will get old fast.  And I really, really didn't like the reoccurence of the Virgin Queen line.  It just squicked me a bit like it did last time it happened.

I was also annoyed with Amy being in her night dress for the entire episode.  It felt very Arthur Dent and with that huge wardrobe room the TARDIS has, wouldn't the Doctor have told her to go change?  Or you know, she would have insisted.  He told her about it last episode after all.  Wouldn't she have thought she'd be at all out of place wandering about in her pajamas?  Or is she so used to weird costumes for her job that it didn't bother her?

I do like the way Amy sees through the Doctor and I really liked the hug at the end.  I like that the Doctor seems open talking about his past with Amy, at least on a surface level.  I did see a little bit of chemistry starting that had a hint of romance to it at one point.  My Doctor/Rose shipper heart was a little...mixed on that.  I like the sparks between the actors.  I want the characters to be happy.  I know Ten2 and Rose are happy and I want the Doctor to be happy again and I'd rather it be with Amy than River.  Then again, I don't really dislike River so much as I didn't get the character in season 4 and felt like she was forced and there was no chemistry between the Doctor and River.  Maybe they'll do a better job this time around.  I like Alex Kingston, I always have so...we'll see.  If she has chemistry with Matt then I might find that relationship more palatable, though if I have to root for anyone, I think it'll be Amy.  Still, I think Matt might be one of those actors who could have chemistry with a street lamp.  It's interesting.  It's almost like he turns it off and on.

All in all, if this is any indication, I'm happy with the direction that Who is going in, but...I'll reserve my judgment until after the Dalek episode.  I am so sick of Daleks.  Really.  I was sick of Daleks before new Who.  I thought they were used well in season one with Chris and Billie but after that it's just retread after retread after retread.  Enough with the Daleks already.

Comments

[juliet316]

I really really don't want to let go of Ten yet (and I've not seen either of the Eleven eps yet), but if you feel like you're starting to ship Eleven/Amy just use the end of your story where you had Ten put in Ten2 and that way you can have a happy 'ship for both Doctor/Rose and Doctor/Amy.

Best solution I can offer up at the moment.

[lady0fthesith.livejournal.com]

Good review of the episode, I enjoyed it quite a lot. One thing I liked was what happened with Eleven/Amy toward the end when Amy realized what was going on and decided to act contrary to what the Doctor was doing. It made me think very much of early Nine/Rose.

That's one thing I liked about Nine, sometimes he was wrong, and it was Rose's intuition and human take on things that he should have listened to, however, Ten seemed to just be right about almost everything all the time. I'm basically tickled to see any little hints that Nine is still in there somewhere. One reason I was thrilled how many times he got the timing wrong in the Eleventh Hour. Although he's getting worse it'd appear when 5 minutes turns into 12 years. lol

[amyo67.livejournal.com]

I am enjoying the new season so far. I have to agree with the sentiment about the Daleks being overused. It's like every single version of the Doctor has to face them.

[fishface44.livejournal.com]

I am enjoying Eleven & Amy very much-I completely buy him as the Doctor-but I did have a few reservations about this episode. I am leaning toward viewing it as a transition episode that is (no doubt) packed with many vital clues to the story arc that I will only understand in retrospect.

I love your insights into the characters!

About Amy in her night things: I think it was because the robe is striped.

[emraldeyedauter.livejournal.com]

What a wonderful review. Loved the comparison to the Terry Prachette Disc World novels. Me, I think I'm just easy to please. IF it makes me laugh and is a decent adventure then I'll love it. Yeah I miss both nine and Ten very much and always will but Eleven is growing on me and I do think he is starting to find his own style and no doubt will have it down in another episode or two.

Re the Daleks though. I'm rather a fan of them. Yees they've been used a lot but I must admit this story next week sounds very different, well in some ways. Winston Churchill using Daleks to fight world war 2. Not a bad concept in theory. Hope expectations pan out.

[queenfaithie.livejournal.com]

Oh, good, someone else who saw the Princess Leia thing!

[magali29.livejournal.com]

I think the problem with me is that when I watch a show, what makes me "love it" as opposed to just "like it", it's the characters and the relationships. Not that I ship a lot since I have only shipped one couple in 10 years of television. D/R is the second one. So I'm not that interested in shipping, as long as a show gives me depth, great characterization and a connection to the characters.

Thing is, with Moffat, I don't get the emotional connection with the characters. I never got it. I have watched 5x01 and it's good. It's entertaining. I'll watch the other episodes but based on his past episodes and on what I have seen so far, the new Doctor and Amy will stay in the "I like zone", and not in the "I adore/ I can't get enough of them zone".

Which is good, in the end. I mean, I can watch it and not be pissed off because the vibe is gone. It's now an entertaining show with a hot woman playing the female lead.

[galadriella1.livejournal.com]

You know, I loved the episode, it has cemented my faith in SM and MS, but, I pick up on several Tennatisms - I think SM was still thinking about Ten more than Eleven, but Matt did a better job with this than he did with last weeks episode.

The whole threatening to send Amy home was a bit Nine for me though. You know, it sort of mirrored for me when Nine sends Adam home in The Long Game and when he threatens Rose in Father's Day.

I agree with the Daleks though, were the fuck have they appeared from this time. They have more lives than a bloody cat!

Daleks daleks daleks

[ali-su.livejournal.com]

I am liking eleven. I like that he is silly and child like until he has to be fire and stone. I watched "The End Of Time" with my sister last night. She said if the Daleks get to come back then so should the Time Lords. I think they should all stay gone.

[luinel-anduril.livejournal.com]

i've never understood why people don't think Ten was alien. Do normal human men go around licking things, talking casually about recreational mathematics and other technobabble at a thousand words per minute, and i had a third example but my sick brain lost grip of it somewhere in the midst of my typing (hates being sick).

i hated the Doctor=whale point because, yeah i got it the first time, you didn't have to repeat it twice more while staring out at the stars. Totally agree about Daleks, where were the Star Wars references??? Or was that the window?

[sinecure.livejournal.com]

I've got a question... are they going to continue feeding people to the star whale?

You know, Eleven feels very Ten meets Five meets Two to me. I just wish I could like him as much as I loved all of them. Still, it's enjoyable.

[draconin.livejournal.com]

I liked most of it, and generally for the same reasons as you. I very much liked how well Amy understood him, although to be honest I found it a bit unlikely that she actually would have developed that level of understanding in such a short space of time. I didn't like it as much as the first one but I found it hard to put my finger on quite why. What was different between the first episode and this one? The best I can say is that it felt 'jerky' in presentation; it didn't flow smoothly. So I was interested to see that there was a different director (Andrew Gunn) from the first episode (Adam Smith) even though the writer was the same. The third episode is also being directed by Andrew Gunn so I'll be interested to see if this is his style.

[azriona.livejournal.com]

I'm really growing to like Eleven. At least, I did in this episode, we'll see how it plays out over the course of the season/reign. And I like how Amy's character is developing. It's one of the things I missed by watching the whole first few season in one fell swoop - you watch two or three episodes together, and you sort of ingest the otherwise slow development quickly, so it doesn't seem like it took all that long. I have to think Rose, had I taken her week by week instead of all in one afternoon, might not have emerged as such a clear-cut character for me so quickly.

That's what I'm thinking, anyway.