.... IN MY PANTS!

It's taken me nearly a week to get around to actually typing up anything on The Beast Below. Sue me, I've busy. I only managed to get around to rewatching it last night. Not that I was putting it off or anything. I've just been, you know, occupied. With things that aren't Doctor Who. Criminal I know, but what can you do?

Anyway, what can I say? Firstly, despite the almost universal panning it's been recieving from the Doctor Who blogs I can actually be bothered to read I really like the new title music. It takes a couple of listens to get where it's coming from, but I find it to be a delightful fusion of old school and new school DW sensebilities. This is rather appropriate considering that that seems to be where they're going with the show itself. Hard to pin it down exactly, but things certainly seem a bit less... Frenetic now, despite the fact that we're still galloping through a 45 minute runtime for each story. I've seen it mentioned that this episode would work as a Seventh Doctor and Ace story, and I have to agree. Plus now we know why Song Of The Space Whale got pulled from Big Finishes Lost Season series of audios.

I'd like to say that the story itself has a kind of old school feel in that it clearly has some clever ideas going on but also has it's flaws. But then so does a lot of nu-who, so whatever. The ideas are good, the acting is on form, the production values are top notch. Matt Smith goes on to prove that he is a very Doctorish Doctor, being somehow naturally unnatural. There's something about the way he carries himself. It's very good, and I look forward to when he gets to something a little more meaty.

The whole fairy tale asthetic that we're hearing so much about is out in full force here, and whilst it does work very well it does also result in what for me is the major detraction from the episode. Now this is going to be a bit spoilery, but if you haven't watched it yet then frankly there's something wrong with you and I hate you. Or maybe you're American. Which is basically the same thing.

Anyway, racism aside for one moment. So when we start the episode we have a child being, at least on the face of it, KILLED for failing a test. The Doctor has a great little bit about the police state. Undesireables are vanished away by the shadowy powers that be. A society bent out of shape. We go on to find the terrible secret of the Star Whales enslavement and torture. The Whale is freed from it's bonds, continues on happily and the Doctor leaves. Without addressing the fundemental issue of the police state that KILLS CHILDREN FOR FAILING TESTS. Or at least tries to. The Whale was one issue yes. A serious one. But then so was the shadowy government that was allegedly oppressing the people. I terms of a fairy tale narrative then yes, once the Whale is freed then the badness is resolved. In terms of any other sort of story we still have the guilty unpunished and the mechanisms of an opressive regime in full working order.

But this is honestly a rather minor niggle in the narrative structure presented, stemming more from my own obsessive nitpicking as a fan than any major deficit in the writing. It was an interesting story, which kept me entertained, and face it, there's not many shows that get you thinking about stylistic conciets and narrative structure like Doctor Who does.

This is, I would say more of a good episode than a great one. We're still being introduced to this new version of the show, and it's perhaps still finding it's feet somewhat. This one is, most likely, going to be overshadowed by what is to come anyway. Daleks and Angels and such, oh my.

But I'm going to say that it's going to be good. It's ALREADY good. It does seem that it's going to get even better though. Rock on.