"You know how I said I had to be back tomorrow morning?"
Just finished watching "The Beast Below" and I'm sure I will have things to say later but I did like it very much and something occurred to me about the end-
In that third-to-last scene, the Doctor tells Amy that she could have killed everyone; she tells him he could have killed a beautiful creature. It was an impossible choice both of them looked at, and they each chose the route that seemed likeliest to them to kill the least people. And in the end, they pulled in opposite directions.
It seemed sort of parallel to the choice set up in "The Fires of Pompeii" where Donna was placed in that similar position of first trip abroad, seeing the wonders, but also realizing something terrible is happening and knowing that either they can let the terrible thing happen, or they can make something worse happen. She rages at the Doctor too, but when it comes to force the moment to its crisis (TS Eliot I can't quit you) she lays her hands on the button with his so that she, too, is implicated in HIS choice. I love Donna for it: she consciously sacrifices her innocence for the earth, and to share the Doctor's burden.
And I love Amy too, that in this case she walks away from the Doctor's choice, when he says it's something no human can share ("You're only human... no human has anything to say to me right now.") It's not the exact same situation as Donna's; the choices aren't the same, and the Doctor is not the same. But Amy says no, and finds her own answer, by her own reasoning- a reasoning that looks suspiciously similar to the visual assembly of clues used by the Doctor in "The Eleventh Hour". (Still deciding whether or not I like that editing style. It's a bit Sherlock Holmes. This could be a good or bad thing.) Amy acts on that reasoning, and this time she made the right choice.
I don't want to talk about how the Doctor discards Amy's opinion after he finds out she made the decision to forget for him, even though she can't remember doing so; I think him being angry and douche-y after a companion or anybody paints him into a corner of horrible decisions is very in-character (see Nine with Rose after she chooses to save her father in "Father's Day", or ... I forget what else, but everybody's gotten yelled at, pretty much, the Doctor has never been a paragon of maturity.) But I don't know where that all falls on the continuum of Inherent Douche that the Doctor has always displayed, and Sexist Fuckwad that everyone acutely aware of Moffat's issues wtih characterizing women and relationships can see. Don't really want to start a discussion on it yet.
I'm highly intrigued to see how that tendency plays out in later episodes.
Also, I loved their hug at the end. I think it's very little girl and her imaginary friend have adventures type hug. AWWWWWWWWWW.
In that third-to-last scene, the Doctor tells Amy that she could have killed everyone; she tells him he could have killed a beautiful creature. It was an impossible choice both of them looked at, and they each chose the route that seemed likeliest to them to kill the least people. And in the end, they pulled in opposite directions.
It seemed sort of parallel to the choice set up in "The Fires of Pompeii" where Donna was placed in that similar position of first trip abroad, seeing the wonders, but also realizing something terrible is happening and knowing that either they can let the terrible thing happen, or they can make something worse happen. She rages at the Doctor too, but when it comes to force the moment to its crisis (TS Eliot I can't quit you) she lays her hands on the button with his so that she, too, is implicated in HIS choice. I love Donna for it: she consciously sacrifices her innocence for the earth, and to share the Doctor's burden.
And I love Amy too, that in this case she walks away from the Doctor's choice, when he says it's something no human can share ("You're only human... no human has anything to say to me right now.") It's not the exact same situation as Donna's; the choices aren't the same, and the Doctor is not the same. But Amy says no, and finds her own answer, by her own reasoning- a reasoning that looks suspiciously similar to the visual assembly of clues used by the Doctor in "The Eleventh Hour". (Still deciding whether or not I like that editing style. It's a bit Sherlock Holmes. This could be a good or bad thing.) Amy acts on that reasoning, and this time she made the right choice.
I don't want to talk about how the Doctor discards Amy's opinion after he finds out she made the decision to forget for him, even though she can't remember doing so; I think him being angry and douche-y after a companion or anybody paints him into a corner of horrible decisions is very in-character (see Nine with Rose after she chooses to save her father in "Father's Day", or ... I forget what else, but everybody's gotten yelled at, pretty much, the Doctor has never been a paragon of maturity.) But I don't know where that all falls on the continuum of Inherent Douche that the Doctor has always displayed, and Sexist Fuckwad that everyone acutely aware of Moffat's issues wtih characterizing women and relationships can see. Don't really want to start a discussion on it yet.
I'm highly intrigued to see how that tendency plays out in later episodes.
Also, I loved their hug at the end. I think it's very little girl and her imaginary friend have adventures type hug. AWWWWWWWWWW.