The Beast Below- starring Amy Pond, xenopsychologist
Congratulate me, this isn’t as late this week! As usual, please remember that:
# of spoilers under the cut > # of packets of ramen you could get with $20.
Sooo… in the future, teachers are replaced by ugly robots in booths that resemble those fortune-telling machines at carnivals?
Huh, there’s another zero. Wonder if that’ll be another ‘meme of the season’ like the cracks in Amy’s wall and on the Tardis’ display screen seem to be.
Damn, that kid should be happy he has to take the stairs instead of the elevator. Run by angry monks, with ugly booth-bots in the walls, and videos of a slightly-creepy-but-mostly-annoying little girl reciting ominous nursery rhymes? Is having to walk a bit really that bad?
Still not liking the new version of the theme song. After hearing it more times, I can recognize the main tune in it, but it still seems off to me. Hatred of the new logo is slowly making its way down (or possibly up) to ‘dislike’ because of how the ‘DW’ turns into the Tardis in the animation. Plus it looks kinda good on the covers of the the Eleventh Doctor novels that are coming out.
Speaking of Eleven, he can totally see up Amy’s nightgown right now. (Why do you think he’s really smiling here?)
Still a bit iffy on the new Tardis interior too. Talked with battletechie about it last night, and I think I’ve figured out why it’s bothering me (besides reminding me of the Monarch’s cocoon ship). The Tardis is usually supposed to the calm center of the storm of insanity that is Doctor Who. It’s where we start before everything goes horribly wrong, it’s oftentimes how things get fixed in the middle, and it’s where we end up when it’s all okay again. The ‘coral’ desktop theme’s (hi there, Time Crash, you awesome mini-episode, you) soft blue-green lights fit in with that by being nice and soothing, as least IMHO. This new ‘Apple store’ (saw someone else call it that, and I don’t have better/more amusing name) theme is all harsh and orange. It’s closer to what all the red lights were like when the Master turned the Tardis into the paradox machine at the end of season 3, when things were obviously not happy and good.
…Is this issue with people falling/hanging out the Tardis doors going to be a recurring thing? The Doctor should really take care of that.
Does every country have a starship like this, and should I be completely unsurprised if Japan is already working on something like it?
’We are observers only. That’s the one rule I’ve always stuck to.’ Ha ha, no. I swear to god, you could make a drinking game just out of the times the Doctor says something like that, then turns right around and does the opposite. Wouldn’t get as drunk as with the Rosario + Vampire ‘take a drink every time there’s a panty shot’ edition of the game Highline’s anime club has (well, drunk as you would if they weren’t just using water/soda/juice since they’re at school), but I think you’d get close.
If Amy being in her nightie is wrong, then why didn’t you give her a chance to go to the wardrobe room and change, Doctor? Do seem to remember something about you having a time machine, so it’s not like you’d have missed anything.
Never really thought about the crying kids thing before. Makes perfect sense in hindsight. Also: ’Are you a parent?' Way to avoid the question, Doctor. Nice deer-in-headlights look, btw.
’What are you gonna do?’ ‘What I always do. Stay out of trouble… badly.’ *sigh* At least he admits it.
Aww, he’s a sucker for sad children. The big softie. ♥♥
Wonder if Mandy’ll be a companion someday? She’s pretty smart and observant for a ten(?)-year-old.
Magpie Electricals! That’s the TV shop from The Idiot’s Lantern! …It’s really still in business after that mess, let alone this far into the future? Huh.
Please tell me I’m not the only one whose mind just went to the antlion boss in the desert near the beginning of Final Fantasy IV when they saw that scorpion-stinger-looking thing. The antlion doesn't particularly look like a scorpion, but the claws kinda remind me of one.
You know, on other shows, they’d have never bothered to come up with a reason why the water was still on a ship that should be rumbling just a bit. Moffat’s heading off the people who send that sort of shit into Mythbusters, I see.
’Help us, Doctor. You’re our only hope.’ As well as watching Star Wars, apparently.
And reading V for Vendetta, if that voting room feels the same to anyone else as it does to me.
Lots of images of children and fire in the video Amy watches. Don’t tell me, the ship runs on the souls of the innocent or something? Would explain the whole thing about them being so pissy about who gets to ride the damn elevators.
They forget every five years? Ha! It only takes us four. (Go USA! Not.) Good to see that the Doctor’s getting over his Time War angst. Maybe having the Timelords remind him what assholes they can be on New Year’s helped.
Yep, the Moff’s definitely been watching Star Wars. This is just like the scene in the first movie where they end up in the ‘trash compactor’ when rescuing Princess Leia. ’But on the plus side-roomy!’ The Doctor gets excited over the weirdest damn things.
Is Amy really this calm and levelheaded about things, or is she just in shock?
It’s surprising that the royal family still likes the Doctor so much after the ‘Virgin Queen incident’. Would have thought his loving-and-leaving their ancestor like that would annoy them more. Of course, I’m probably missing something like a change of ruling families or whatever in British history that would explain such a thing. Or they just didn’t like her and thought it was funny. Still, someone might’ve mentioned to the Doctor in passing, at least. 'Hey, remember that time when...? Gigity.'
OMG, Liz Ten is so the ‘killer queen’ Freddie Mercury wrote the song about:
Caviar and cigarettes
Well-versed in etiquette
Extraordinarily nice
She’s a killer queen
Gunpowder, gelatine
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anytime
Never mind the fact that this is over a millennium after he died. We are watching a show about a time traveler. And Sophie Okonedo is absolutely gorgeous in this, btw.
He already knows what the scorpion-thing is, doesn’t he?
What’s so special/odd about her mask? Mind sharing with the rest of the class, Doctor?
Wouldn’t think they’d have put an actual dungeon on a starship. Cells, yeah, but not a full-on dungeon.
Liz’s head minion looks like Leonard Nimoy.
I feel bad for the star whale… *wibble*
So how can Liz always forget the last decade of her life with all the other people on the ship around? With people aging/dying/getting married or divorced/having children/etc., it’s not like she or any of the regular citizens couldn’t notice major life changes like that and not realize that time was passing at least. If she’s been queen for 200 or so years, there should be little old ladies and men somewhere saying things to the effect of ‘oh, Liz Ten’s been queen since before I was born/since I was a kid’. I think the memory-erasers take out a lot more than just things about the star whale.
The UK was really behind all the other nations in leaving Earth? Doesn’t seem like it would be given the (current) state of most of the other countries in the world.
The Doctor doesn’t care what Amy was trying to do? He’s not even going to give her points for attempting to show him kindness? That's rather harsh of him...
And why doesn’t he try to think of something else to do with the ship like Liz suggests? If all the other countries figured something out (they obviously didn’t all catch themselves a star whale, somebody woulda noticed), why can’t Starship UK do it? Especially with the Doctor of all people helping them out.
*rolls eyes* Are they gonna do that memory/vision-thing in every episode now? Amy’s not even a Timelady…*grumble* The Doctor should’ve been able to connect the dots about the whale like she did, he’s the one who usually solves that sort of puzzle.
I think he’s sulking by that window because, for once, he wasn’t the cleverest person in the room. He’s being hypocritical about her hitting the abdicate button too-remember a certain someone not being able to resist ‘great big, threatening buttons’? He must be mad at or disappointed with himself, but taking it out on her.
Holy shit, Amy gets him. I’ve never seen another of the Doctor’s companions understand him so well so quickly. Maybe it’s because she’s not in love him like Rose and Martha were, or at least what he represents like Donna was, or just the fact that she’s had 14 years to think about him and how he acts, but Amy’s seeing who he is and who he could have been straightaway. She saved not only the star whale, but an entire country just by paying attention to the Doctor’s personality. I’m impressed.
’Have you ever run away from something because you were scared? Or not ready? Or just… just because you could?’
‘Once. A long time ago.’
‘What happened?’
‘Hello?’
Should that ^^ have made me lol as much as it did? And does he have any idea about the wedding yet? Don’t think I’ve seen Amy wearing an engagement ring or anything in any of the shots of her hands…
Is this going to be one of those seasons where the end of each episode is basically the first scene of the next one (read: episodes aren’t mostly standalone like they have been)? Starting at the beginning like this, it doesn’t bother me so much, but it could make me feel like I’m not seeing the whole thing if I see a random re-run of an episode in the future, and I can see how it’d be really annoying to anyone who might’ve missed an episode in the middle.
First the Tardis, and now he’s calling Winston fucking Churchill ‘dear’? Wtf, man, wtf. And if a Dalek’s in your office, I’m pretty sure things’ve already gone to shit.
Hey, there’s that spooky crack again on the ship’s hull. (They should fix that.)
I like the new version of the theme tune in the end credits a lot better than the half of it that's in the opening ones.
Arrgh! Why do I have to watch this show On Demand to get the good ‘next time’ trailers?! It’s not like anyone really cares that much if Graham Norton has to start a whole minute-and-a-half later because of it… or several, for those of you who had to deal with that stupid-ass ad popping up on the end of the episode that aired in the UK last Saturday (I feel your rage). That’s even worse than how they use to cut down the episodes to fit neatly in the hour-long timeslot when they first aired over here.
All in all, Matt Smith continues to not disappoint, Karen Gillan continues to be awesome, and Steven Moffat continues to write up neat stuff out of things that most people don't even notice. *likes how this season is going*