[Doctor Who] 5.02 The Beast Below
Another episode of DW come and gone ...
I was kind of 'meh' on this episode. Although it was fun! SPACE WHALES ♥!!
First, the problems:
-Pacing. Awkward! It felt like chunks of the episode were missing that resulted in us jumping forward in time awkwardly. The beginning when the Doctor goes to the little girl, for instance.
-The Doctor jumping to anger when he figures out what's going on. There's a huge caveat with this complaint: I found the way Ten could go from happy-go-lucky to furious in an instant initially jarring, but as the series went on I became comfortable. I'm having the same problem here, I think: 5.01, Eleven was very calm and his moments of irritation were played for laughs. But this episode, it was like SUDDENLY ANGRY FOR REALZ and I was like, uh, wait, wait, EMOTIONAL WHIPLASH D=!
-The emotional rapport between the Doctor and Amy doesn't yet feel earned. The Doctor suddenly turning on Amy was startling and confusing: again, this might be because we don't know him that well yet. But Amy doesn't know the Doctor very well at this point: better, maybe, than he knows her, given her infatuation with him for 14 years, but I guess this episode feels like it came too early in the season? Give her a few adventures before you spring this on us, show, please?
What I loved:
-The Doctor is full of liiiiiiiies, just like Amy. =D 'Never get involved' my ass. I kind of love how quickly that flew out the window.
-SPACE WHALE! Huzzah!
-I loved Amy taking the reins and using the Doctor's advice against him, which is character-consistent to 5.01. Amy is a no-nonsense character - Donna!lite, if you will - and despite obsessing over him all this time she's already accepted that he's a flawed person, perhaps because of his broken promises.
-I also loved her starting to confess her fears about getting married to the Doctor, and I'm curious where they'll take that idea.
-Eleven is very quotable. All his one-liners are keepers. "There's a fish loose", HAH. Funnier thanks to the SPACE WHALE. I also liked his response to the whole 'last of the Time Lords' thing. A bad day, indeed!
-Eleven investigating things was awesome. I like the way Matt Smith plays an older Doctor, one who is more instructive in his verbosity, and able to command a room/show his age despite a youthful face. (but I'm still waiting for someone to refuse to take the Doctor seriously since he looks like he just graduated college.)
-Liz the 10th, Queen of England! =D AMAZING. I liked the callback to 'virgin queen' LOLOLOL from 'The End of Time'. Is the show implying that Liz is the descendant of Ten? Because if so, phew. Wow.
-....... SPACE WHALE =DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
For the best episode review ever, please see THIS. Be prepared to laugh!
I was kind of 'meh' on this episode. Although it was fun! SPACE WHALES ♥!!
First, the problems:
-Pacing. Awkward! It felt like chunks of the episode were missing that resulted in us jumping forward in time awkwardly. The beginning when the Doctor goes to the little girl, for instance.
-The Doctor jumping to anger when he figures out what's going on. There's a huge caveat with this complaint: I found the way Ten could go from happy-go-lucky to furious in an instant initially jarring, but as the series went on I became comfortable. I'm having the same problem here, I think: 5.01, Eleven was very calm and his moments of irritation were played for laughs. But this episode, it was like SUDDENLY ANGRY FOR REALZ and I was like, uh, wait, wait, EMOTIONAL WHIPLASH D=!
-The emotional rapport between the Doctor and Amy doesn't yet feel earned. The Doctor suddenly turning on Amy was startling and confusing: again, this might be because we don't know him that well yet. But Amy doesn't know the Doctor very well at this point: better, maybe, than he knows her, given her infatuation with him for 14 years, but I guess this episode feels like it came too early in the season? Give her a few adventures before you spring this on us, show, please?
What I loved:
-The Doctor is full of liiiiiiiies, just like Amy. =D 'Never get involved' my ass. I kind of love how quickly that flew out the window.
-SPACE WHALE! Huzzah!
-I loved Amy taking the reins and using the Doctor's advice against him, which is character-consistent to 5.01. Amy is a no-nonsense character - Donna!lite, if you will - and despite obsessing over him all this time she's already accepted that he's a flawed person, perhaps because of his broken promises.
-I also loved her starting to confess her fears about getting married to the Doctor, and I'm curious where they'll take that idea.
-Eleven is very quotable. All his one-liners are keepers. "There's a fish loose", HAH. Funnier thanks to the SPACE WHALE. I also liked his response to the whole 'last of the Time Lords' thing. A bad day, indeed!
-Eleven investigating things was awesome. I like the way Matt Smith plays an older Doctor, one who is more instructive in his verbosity, and able to command a room/show his age despite a youthful face. (but I'm still waiting for someone to refuse to take the Doctor seriously since he looks like he just graduated college.)
-Liz the 10th, Queen of England! =D AMAZING. I liked the callback to 'virgin queen' LOLOLOL from 'The End of Time'. Is the show implying that Liz is the descendant of Ten? Because if so, phew. Wow.
-....... SPACE WHALE =DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
For the best episode review ever, please see THIS. Be prepared to laugh!