Um.

[sumeria]

So... just watched The Beast Below.


My thoughts/questions in no particular order:

The line "And then I have to change my name, because I won't be the Doctor anymore," was beautiful. Hands down the best in episode.
Based on the image the episode ends with... the whale's face (including its mouth) is below the ship, not inside of it. And it's teeth didn't look that airtight to me. So I have no idea how the Doctor and Amy didn't experience some vacuum-related difficulties, and even less idea how it managed to spit them out *into* the ship.
Given that the dudes in robes apparently know the truth about the ship's design full time, why can't the Queen? It seems like the forget/discover/angst/forget again cycle could be left out; if she's been persuaded every time that there's no other choice, why not just remember that?
And speaking of leaving earth... did every other nation of the world (apparently, including Scotland) die? Or did they all escape on actual non-whale powered spaceships? And if so... none of them would share with England? And England was the only nation that couldn't build a spaceship?
And is it really necessary to feed dissidents to the whale? Presumablythe inhabitants of the ship eat, so there must be some way the ship procures food. Can't they just give that to the whale?
Relatedly, if the whale never eats children, why are they still trying to feed it children?
Whale-torturing may be the greatest of this society's problems, but it certainly doesn't seem to be the only one. It's still also a group of people who think it's okay to feed kids who fail a test to a whale. Also, anyone who disagrees with them. I mean, they have those Smiley thingdoodles all over the damn place to terrify their population into submission, I guess? It just seems like being nicer to the whale doesn't even begin to address all the things that are wrong with the place. (And if Liz has total power as she keeps asserting, then why has she left the creepy booths up all over the place?)
Also, what the fuck are the Smiley things *for*? That was never even remotely clear.
Even if it didn't make any sense at all, I really liked the protest/forget booths; very much shades of The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, and a very compelling image.
Really liked Amy's analysis of the whale as being "very old, very kind, and the last", but wished they hadn't leached all the power out of it by repeating it eighteen times to make sure we got the parallel they were trying to draw. It was clear the first time.
What has happened to Moffatt? I have my differences with him, but at least four of his six episodes under RTD had *beautiful* pacing (I am not qualified to evaluate his season 4 episodes); but these two episodes have been *crap* for pacing. So much time wasted on things that don't contribute anything, and then events that do matter are raced through so quickly that you're just left going, "...what?".
The new screwdriver still looks like a sex toy.
Amy is awesome.
I was also a fan of "No one human gets to talk to me right now. Poor Eleven.

The visuals in this episode, and the ideas behind it, were absolutely lovely. Shame about the execution.

In conclusion... I shall continue to withhold judgement.

Comments

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

Compare the wording of your reaction with the wording of mine (http://wendymr.livejournal.com/191495.html). ;) Yes. Jury still out.

[sumeria.livejournal.com]

Yeah. What you said.

I keep being unable to escape the feeling that Moffat is just... trying too hard? And ending up neglecting basic storytelling.

[tiboribi.livejournal.com]

Hm. I am largely baffled by your dislike of Moffat's episodes. I love them. I have loved both of them this season. I think Moffat's episodes are the most Douglas Adams-y thing I have seen on film since Tom Baker (if we really needed a sixth Hitchhikers' book, Moffat should have written it; I know Gaiman was offered it, but that would have been weird and darkly wrong, and the one that we wound up is bad (Christmas present)). I think my feeling about what is likely to be the major difference between the Moffat era and the Davies era was summed up in Eleven telling Amy that he was the last of the Time Lords without turning into the ANGST! that Ten (and Nine) always got into. My heart did break for him when he had to decide between the whale and the ship. (And yes, I too was wondering what happened to all the other nations, and why the UK wasn't able to build an actual space ship.)

(I should get some Dr. Who icons.)

[sumeria.livejournal.com]

Well, what's particularly interesting here is that my opinion of this one doesn't really have anything to do with my general Moffat opinions. All the things about him that irritate me... are mostly not present here.

I disliked this episode because I thought the writing was basically crap, and the pacing was worse, and if you'd asked me three weeks ago, I would have said pacing was one of Moffat's gifts. (Continuity, no; pacing, yes.) And I mean, his plots have never been very tight, but usually I don't start to notice the holes until the second time through. These two episodes? I kept getting distracted by them.

(And I think I shall take this moment to register my opinion that Ten gets a bad rap for the Angst. ie, his last few episodes were full of it, but I think it was because of the *content of those episodes*, not a personal problem, as it were. Ten was usually pretty happy when he wasn't getting kicked in the face.)

[tiboribi.livejournal.com]

Ten was like bipolar, or something, only with faster mood swings than you actually get in manic-depressives. His angst was worse when Rose wasn't around, but basically if being the Last of the Time Lords ever came up, the Angst! hit it big time. I actually really loved Ten, but the Angst! got to me. Moffat did a good deal of it as well, with the Angst! for Reinnette and for River Song.

I have always found Moffat's strength in Dr. Who for tapping into deep routed child's fears, of zombie mask children, of clockwork robots, of the dark, of statues, and making it into something creeps the hell out of me. I think he's done a pretty good job at keeping that up. I still haven't noticed the crap writing that you seem to find, so...to each her own, I guess.