It’s all demon puppets and whale vomit this week! Join us as we discuss Amy’s first adventure with the Doctor: The Beast Below!
This is the podcast that introduces a whole new generation to Doctor Who by watching an episode each week and discussing it from the perspective of a dad who’s seen it before, and two sons who haven’t.
Welcome to Episode 66 covering series 5 episode 2, The Beast Below.
Super-short Recap
This is the one where Amy and the Doctor meet Queen Elizabeth X on the back of a space whale! Space Britain has become a police state and everyone is cool with it, except the Doctor and Amy.
Production notes
- Story # 204
- Originally aired April 10, 2010 to 8.42 million viewers
- Written by: Steven Moffatt
- Directed by: Andrew Gunn
Misc Trivia
- There was a minisode called “Meanwhile in the TARDIS 1”
- It was hilarious
- Amy kept asking all the fan questions about the TARDIS – why doesn’t the air leak out of the wooden box? Where did the windows go? Why is it always shaped like a police box?
- Some of this was part of introducing new viewers as Doctor Who was picking up international notoriety and new fans.
- The “My name is Amy Pond” narration was for the same reason.
Cast
- Liz 10 – Sophie Okonedo, OBE
- Hotel Rwanda
- Voice of Kanga in Christopher Robin
Checklist
- Creature of the week
- Smilers
- Star Whale
- Geronimo – 1
- This isn’t going to be big on dignity. *vomit*!
- Running count – 3
- Jiggery Pokery
- Sonic
- It opens!
- Made supersonic vibrations of the star whale audible by humans
- TARDIS
- He got a call from Winston Churchill
- Sonic
- Time War
- There was a bad day, bad stuff happened. And I’d love to forget it.
- The Crack
- The shell on the Star Whale had the Crack!
- Existential horror
- I’ve been dead for years
- Magpie Electricals
- There is still a Magpie Electricals shop in Space Britain!
Who’s Who?
- Who is The Doctor?
- We are observers only. I never get involved in other people’s affairs.
- He always stays out of trouble… badly
- He looks human. She looks Time Lord, we came first.
- He’s going to euthanize the star whale and then he’ll need a new name.
- Nobody human has anything to say to him!
- He’s very old, very kind, and the last of his kind. He can’t just watch children cry.
- Every tomorrow is a big day. He’s got a time machine, he skips over the little ones.
- Who is Amelia?
- Her first adventure, she has the “I’m in the future!” moment, then immediately realizes she’s been dead for centuries. “Oh good, you’re a cheery one.”
- She has to choose blind adventure or Leadworth. No real choice
- Never could resist a keep out sign
- She’s getting married. It’s funny how things slip your mind.
- It’s a long time ago, tomorrow morning.
- She made the decision to keep information from the Doctor.
- Gotcha.
- Callback to when he grabbed her into the TARDIS and said gotcha.
Classic Who Connection
- Questions from Last Episode
- Madman in a box -Yes
- The Doctor’s New Face
- The 4th Doctor said “Are you listening to me?” a lot, almost a catchphrase
- Someone said it referred to the Fifth Doctor but gave no backing for that
- It might just be a reference to the fact that no one listens to The Doctor
- The Beast Below
- Solar Flares – The premise is that the Earth is abandoned in the 29th Century because solar flares made it inhabitable. They used this premise in the Classic Who serials The Ark in Space and The Sontaran Experiment (which is a continuation from The Ark in Space)
-In those stories the escape plan is the same, escape on a giant spaceship. In that case, The Forth Doctor deduced that they were on a spaceship by feeling the vibrations on the ground. - The Monarchs – Liz 10 talks about all the times that The Doctor has met the monarchs throughout history. He was a drinking buddy with Henry VII and met Elizabeth II over tea and scones and in Silver Nemesis.
- Companion Ages – We see Amy amused by being identified as 1,306 years old. Back with the First Doctor, in the series called The Rescue Barbara is not amused as being identified at 550 years old, and Chesterton thinks it’s hilarious.
- Time Lords were First – I think we already covered that The Doctor mentions that Time Lords came before humans in Genesis of the Daleks and The Trial of a Time Lord
- Solar Flares – The premise is that the Earth is abandoned in the 29th Century because solar flares made it inhabitable. They used this premise in the Classic Who serials The Ark in Space and The Sontaran Experiment (which is a continuation from The Ark in Space)
Overall impressions
- Overall rating out of 10 –
- Austin – 8 glasses of floor water
- Corbin – 8 whale tongues
- Tripp – 9 devil smilers
- Jared – 7.5 star whales
- Creep Level – out of 500
- Austin – 300
- Corbin – 215
- Tripp – 345
- Jared – 220
Theories
- Corbin thinks The Crack will appear in every episode and that either the Master or the Daleks are responsible for it.
- Tripp thinks the Star Whale is significant and we’ll see it again.
The Game Plan
- Our next Timey Wimey episode is coming up next month. We’ll be covering the radio drama version of Robert Heinlein’s By His Bootstraps.
- You can find it in the archives at Radio Drama Revival.
Next Time…
Join us next time as we discuss Series 5, Episode 3: Victory of the Daleks.
Closing
Noobs and the Whovian is a production of Master Closet Studios, where it’s always smaller on the inside. Your Senior Producer is Austin Reason. Our Audio Engineer is Tripp Reason. Corbin Reason is our Production Editor.
Special thanks to tardis.wikia.com for the trivia, Jared for the Classic Who ConnectionYou can find us at facebook.com/noobsandthewhovian and email us at [email protected]. Consider supporting us at https://www.patreon.com/noobsandthewhovian.
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