History Recap / DoctorWhoS31E02TheBeastBelow

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_Beast_Below_6799.jpg]]

->[[labelnote:Forget]]''A horse and a man: above, below/One has a plan, but both must go/Mile after mile, above, beneath/One has a smile, and one has teeth/Though the man above might say hello/Expect no love from the beast below.''\\
-- Creepy Little Girl[[/labelnote]]

->[[labelnote:Protest]]''In bed above we're deep asleep/While greater love lies further deep/This dream must end, this world must know/We all depend on the beast below.''\\
-- Amy[[/labelnote]]

->[--''[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/DoctorWhoS31E02TheBeastBelow?action=edit Record]]''--]
%% If any bots have intruded, this is supposed to lead to the edit button.

%% This isn't a trick, this is for real. You have to find the back button on your browser, and get back to the TV Tropes recap page for "The Beast Below". Please, don't add any natter.

Immediately after the events of the previous episode, the Doctor takes Amy to the distant future, where she finds Britain [[AC:in space!]] After solar flares roasted the Earth, every nation took to the skies. ''Starship UK'' houses the future of the British people, as they search the stars for a new home. They land in what seems to be a normal, nice and British marketplace, but the Doctor tells Amy to "notice everything" -- they're actually in the midst of a police state. Then he places a glass of water on the floor, for seemingly no reason. "[[BlatantLies There's an escaped fish]]"? Oh really? Well, Doctor, you're being watched, and it seems that you just did "the thing"...

The Doctor notices that everyone is terrified of those smiling robot fellows in the booths, so he sends Amy to interrogate an upset little girl. She does so, but she can't stop herself from stumbling upon a tentacle. In a hole, in the road. That's weird, but what's weirder is the sinister-looking group of hooded fellows spraying her with sleeping gas.

Meanwhile, the Doctor is off staying out of trouble (badly), and has headed to the engine room with another glass of water. Something's very wrong here -- "an impossible truth", as the mysterious woman in front of him calls it. She wears a spooky mask and a red cloak, and demands to know the Doctor's business with that water. Were there an engine on a ship this big, there would be vibrations. The water would move! The woman needs the Doctor's help in unearthing the truth, and tells him that her name is... Liz 10. She is played by SophieOkonedo.

Amy wakes up in a "voting booth", and there are three buttons before her -- [[AC:protest]], [[AC:forget]] and [[AC:record]]. She is identified (Age 1,306?! Shut up!), and a film starts to play on the TV screen before her, apparently detailing the history of ''Starship UK''. Suddenly, a whirlwind of images flashes by. Children screaming, violence, terror, pain and most prominently... the Sun. But no sooner is it all over than Amy finds her hand on the [[AC:forget]] button. What just happened in those last 20 minutes? A clue to this is offered as Amy's recorded message to herself starts to play. On screen, a distressed Amy pleads "This isn't a trick, this is for real, you've got to find the Doctor, and get him off this ship!"

Just then, the Doctor arrives. He examines the light bulb at the top of the room -- standard memory wipe, must have erased about 20 minutes. But why? And why would Amy choose to forget? Well, according to the crying girl from earlier, Mandy, everyone does. But the Doctor isn't scared, and smacks the [[AC:protest]] button. Unfortunately, this catapults both him and Amy down an air-pressure cannon. They land in what appears to be a rubbish dump. But the Doctor soon figures out that it's a tongue. So they're in a giant mouth. Great. The Doctor triggers a vomit wave to escape, but the switch to exit this dark chamber... is a [[AC:forget]] button. And those Smiler androids in the back are getting pretty irritable.

The two are rescued from the Smilers by Liz 10, who takes them up to her quarters whilst making remarks about the Doctor's history with her kingdom. And why is it ''her'' kingdom? Well, that would be because she's been Queen Elizabeth X of England for 10 years! They slowed her body clock to keep her looking like the stamps. In her room, there are a lot of water glasses. And her mask... it's rather old. Very, very old, an antique. Porcelain, too. Stays on because it's perfectly sculpted to her face. So what? So ''everything'', Liz... Just then, some of those hooded blokes show up and ask to take Liz to the Tower of London. She refuses, but it seems that ''these'' particular politicians are half-Smiler.

Down in the Tower's torture chamber they find a rather odd installation: a laser in the ceiling perpetually fires shots into part of a very large brain. Piecing together the puzzle, the Doctor figures out that this pain center, the mouth and the tentacle from earlier are all part of one creature, and... it's what they have instead of an engine. And they're torturing it to keep it going. And then we find out what's wrong with Liz's mask. It's at least 200 years old... and perfectly sculpted to her face. Wait, that can't be right, she's only been Queen for 10 years! Oh... dear. The same 10 years... over and over again, always leading her to this same place -- a voting booth. It's her choice: [[AC:forget]] or [[AC:abdicate]]. Her own recorded message to herself starts to play.

When the solar flares originally roasted the Earth, the UK weren't quite quick enough to make a ship. Their children were screaming as the skies grew hotter. But then it came... like a miracle... a Star Whale. A massive, old, gentle creature, and the last of its kind. They trapped it, built the starship around it, and now they torture it to keep it moving. Heartbreaking. But hey, at least they feed it... with rubbish... and people. Protesters and citizens of limited value, to be precise. But it won't eat the children. If Liz chooses to [[AC:abdicate]] the ship will disintegrate and everyone will die. But if she chooses to [[AC:forget]], poor old SpaceWhale will be in agony for another decade.

The Doctor realises that Amy recorded that message to herself ("Get the Doctor off this ship!") because she didn't want the Doctor to have to make an impossible choice. Bad move, Amy -- you don't decide what he needs to know. He tells her that her days as his new companion are over already. The Doctor TakesAThirdOption, preparing to lobotomize the whale so at least it won't be in pain. He says that it's the most horrible thing he'll ever have to do, and he'll just have to pick a new name because he can't do this and live with himself as the Doctor any longer, but there's nothing else that can be done.

Seeing the tentacles playing with some cute children, Amy takes the Doctor's advice from earlier and notices everything -- ''"it won't eat the children", "our children screamed!", "It came like a miracle,", "Never interfere in the affairs of other planets, unless there's children crying?", "Just me now", "The last of its kind"''. And then she realizes the truth.

She grabs Liz's hand to press the [[AC:abdicate]] button and release the whale, at which point ''Starship UK'' starts moving ''faster''. But why? Surely it would take its opportunity to escape? No, the kindly old SpaceWhale simply ''wanted'' to help in the first place. They didn't need to torture or trap it. It came because it couldn't bear to see the children cry.

Afterwards, the Doctor tells Amy she couldn't have known that. She responds that maybe ''he'' couldn't have known, but that an alien, the last of his kind, who has been through pain and anguish, and just become kinder and unable to see children cry, was something ''she'd'' already seen. The Doctor stares at her for a minute, then yanks her into his arms and buries his face in her shoulder. They return to the TARDIS when the console's phone starts ringing. It's UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E03VictoryOfTheDaleks he wants the Doctor's help, while a Dalek is standing in his office]].

As they leave, though, we see that there's [[ArcSymbol a crack]] in the starship...

----
!!Tropes

* ActionGirl: Liz 10 is very much made of {{Badass}}.
* ApocalypseHow: Solar flares toasted the Earth; probably rating Total Extinction. Destroying ''Starship UK'' would only be on a regional scope, as other nations have their own starships.
* TheAtoner: Queen Elizabeth X.
* AttackOfTheMonsterAppendage: The tentacles/stingers are seen at various places in the ship before the reveal that they are all part of the body of the Star Whale.
* BadassBoast:
-->'''Liz 10:''' I'm the bloody Queen, mate. Basically, I rule.
* BadVibrations: Played with -- the Doctor's first hint of the Beast's existence is when he notices that the liquid in a glass of water ''isn't'' vibrating, which it should be if the Starship had engines running.
* [[BigDamnHeroes Big Damn Heroine]]: Liz 10 blasting those smilers.
* BizarreAlienBiology: The Star Whale grows tentacles into the ship and has some sort of anti-squid tentacular tail.
* BellyOfTheWhale
* BlatantLies: The Doctor tells Amy he never interferes. And that he always stays out of trouble ("badly").
* BookEnds:
-->'''Creepy Girl:''' ...expect no love from [[TitleDrop the beast below.]]\\\
'''Amy:''' ...we all depend on [[TitleDrop the beast below.]]
* BritainVersusTheUK: The Doctor notes that ''Starship UK'' is still "Great Britain and Northern Ireland" (except for Scotland) after over a millennium.
* BrokenAngel: The poor Star Whale.
* ButThouMust: The Powers That Be encourage people to [[AC: Forget]] by:
** Keeping the Protest threshold low (if 1% of the passengers [[AC: Protest]], everybody dies),
** Making Her Majesty's vote a GoldenSnitch that would destroy the Kingdom, and
** Feeding protesters to the Beast (though the voters, of course, don't know this).
* {{Cliffhanger}}: UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill calls to summon the Doctor's help as a Dalek silhouette glides towards him...
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Eleven, turning it UpToEleven, fittingly. Of course it turns out to be a case of ObfuscatingInsanity. Or fortuitous insanity, we'll see...
-->'''The Doctor:''' Sorry, checking all the water in this area; there's an escaped fish.
* ContinuityNod
** The solar flares that drove people off the Earth, previously mentioned in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E2TheArkInSpace "The Ark in Space"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E3TheSontaranExperiment "The Sontaran Experiment"]].
** There's also a large [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS2E7TheIdiotsLantern Magpie Electricals]] sign above the hole in the road.
** Liz 10 knows about [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS3E2TheShakespeareCode the Doctor's affair with]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E17E18TheEndOfTime the "Virgin Queen".]]
** And that the Doctor and QueenVicky [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS2E2ToothAndClaw didn't quite see eye to eye]].
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E15PlanetOfTheDead "You look Time Lord."]]
** The Doctor's extremely brief explanation that he is the last of his kind. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS1E6Dalek Bad]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS3E13LastOfTheTimeLords day]]" [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E17E18TheEndOfTime indeed...]]
** Apparently the British government still believes that [[Series/{{Torchwood}} sending under-performing children to a]] FateWorseThanDeath [[Series/TorchwoodChildrenOfEarth for the benefit of society]] is still acceptable.
** Churchill is an old friend of the Doctor. Indeed, he met the Sixth Doctor a few times in the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse novels.
* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Played for drama.
* CoveredInGunge: Both the Doctor and Amy get covered in space whale vomit.
* CreepyChild: With matching creepy nursery rhyme.
* DisproportionateRetribution: A little boy gets sent down to the Beast for... failing a test and then trying to take the lift.
* EverybodyLives: While it's implied that people have been fed to the whale through the centuries, from the start of this episode to the end not a single character dies.
* EarthThatWas
* ForTheEvulz: Apparently, the rulers of England allow the people to vote on whether or not to continue torturing an ancient creature... or die. Why bother? Unless [[FridgeLogic it's because they need to feed it]] and can't be bothered to build a farm on their gigantic SpaceWhale star ship for all of England...
* FriendToAllChildren
** The Doctor cannot help but stop to help a crying child. Also, the Beast Below.
** Liz 10 gives this vibe when talking to Mandy as well. The little girl relaxes the minute she recognizes her queen.
* HumansAreTheRealMonsters
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Those who know the "impossible truth" aren't proud of what they've done; they considered it necessary to save the Kingdom.
-->'''Presenter:''' Here, then, is the truth about ''Starship UK'', and the price that has been paid for the safety of the British people. May God have mercy on our souls.
* InfantImmortality: Justified, and the clue as to what's really going on.
* InternalHomage
** As in [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS1E13ThePartingOfTheWays "The Parting of the Ways"]], the Doctor has to make a moral choice he does not want to, before the companion intervenes.
** As ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'''s "[[Recap/TorchwoodS2E4Meat Meat]]", our heroes have to come to the decision on whether or not to kill an innocent extraterrestrial whale for the greater good.
* KarmaHoudini: The secret police, who fed the star-whale with everyone who hit the protest button, and "undesirables".
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: The "Forget" button in the voting booths.
* LastOfHisKind: The Star Whale. Amy compares his situation to the Doctor.
* MamaBear: Liz 10 is furious at the idea of someone feeding her subjects to the Star Whale.
* MoralDissonance
** Granted he was very upset at the time, but the Doctor telling Amy, who waited ''fourteen years'', that he's going to drop her back on Earth after messing up on her very first trip? To make matters worse, she only did so in order to prevent him from having to make a SadisticChoice. ''Adam'' did far worse!
** That's trivial compared to the fact that the government is going to get away with all the horrific stuff they did, including feeding dissenters to the whale, and the Doctor didn't do a thing about it.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Liz 10 discovers that the star-whale's torture is carried out on her orders, and she resets her memory every ten years when she's told about it again. The look on her face as everything falls into place shows she definitely feels this way.
* NoseTapping
* NotSoDifferent: How Amy saves the day. Incredibly old, a FriendToAllChildren...
* OlderThanTheyLook: Liz 10
* PajamaCladHero: Amy, spending the whole episode in her nightdress.
* PercussivePickpocket:
-->'''The Doctor:''' This fell out of her pocket when I accidentally bumped into her. Took me four goes.
* PoorCommunicationKills: Man, wouldn't everything have been easier if the Star Whale could have just told them it was volunteering its services? That happens when you can't even communicate in the audible wavelengths.
* [[PoweredByAForsakenChild Powered by an Endlessly Tortured]] SpaceWhale
* PostMortemOneLiner:
-->'''Liz 10:''' I'm the bloody queen, mate. Basically, I rule.
* PressXToDie: Feel horrified from what you've learned from the video? Then press [[AC:protest]] and your vote could be the one that condemns the entire Kingdom to death. Or maybe something will happen before then, like getting sent into the mouth of the beast powering the ship.
* PrimeDirective: The Doctor claims that he follows this, [[BlatantLies despite every other episode of the show.]]
* PunchClockVillain: It turns out neither the Smilers nor the Winders are actually evil. [[WhatTheHellHero They were acting on the Queen's orders.]] The Doctor doesn't like people who are JustFollowingOrders.
-->'''The Doctor:''' [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS1E12BadWolf And with that sentence, you just lost the right to even talk to me.]]
* RealitySubtext: Liz 10 saying "I was brought up on your stories; my whole family was." This is certainly true for the ''current'' Queen Elizabeth.
* RoboticReveal: The hooded men reveal themselves as hybrid Smilers by turning their heads around.
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Liz 10, who has been trying to solve the ''Starship UK'''s problems for two hundred years.
* SadisticChoice: Everybody's options basically boil down to: (1) Continue torturing the Star Whale, or (2) kill the entire country.
* SchizoTech: Life on the spaceship involves a large number of very low-tech things.
* SchmuckBait:
** "Oh, don't mind me! Never could resist a 'Keep Out' sign."
** The "Protest" button.
** "If this is just the mouth, I'd love to see the stomach!...Though not right now."
* ShoutOut
** ''Franchise/StarWars'': "Help us, Doctor, you're our only hope."
** And ''then'' the heroes fall down the shaft into what appears to be a dump, where they realize that 1) [[Film/ANewHope there is something alive down there]] and 2) [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack they are IN the belly of the Beast]].
** The lettering of "STARSHIP UK" on the voting booth TV screens resembles the old BBC logo, especially as seen on [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/13/BBC-one1969.jpg the 70's BBC]] StationIdent. Though, while the lettering was similar, it was more likely a reference to [[http://hub.tv-ark.org.uk/images/bbcone/images_idents/1960s/bbctv_continuity_a.jpg this ident]].
* [[SpaceWhale Star Whale]]: The last of them.
* StealthInsult: After the Doctor hits the Protest button and he and Amy fall about 600 feet down. Amy asks where they are and the Doctor takes a long smell and says "I'd say [sniff] Lancashire". They're standing on a tongue covered in rubbish.
* TakeAThirdOption: Double-subverted; the Doctor's Third Option is almost as bad as the other two, but Amy realizes the Second Option won't have the results everyone thinks.
-->'''The Doctor:''' Look, three options. One, I let the star whale continue in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Two, I kill everyone on this ship. Three, I murder a beautiful and innocent creature as painlessly as I can. And then I find a new name, 'cos I won't be the Doctor any more.
* TakeThat: When the Doctor and Amy are in a smelly, icky part of the ''Starship UK'', the Doctor guesses they are in Lancashire.
* TheThemeParkVersion: ''Starship UK'' is like a "Britainland" theme park made of a hodgepodge of British props. And it looks good.
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: A tide of star-whale vomit rushes towards the Doctor and Amy:
--> '''The Doctor:''' Right then! This isn't going to be big on dignity.
* TimeTravelTenseTrouble:
-->'''Amy:''' (''about when she will/was get/got married'') Well, it's kinda weird. A long time ago, tomorrow morning. I wonder what I did.
* TitleDrop: Three times:
** "Though the man above might say hello, expect no love from the beast below..."
** "The dream must end, the world must know, we all depend on the beast below."
** "No, that's not going to work on me. Big ol' beast below decks, and everyone who protests gets shoved down its throat. Is that how it works?"
* TownWithADarkSecret: Except it's a starship, but the trope still holds.
* TheUnreveal: "Amy Pond. Age: 1,306. Marital Status: [Amy waits in suspense] ...Unknown."
* ViewersAreMorons: OK, so the Star Whale is this clever metaphor for the Doctor, see? He keeps saving mankind but is put through unending pain because of his choices. He just needs someone to show him again that it's a choice, not a painful obligation. Pretty darn blatant. Then why did we have to have it explained to us in the episode THREE WHOLE TIMES!?
* WhatTheHellHero: Amy calls the Doctor out on his choice to lobotomize the Star Whale. The Doctor calls out everybody on the ship for setting the situation up in the first place, and Amy for not telling him the truth.
* WhiteMaskOfDoom: Initially played straight when Liz 10 is introduced, but then becomes subverted when it turns out she's one of the good guys. Then it becomes a ChekhovsGun, allowing the Doctor to deduce Liz's true age.
* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: Amy's expression as she's drifting in space (with the Doctor hanging onto her foot), protected only by the TARDIS forcefield.

----

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Desperate over having to kill the beast, the Doctor snarls that he'll go through with it -- but the idea is so atrocious he'll have to choose a new name, since he couldn't possibly continue to call himself the Doctor. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor This becomes rather important later.]]

** "If this is just the mouth, I'd love to see the stomach! ... But not right now."

** "If this is just the mouth, I'd love to see the stomach! ... But not just now."

--> [[labelnote:Forget]]''A horse and a man: above, below/One has a plan, but both must go/Mile after mile, above, beneath/One has a smile, and one has teeth/Though the man above might say hello/Expect no love from the beast below.''-- Creepy Little Girl[[/labelnote]]

--> [[labelnote:Protest]]''In bed above we're deep asleep/While greater love lies further deep/This dream must end, this world must know/We all depend on the beast below.''-- Amy[[/labelnote]]

--> [--''[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/DoctorWhoS31E02TheBeastBelow?action=edit Record]]''--]

%% This isn't a trick, this is for real. You have to find the back button on your browser, and get back to the TV Tropes recap page for The Beast Below. Please, don't add any natter.

Immediately after the events of the previous episode, the Doctor takes Amy to the distant future, where she finds Britain [[AC:in space!]] After solar flares roasted the Earth, every nation took to the skies. Starship UK houses the future of the British people, as they search the stars for a new home. They land in what seems to be a normal, nice and British marketplace, but the Doctor tells Amy to "notice everything" -- they're actually in the midst of a police state. Then he places a glass of water on the floor, for seemingly no reason. "[[BlatantLies There's an escaped fish]]"? Oh really? Well, Doctor, you're being watched, and it seems that you just did "the thing"...

Amy wakes up in a "voting booth", and there are three buttons before her -- [[AC:protest]], [[AC:forget]] and [[AC:record]]. She is identified (Age 1,306?! Shut up!), and a film starts to play on the TV screen before her, apparently detailing the history of Starship UK. Suddenly, a whirlwind of images flashes by. Children screaming, violence, terror, pain and most prominently... the Sun. But no sooner is it all over than Amy finds her hand on the [[AC:forget]] button. What just happened in those last 20 minutes? A clue to this is offered as Amy's recorded message to herself starts to play. On screen, a distressed Amy pleads "This isn't a trick, this is for real, you've got to find the Doctor, and get him off this ship!"

She grabs Liz's hand to press the [[AC:abdicate]] button and release the whale, at which point Starship UK starts moving ''faster''. But why? Surely it would take its opportunity to escape? No, the kindly old SpaceWhale simply ''wanted'' to help in the first place. They didn't need to torture or trap it. It came because it couldn't bear to see the children cry.

Afterwards, the Doctor tells Amy she couldn't have known that. She responds that maybe ''he'' couldn't have known, but that an alien, the last of his kind, who has been through pain and anguish, and just become kinder and unable to see children cry, was something ''she'd'' already seen. The Doctor stares at her for a minute, then yanks her into his arms and buries his face in her shoulder. They return to the TARDIS when the console's phone starts ringing. It's WinstonChurchill and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E03VictoryOfTheDaleks he wants the Doctor's help, while a Dalek is standing in his office]].

* ActionGirl: Liz 10 is very much made of BadAss.
* ApocalypseHow: Solar flares toasted the Earth; probably rating Total Extinction. Destroying Starship UK would only be on a regional scope, as other nations have their own starships.

--> '''Liz 10''': I'm the bloody Queen, mate. Basically, I rule.

* [[BigDamnHeroes Big Damn Heroine]] Liz 10 blasting those smilers.

** Rule One.

--> '''Creepy Girl:''' ...expect no love from [[TitleDrop the beast below.]]\\
Amy: ...we all depend on [[TitleDrop the beast below.]]
* BritainVersusTheUK: The Doctor notes that Starship UK is still "Great Britain and Northern Ireland" (except for Scotland) after over a millennium.

* {{Cliffhanger}}: WinstonChurchill calls to summon the Doctor's help as a Dalek silhouette glides towards him...
* CloudCuckooLander: Eleven, turning it UpToEleven, fittingly. Of course it turns out to be a case of ObfuscatingInsanity. Or fortuitous insanity, we'll see...
--> '''Doctor''': Sorry, checking all the water in this area; there's an escaped fish.
* ContinuityNod: The solar flares that drove people off the Earth, previously mentioned in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E2TheArkInSpace The Ark in Space]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E3TheSontaranExperiment The Sontaran Experiment]]".

** Churchill is an old friend of the Doctor. Indeed, he met the Sixth Doctor a few times in the DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse novels.

* CreepyChild: With matching creepy nursery rhyme, natch!

* EverybodyLives: While it's implied that people have been fed to the whale through the [[strike: years]] centuries, from the start of this episode to the end not a single character dies.

* FiveFingerDiscount:
-->'''Doctor''': This fell out of her pocket when I accidentally bumped into her. Took me four goes.

* ForeShadowing: Desperate over having to kill the beast, the Doctor snarls that he'll go through with it -- but the idea is so atrocious he'll have to choose a new name, since he couldn't possibly continue to call himself the Doctor. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor This becomes rather important later.]]
* FriendToAllChildren: The Doctor cannot help but stop to help a crying child. Also, the Beast Below.
** Liz Ten gives this vibe when talking to Mandy as well. The little girl relaxes the minute she recognizes her queen.

--> '''Presenter:''' Here, then, is the truth about Starship UK, and the price that has been paid for the safety of the British people. May God have mercy on our souls.

* InternalHomage: As in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS1E13ThePartingOfTheWays The Parting of the Ways]]" the Doctor has to make a moral choice he does not want to, before the companion intervenes.

* MamaBear: Liz Ten is furious at the idea of someone feeding her subjects to the Star Whale.
* MoralDissonance: Granted he was very upset at the time, but the Doctor telling Amy, who waited ''fourteen years'', that he's going to drop her back on Earth after messing up on her very first trip?
** To make matters worse, she only did so in order to prevent him from having to make a SadisticChoice. I mean, geez, ''Adam'' did far worse!

* OlderThanTheyLook: Liz 10.

* PoorCommunicationKills: Man, wouldn't everything have been easier if the Star Whale could have just told them it was volunteering its services?
** That happens when you can't even communicate in the audible wavelengths.
* [[PoweredByAForsakenChild Powered By An Endlessly Tortured]] SpaceWhale

-->"I'm the bloody queen, mate. Basically, I rule."

* PunchClockVillain: It turns out neither the Smilers nor the Winders are actually evil. [[WhatTheHellHero They were acting on the Queen's orders.]]
** The Doctor doesn't like people who are JustFollowingOrders.
---> '''Doctor:''' [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS1E12BadWolf And with that sentence, you just lost the right to even talk to me.]]

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Liz 10, who has been trying to solve the Starship UK's problems for [[strike:ten]] two hundred years.

-->'''Amy''': Oh, don't mind me! Never could resist a "Keep Out" sign.

* ShoutOut:
** ''StarWars'': "Help us, Doctor, you're our only hope."
*** And ''then'' the heroes fall down the shaft into what appears to be a dump, where they realize that 1) [[ANewHope there is something alive down there]] and 2) [[TheEmpireStrikesBack they are IN the belly of the Beast]].

-->'''The Doctor:''' "Look, three options. One, I let the star whale continue in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Two, I kill everyone on this ship. Three, I murder a beautiful and innocent creature as painlessly as I can. And then I find a new name, 'cos I won't be the Doctor any more."
* TakeThat: When the Doctor and Amy are in a smelly, icky part of the Starship UK, the Doctor guesses they are in Lancashire.
* TheThemeParkVersion: Starship UK is like a "Britainland" theme park made of a hodgepodge of British props. And it looks good.

-->'''Amy''' (about when she will/was get/got married): "Well, it's kinda weird. A long time ago, tomorrow morning. I wonder what I did."

** ''Though the man above might say hello, expect no love from the beast below...''
** ''The dream must end, the world must know, we all depend on the beast below.''
** ''No, that's not going to work on me. Big ol' beast below decks, and everyone who protests gets shoved down its throat. Is that how it works?''

* TheUnreveal: "Amy Pond. Age: 1,306. Marital Status: [Amy waits in suspense] …Unknown."

Down in the Tower's torture chamber they find a rather odd installation: a laser in the ceiling perpetually fires shots into part of a very large brain. Piecing together the puzzle, the Doctor figures out that this pain centre, the mouth and the tentacle from earlier are all part of one creature, and... it's what they have instead of an engine. And they're torturing it to keep it going. And then we find out what's wrong with Liz's mask. It's at least 200 years old... and perfectly sculpted to her face. Wait, that can't be right, she's only been Queen for 10 years! Oh... dear. The same 10 years... over and over again, always leading her to this same place -- a voting booth. It's her choice: [[AC:forget]] or [[AC:abdicate]]. Her own recorded message to herself starts to play.

The Doctor realises that Amy recorded that message to herself ("Get the Doctor off this ship!") because she didn't want the Doctor to have to make an impossible choice. Bad move, Amy -- you don't decide what he needs to know. He tells her that her days as his new companion are over already. The Doctor TakesAThirdOption, preparing to lobotomise the whale so at least it won't be in pain. He says that it's the most horrible thing he'll ever have to do, and he'll just have to pick a new name because he can't do this and live with himself as the Doctor any longer, but there's nothing else that can be done.

Seeing the tentacles playing with some cute children, Amy takes the Doctor's advice from earlier and notices everything -- ''"it won't eat the children", "our children screamed!", "It came like a miracle,", "Never interfere in the affairs of other planets, unless there's children crying?", "Just me now", "The last of its kind"''. And then she realises the truth.

** Liz Ten gives this vibe when talking to Mandy as well. The little girl relaxes the minute she recognises her queen.

* TakeAThirdOption: Double-subverted; the Doctor's Third Option is almost as bad as the other two, but Amy realises the Second Option won't have the results everyone thinks.

* TheThemeParkVersion: Starship UK is like a "Britainland" theme park made of a hodge-podge of British props. And it looks good.

* WhatTheHellHero: Amy calls the Doctor out on his choice to lobotomise the Star Whale. The Doctor calls out everybody on the ship for setting the situation up in the first place, and Amy for not telling him the truth.