History Recap / DoctorWhoS31E02TheBeastBelow

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. Wait, what mysterious woman? She wears a spooky mask and a red cloak, and demands to know the Doctor's business with that water. Turns out there isn't an escaped fish, but rather an escaped engine -- 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.

.
Just then, the Doctor arrives. He examines the lightbulb 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 chooses to forget. 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.

Down in the Tower's torture chamber they find a rather odd installation: a laser in the ceiling perpetually fires shots into a very large pain centre. 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.

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 trash... 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 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 a "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.

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 the Whale 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.

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

* BritainVersusTheUK: The Doctor notes that Starship UK is still "Great Britain and Northern Ireland" after over a millennium (except for Scotland.)

* DisproportionateRetribution: A little boy gets sent down to the Beast for... failing a quiz and then trying to take the subway-elevator-thing.

* 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 pick a new name, since he couldn't possibly continue to call himself the Doctor. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor This becomes rather important later.]]

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

* MamaBear: Liz Ten is furious at the idea of someone feeding her subjects, especially children, to the Star Whale.

* OhCrap: "I'm not leaving and I'm not forgetting. What are you going to do, stick out your tongues?" Then they stand up.

* RoboticReveal: The hooded men reveal themselves as hybrid Smilers by turning their head around.
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Liz 10, who has been trying to solve the Starship UK's problems for [[strike:ten]] three hundred years.

* 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.

** They even include the line "The Star Whale is the Doctor".

[[spoiler: Amy: ...we all depend on [[TitleDrop the beast below.]]]]

* {{Cliffhanger}}: WinstonChurchill calls to summon the Doctor's help [[spoiler: as a Dalek silhouette glides towards him...]]
* CloudCuckooLander: Eleven, turning it UpToEleven, fittingly. [[spoiler: Of course it turns out to be a case of ObfuscatingInsanity. Or fortuitous insanity, we'll see...]]

* FriendToAllChildren: The Doctor cannot help but stop to help a crying child. Also, [[spoiler:the Beast Below.]]

* MythologyGag: Churchill is an old friend of the Doctor. Indeed, he met the Sixth Doctor a few times in the DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse novels. %%The reason why this goes here instead of Continuity Nod or Call Back is because the expanded universe has a questionable level of canon.

* 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 [[spoiler:getting sent into the mouth of the beast powering the ship.]]

** Liz Ten gives this vibe when talking to Mandy as well.

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 Doc 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 lady in front of him calls it. Wait, what mysterious lady? She wears a spooky mask and a red cloak, and demands to know the Doctor's business with that water. Turns out there isn't an escaped fish, but rather an escaped engine - 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 flash 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 gotta find the Doctor, and get him off this ship!"

The pair are rescued from the Smilers by Liz 10 (SophieOkonedo), who takes them up to her quarters whilst making remarks about the Doc'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 a very large pain center. 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.

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 Doc 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 a "doctor" any longer, but there's nothing else that can be done.

* BritainVersusTheUK: The Doctor notes that Starship UK is still "Great Britain and Northern Ireland" after over a millenia (except for Scotland.)

** Feeding protestors to the Beast (though the voters, of course, don't know this).

** Apparently the British government still believes that [[Series/{{Torchwood}} sending underperforming children to a]] FateWorseThanDeath [[Series/TorchwoodChildrenOfEarth for the benefit of society]] is still acceptable.

* DisproportionateRetribution: A little boy gets sent down to the Beast for...failing a quiz and then trying to take the subway-elevator-thing.
* 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.

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

* ForeShadowing: Desparate 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 pick a new name, since he couldn't possible continue to call himself the Doctor. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor This becomes rather important later.]]

** 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. %%Yes, it's a dead link, it's still the relevant link for when someone --does-- add an entry

* PressXToDie: Feel horrified from what you've learned from the video? Then press [[AC:protest]] and your vote could be the one that condems the entire Kingdom to death. Or maybe something will happen before then, like [[spoiler:getting sent into the mouth of the beast powering the ship.]]

* StealthInsult: After 11 hits the Protest button and he and Amy fall about 600 feet down. Amy asks where they are. 11 takes a long smell and says, "I'd say [sniff] Lancashire." They're standing on a tongue covered in garbage.

-->'''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, 'cause I won't be the Doctor anymore."

* 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!?

* ThePrimeDirective: The Doctor claims that he follows this, [[BlatantLies despite every other episode of the show.]]

* ShoutOut: [[StarWars Help us Doctor you're our only hope]]. And the tongue scene was very similar to the Death Star garbage scene. [[RuleOfThree And the]] IdiosyncraticWipe.
** There's also [[Series/LifeOnMars2006 a sinister, talking version of the Test Card Girl]].
** Did anyone think the closing scene of the Star Whale was reminiscent of [[Literature/{{Discworld}} Great A'Tuin]]?
** The tentacles look and act like they came straight out of the first ''{{Half-Life}}'' game.
*** The old man in the UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans video could've been Dr. Breen with glasses from ''HalfLife 2''. (Or just as easily, [[ZXSpectrum Sir Clive Sinclair]].) He loved making these videos too.

** All of humanity fleeing their devastated homeworld on a fleet of ships, sinister robots that can impersonate people...this episode could almost be called [[Series/BattlestarGalacticaClassic ''Battlestar Britannica'']].
** The superfast propulsion powered by a tortured alien is similar to the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "Equinox". It could just be that they're running off of the [[PoweredByAForsakenChild same trope]], though.
** From the outside, Starship UK resembles [[Franchise/BioShock Rapture]]. Or one of the cities from Creator/JamesBlish's ''Literature/CitiesInFlight'' books.

* SpaceWhaleAesop: Because we all live in starships powered by space whales.

** From the outside, Starship UK resembles [[VideoGame/BioShock Rapture]]. Or one of the cities from Creator/JamesBlish's ''Literature/CitiesInFlight'' books.

* PressXToDie: Feel horrified from what you've learned from the video? Then press [[AC:protest]] and get sent [[spoiler:into the mouth of the beast powering the ship.]]

* ApocalypseHow: Solar flares toasted the Earth; probably rating around a Class 4 (biosphere extinction). Destroying Starship UK would have been a Class 0, as each nation had their own ship. This could be a reference to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E3Frontios Frontios,]] where the remnants of humanity survived [[ScienceMarchesOn the sun colliding with the Earth.]]

* 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.

** From the outside, Starship UK resembles [[VideoGame/BioShock Rapture]]. Or one of the cities from Creator/JamesBlish's "Cities in Flight" books.

** From the outside, Starship UK resembles [[VideoGame/BioShock Rapture]].
*** Or one of the cities from James Blish's "Cities in Flight" books.

** There's also [[LifeOnMars a sinister, talking version of the Test Card Girl]].

** From the outside, Starship UK resembles [[{{Bioshock}} Rapture]].

* {{Anvilicious}}: Hit us a little harder with the "Doctor = Space Whale" parallel, why don't you?

* IronWoobie: The Star Whale. Say what you will, there's something [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming touching]] about choosing to continue ferrying [[HumansAreBastards the humans who tortured you for roughly two hundred years.]]

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: Considering it aired during the approach to an election, could be a commentary on increasing voter apathy. To forget could be anything from not voting to sticking with the same old party owing to familiarity. Protesting, on the other hand, could be voting for a different party to electing a new party into power or even spoiling one's ballot. If you think about it, the mechanical Smilers are symbolic of Britain as a Nanny State, with the Winders being the politicians claiming to work for the Queen/for the better of Britain.
-->'''Eleventh Doctor:''' Once every five years everyone chooses to forget what they have learned. That's democracy in action.

* ApocalypseHow: Solar flares toasted the Earth; probably rating around a Class 4 (biosphere extinction). Destroying Starship UK would have been a Class 0, as each nation had their own ship.

The pair are rescued from the Smilers by Liz10, who takes them up to her quarters whilst making remarks about the Doc'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.

** All of humanity fleeing their devastated homeworld on a fleet of ships, sinister robots that can impersonate people...this episode could almost be called [[BattlestarGalactica ''Battlestar Britannica'']].

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

--> [[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.

--> [--''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E02TheBeastBelow Record]]''--]