The Beast Below: First Reaction

By Christian Cawley, April 10, 2010 - Doctor Who, News - no comments

Doctor Who - The Beast BelowWe’ll have a review of The Beast Below on Kasterborous later this weekend – but in the meantime, what did you think of the latest episode of Doctor Who?

Certainly the opening sequence of a very different world on board the Starship UK with all of the police state overtones gave the episode a feel not dissimilar to The Long Game (2005) and with a floating-in-space Amy Pond and the usual sharp dialogue from Steven Moffat, there was certainly a lot to amuse and carry the story along at a good pace.

The casting of Sophie Okonedo and Terrance Hardiman in key roles was inspired, although it might have been preferable to see more of Hardiman as he has a great presence.

Meanwhile Matt Smith was again excellent as the Doctor, especially later in the episode as he prepared to carry out a desperate solution and a lack of glamour from Karen Gillan gave this story a much needed grounding in the hard desperation of life in space.

All in all, a low-key follow up to The Eleventh Hour – given that we’ve got Daleks and Weeping Angels coming up in the next 2 weeks, that’s probably for the best!

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A long-term Doctor Who fan, Christian grew up watching the show and has early memories of the Graham Williams era. His favourite stories are Inferno, The Seeds of Doom and Human Nature (although The Empty Child, Blink and Utopia all come close). When he’s not bossing around the news team, Christian is a freelance writer specialising in mobile technology and domestic computing, and enjoys classic rock, cooking and spending time in the countryside with his wife and young children. You can find him on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.