The Beast Below

204 – "The Beast Below"
Doctor Who episode
Starship UK with the Star Whale navigating beneath it.
Cast
Doctor Matt Smith (Eleventh Doctor)
Companion Karen Gillan (Amy Pond)
Others Sophie Okonedo – Liz 10 Terrence Hardiman – Hawthorne Hannah Sharp – Mandy Alfie Field – Timmy Christopher Good – Morgan David Ajala – Peter Catrin Richards – Poem Girl Jonathan Battersby – Winder Chris Porter – Voice of Smilers/Winder Ian McNeice – Churchill
Production
Directed by	Andrew Gunn
Written by	Steven Moffat
Script editor	Brian Minchin
Produced by	Peter Bennett
Executive producer(s)	Steven Moffat Piers Wenger Beth Willis
Incidental music composer	Murray Gold
Production code	1.2
Series	Series 5
Length	45 minutes
Originally broadcast	10 April 2010
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → "The Eleventh Hour" "Victory of the Daleks"
List of Doctor Who serials

"The Beast Below" is the second episode of the fifth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was written by executive producer and head writer Steven Moffat and broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD on 10 April 2010.

In the episode, the Doctor—a time travelling alien played by Matt Smith—and his new companion Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) arrive in the distant future aboard the Starship UK, a ship constructed to transport the population and major cultural artefacts of the United Kingdom (except Scotland) away from Earth to escape the death of the sun. However, they discover that the government of the ship secretly tortures a Star Whale that guides the ship, the abandonment of which is believed will destroy the ship and kill everyone on board.

The episode, which featured the first time Amy was away from her home world, was designed to show how important she was to the Doctor and his need for a companion. As part of the second production block of the series, the episode's production took place in Autumn 2009. "The Beast Below" was seen by 8.42 million viewers on BBC One and BBC HD, the fifth most-watched programme in the week it was broadcast. It was met with a positive to mixed reception from critics; many praised the chemistry between Smith and Gillan, but some thought that there were too many imaginative concepts that did not make a satisfying conclusion, or that the message of the episode was not as strong as it should have been.

In the distant future, the Doctor and Amy arrive on the Starship UK, a colony spaceship containing the population of the United Kingdom who have left the planet to escape deadly solar flares. They come across a crying girl, Mandy, whom all the other adults aboard consciously ignore. The Doctor, having discovered that the ship does not seem to be powered by normal engines, tells Amy to follow Mandy while he explores the engine room. There, he finds the engine controls to be a false front, and encounters a masked woman called Liz 10, who also is aware of the ship's oddness and of the Doctor's identity.