The Beast Below
UNDERTONES OF
STAR WARS & LOGANS RUN
The Beast Below is set on a giant space ship, designed as a homage to Great Britain. This story taps into Dr Who’s own mythology and was inspired by the 1974 Tom Baker classic
'Ark In Space' which was also about the need for humanity to leave planet earth due to solar flares.
There are ecological undertones, the spaceship blighty is driven through the solar system by a cosmic whale, an allegorical symbol of mother Earth. The message is a valued political statement about the way we currently treat this planet, the cosmic whale hyperdrive unit in the story replaces the current ecological predicament of mother Earth. Humanity does not really fully understand the spiritual creature’s nature which supports their plight as the Earths survivors head to a new home somewhere in outer-space. Just like on Earth thay make the mistake of treating the cosmic whale like a rubbish tip, and torture the poor creature to further increase speed to find a new planet to destroy.
Politics and a corrupt hierarchical system is represented in a topically way with the band of refugees leader, Queen Elizabeth X, beautifully portrayed in cockney style and her Prime Minister with sinister hench men known as ‘Smilers’ – interestingly last episode we had the smiling apple – is this to be a poetic theme? The deeper message here is – do we really know what governments are doing – do we care? – the Doctor notices when emerging on to the spaceship that humanity is blissfully unaware and happy in it’s ignorance gleefully shopping amongst the stars.
There were shades of the Christopher Bulis Dr Who Missing Adventure A Device of Death with the similarities to the creatures like whales that lived in outerspace.
FILM INFLUENCES
On the surface one of the main initial influences is from the acclaimed Lucas film ‘
Star Wars’ 1977. It is not difficult to spot dialogue references ‘you are our only hope’ and the scene where the Doctor and Amy are ejected into what appears to be the refuse disposal unit which turns out to be the tongue of the cosmic whale, a joint reference to the film. There are defiantly shades of childhood stories,
Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland and some literary influences from the master writer of surrealist fantasy
Roald Dahl. There is also clear reference to the
1976 film ‘Logan’s Run’ after the destruction of civilisation humanity lives in a community where they have forgotten what true freedom is and ignorantly follow the commands of the elders.
MOFFAT'S MOTIVATION
Moffat’s writing is wonderful for his companion Amy Pond the realisation scene at the end shows the equanimity of her character, through this calmness of mind she is able to resolve the terrible dilemma. How dreadful of the Doctor to come up with a solution which was inhumane- (ingalifrane).
The casting of the new Doctor and his new companion is consolidated as an outstanding success.
What of the Moffat’s psychological treatment and development of Matt Smith’s Doctor, perhaps it is to early to tell what is driving the new Doctor’s psyche. In consideration of Jungian theory, a large part of the new Doctor’s psyche would emerge from the emotional fears and transference patterns within Moffat’s own psyche.
Eccleston’s Doctor was largely motivated by the effects of bereavement, he was a depressed self sacrificing Timelord full of angst that drove him to further tragedy. Tennant’s Doctor was not afraid to show a humanistic emotional side to his personality, he recognised his flaws and tried to make peace with a few demons, touched by human love and in turn face the realisation of losing love, this Doctor did not travel unnoticed he was a not afraid to hide from public scrutiny a celebrity Doctor for the noughties.
In these two episodes Moffat has shown Smith’s Doctor to be driven by the need to establish a relationship, create a transpersonal connection with another soul, Amy Pond. He has shown a vulnerable Doctor, he does make mistakes. Moffat’s main thread appears to be that of an inquisitive investigator, he shows us a bumbling Doctor who falls into a mystery and then like Sherlock Holmes works out a solution. The relationship and solution driven Doctor is quite a departure from Tennant’s interpretation and is destined for addiction and ultimate breakdown when the solution or relationship is unachievable. Interesting! Relevant to today’s psychological climate – in the words of Winehouse he is ‘going to have to go to rehab.’
If the Doctor further connects to his humanistic side and follows Petruska Clarkson’s 5 Relationship Theory Model, there is going to be quite a journey from establishing relationship and transpersonal connection, dealing with the transference and moving to a reparative mind field that will eventually heal and be enable the ability to establish more real and meaningful relationships for the Doctor and ultimately Moffat’s own psyche, this new journey seems to be all about Relationship and the search for ‘physis’.
Physis (or Phusis) is an ancient Greek word very rich in meaning. It is used to refer to life energy as it manifests in nature, in growth and healing as well as in all dimensions of creativity. Physician or physic (as in medicine) and Physics (as in Quantum and Chaos understandings of the world) are both derived from it.
For Moffat’s journey and the Doctor’s the emergency and understanding of physis will continue an honour towards everlasting change, unlearning as well as learning, living as well as dying well, bodysoul, the cycle as potent paradigm for human evolutionary processes, the individual and society, relationship and archetype, the importance of nature as teacher and inspiration, the drive towards complexity, quality and wholeness, the co-existence of contradictions. Whether in individuals, children, couples, groups, organisations or artistic work, the central and organising theme is simply to have life and to have it more abundantly.
CONSTRUCTIVE CONSIDERATIONS
The drawback for this story is that it is far too British, the wonderful use of British iconography portrayed in The Eleventh Hour is overdone here. The sets although beautifully crafted are filmed in an unflattering way, some of the scenes glimpsed by the cameras in Doctor Who Confidential show the designs in a better light, props and extras are not used to their full potential. The bowler hated men inspired by Magritte looked really interesting and should have been used to greater effect.Did you see the Lily Allen performance on this years Brits
The set design concept we have seen before in the Davies era and a few old props even turned up from other stories.
The Tardis interior is fantastic but also still harps back to the Davies era a complete redesign would have been a true marvel. When futuristic outer space is visualised the images that are conjured up are of something other than the Queen Victoria public house exterior, budget constraints were all too apparent here, please try to come into a new decade with exciting new visuals Mr Moffat.
