This is a guest post by long time friend of QYDJ Sujoy who recently launched his geek themed blog aptly called 9e3k. It’s been a Doctor who themed couple of weeks around here so I’m happy to just embrace all things Who’vian and present Sujoy’s take on Matt Smith’s second outing as the Doctor.

Be warned that there are unavoidable spoilers!!

In bed above, or deep asleep
While greater love lies further deep
This dream must end this world must know
We all depend on the beast below.

There are so many good things happening with Doctor Who in the Steven Moffat era so far. After the quite awesome first episode, episode 2 – The Beast Below – takes us to a far far point in space and time when the solar flares have roasted the Earth, and people from different countries have fled in different spaceships. It was quite funny to see Spaceship UK having neon lights in space flashing ESSEX, SURREY etc. And the Doctor trying to explain that to Amy by saying – people living, laughing and shopping (ha!), searching the stars for a new home. Yes, the Doctor and his assistant have already set out for their first adventure (not counting the previous incident) and we get glimpses of the team working in conjunction as well as separately. What is absolutely great here is to see Amy and her curiosity in knowing what or who the Doctor really is, and her attempt at exploring that by asking random questions. Of course, Matt Smith, even though is a new face, we cannot help but believe that he is indeed the Doctor as he smiles as Amy asks him if he had any children.

“The Beast Below” as a story is quite traditional and familiar with previous Doctor’s stories. It is very well layered with clues here and there, as all the mysteries are unveiled one layer at a time to ultimately arrive to the finale. And for the record, “The Smilers” are definitely one of the creepiest monsters and I hate them – even the smiley ones. But the winner of this episode is the Buttons. It is such a creepy concept if you think about it. What would you decide to do, when you are asked that after having known the dark secret of the spaceship and its survival, would you choose to Forget It, or to Protest It, and in the process decide the collective fate of the people. The Queen, Liz 10, when faced by the question decides to keep the status quo and keep reigning, and of course, continue the loop of ‘Forgetting” every 10 years. That makes me concerned about the death-rate and birth-rate of the UK population on the spaceship, as we see that the Queen has survived for quite some time. And speaking of population, I wonder how big the spaceships of India and China would have been.

Yet another outstanding moment in this episode was the Doctor, when faced with the dilemma of either killing the residents of Spaceship UK or allowing the Space Whale to be tortured, makes the uncomfortable choice of saving the people and prepares for an easy death for the spacewhale. Of course, clever Amy recollects all hints and instructions given by the Doctor to “look carefully”. She saves the day by joining the pieces of the jigsaw, although the Doctor does not seem very happy about her stealing the show by risking the lives of people on Spaceship UK. But then, all’s well that ends well. Amy hugs the Doctor in front of a massive and glimmering glasswall and the team is back together. The friction between them and the curiosity of Amy to find out more about the Doctor, while both of them contribute more towards a larger story arc – all of it is so much fun to watch, and we are only at Episode 2 here.

Except for some loose ends here and there, and a not so convincing Queen, this was a step up from Episode 1. And those Smilies should make a comeback. And not to forget, the little clues which might be crucial for future episodes. And by that I mean that crack on Spaceship UK. Does that mean that we will be soon seeing the Atraxi make a comeback?

Saturday nights are indeed becoming harder to wait. And how wicked was the trailer at the end for the next episode – Victory of the Daleks. Yes, you heard that right. The Daleks are back next week, as Ian McNeice plays Sir Winston Churchill and the Doctor punches a weird scientist who calls the Daleks his invention. Can’t wait for that one. But for me now, it’s time for a repeat viewing of the Beast Below. Cheerio!

Sujoy lives in London and works as a Business Analyst by day, but by night turns into a blogger ranting on his favourite topics of Sci Fi, Horror, Anime and all stuff geeky on his blog 9E3K. He is a Bollywood fanatic and he writes about them at OneKnightStands. He believes that he tweets way too much and he is considering getting some help about it.

He is learning to play the Keyboard, and one day hopes he can cover Killer Queen.