Series 7 Countdown: Worst Series 5

As Series 7 draws ever nearer, I am going to be publishing countdown posts. For each post I will write about my most memorable episode from that series and also a separate article for my least favourite episode of that series. (The 2009 Specials and the Christmas Special's will both have there separate articles) Today's article is on my least favourite episode of Series 5.

The Beast Below

Picking my least favourite episode of Series 5 was hard as all were at a very high standard but The Beast Below did have quite a few weak points and was a fairly average episode.

The Start

The beginning of the episode seemed rather dull and nothing seemed to be going between The Doctor and Amy. The Doctor also seemed to be a little mad in this scene! It did introduce the Smilers which I will talk about later on in the article. Also, it creates the mystery as we hear 'The Silence' music again and this made our brains whirl as some could remember the same music was heard in The Eleventh Hour when Amy's crack in her bedroom wall was revealed.

The Smilers

The Smilers have to be my least favourite alien of Series 5 just because they are clown like and I am not a huge fan of clowns! Also they are a pretty poor alien looks-wise as their mouths don't even move! Is this Doctor Who in the 1960's or the 2010's? Also I don't know where their voices come from... maybe somewhere from that red box they were in which reminded me of Max Capricorn from Voyage of the Damned.

Storyline

The whole story of the Star Whale moving Starship UK was very good and I enjoyed this part of the episode. The Star Whale was great looks-wise for an alien and I loved how we were introduced to an alien who came to the humans to help them in their time of need, just as the Doctor does. It strongly introduces Amy as a companion as she has to make The Doctor realise that he doesn't have to chose between the humans and the Star Whale.

Liz 10

Liz 10 wasn't a good character in my opinion as for one reason I think the fact that there has been 8 more Queen Elizabeth's in the space of about 800 years in barmy and really unrealistic. Also she doesn't seem to be treated like a Queen and the Royal Family don't seem to be keeping in the trend of being very posh!

In Conclusion...

Not bad but nothing special. Steven Moffat himself has even said he looks back at some parts of this episode with regret. The Smilers were a down, the slow start was a down and the fact that nothing special happened in this episode, apart from Amy proving herself to be a companion. This episode also seemed to steal a few themes from RTD episodes: The Max Capricorn like case for the Smilers from Voyage of the Damned and the Forget option, which something similiar was seen in Gridlock. So overall, a fairly poor episode.

Tomorrow: Best Episode of Series 6