The Beast Below Doctor Who

SCHOOL BELL RINGS

ROBOTIC VOICE: 'Well done, Mabel.

'Well done, Alfie.

'Good girl, Tabitha.

'Very well done, Ranjit.

'Good girl, Chloe.

'Well done, Ben.

'Well done, Mandy.

'Bad boy, Timmy.

'Zero.'

-You got a zero, didn't you?

-Yeah. So?

-You'll have to walk home, then.

-Walk to London? That's 20 decks!

You can't ride a Vator with a zero. You know what happens.

You'll get sent below.

I'll wait for you.

'Welcome to Vator Verse,

sponsored by McLintock's Candy Burgers.'

L-London, please.

'A horse and a man, above, below

'One has a plan, but both must go

'Mile after mile, above, beneath

'One has a smile, and one has teeth

'Though the man above might say hello

'Expect no love from the beast below.'

Help!

Help me!

HE YELLS

My name is Amy Pond.

When I was seven, I had an imaginary friend.

-Last night was the night before my wedding...

-Come on, Pond.

..and my imaginary friend came back.

-NOW do you believe me?

-OK, your box is a spaceship.

It's really, really a spaceship.

We are in space! Whoo!

-What are we breathing?

-I've extended the air shell - we're fine.

Now, that's interesting.

29th Century. Solar flares roast the earth,

and the entire human race packs its bags

and moves out till the weather improves.

-Whole nations...

-Doctor?

-..migrating to the stars.

-Doctor?

-Isn't that amazing?

Doctor!

Well, come on.

I've found us a spaceship.

This is the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland -

all of it, bolted together and floating in the sky.

Starship UK. It's Britain,

but metal.

That's not just a ship - that's an idea.

That's a whole country,

living and laughing and...

shopping.

SHE CHUCKLES

Searching the stars for a new home.

-Can we go out and see?

-Course we can but first, there's a thing.

-A thing?

An important thing.

In fact, thing one -

we are observers only. That's the one rule I've always stuck to in my travels.

I never get involved in the affairs of other peoples or planets. Ooh!

-That's interesting.

-So we're like a wildlife documentary, yeah?

Cos if they see a wounded cub or something, they can't just save it -

they've got to keep filming and let it die.

That's got to be hard.

I don't think I could do that.

Don't you find that hard - being all, like, detached and cold?

Doctor?

-TANNOY:

-'Welcome to London Market.

'You are being monitored.'

I'm in the future.

Like hundreds...of years in the future.

-I've been dead for centuries.

-Oh, lovely.

You're a cheery one.

-Never mind dead, look at this place. Isn't it wrong?

-What's wrong?

Use your eyes, notice everything. What's wrong with this picture?

Is it...the bicycles?

-Bit unusual on a spaceship, bicycles.

-Says the girl in the nightie.

Oh, my God! I'm in my nightie.

Now, come on, look around you. Actually look.

-TANNOY:

-'London Market is a crime-free zone.'

Life on a giant starship, back to basics.

Bicycles, washing lines, wind-up street lamps.

But look closer. Secrets and shadows, lives led in fear.

Society bent out of shape, on the brink of collapse. A police state.

Excuse me.

What are you doing?

Sorry.

Checking all the water in this area.

There's an escaped fish.

-Where was I?

-Why did you just do that with the water?

-Don't know. I think a lot. It's hard to keep track. Now, police state - do you see it yet?

-Where?

There.

SHE CRIES

PHONE RINGS

Are you sure?

Saw it myself.

'Are you going to tell her?'

We're under orders to tell her.

'Well done. Keep tabs on him.'

PHONE RINGS

'Sorry to interrupt. There's been a sighting.

'London block, Oxford Street.

'A man.'

Did he do the thing?

'Apparently.'

I'll have a look on the monitors.

One little girl crying. So?

Crying silently.

I mean, children cry cos they want attention,

cos they're hurt or afraid.

When they cry silently, it's cos they just can't stop.

-Any parent knows that.

-Are you a parent?

Hundreds of parents walking past and not one of them's asking her what's wrong,

which means...they already know, and it's something they don't talk about.

Secrets. They're not helping her, so it's something they're afraid of.

Shadows - whatever they're afraid of - it's nowhere to be seen,

which means it's everywhere.

Police state.

-Where'd she go?

-Deck 207, Apple Sesame block, Dwelling 54A. You're looking for Mandy Tanner.

Oh, this fell out of her pocket when I accidentally bumped into her.

Took me four goes.

Ask her about those things - the smiling fellows in the booths. They're everywhere.

But they're just things.

They're clean.

Everything else here is battered and filthy - look at this place.

But no-one's laid a finger on those booths. Not a footprint within two feet of them.

Ask Mandy, "Why are people scared of the things in the booths?"

No. Hang on - what do I do? I don't know what I'm doing here and I'm not even dressed!

It's this or Leadworth. What do you think?

Let's see. What will Amy Pond choose?

Ha-ha, gotcha!

Meet me back here in half an hour.

-What are you going to do?

-What I always do.

Stay out of trouble.

Badly.

So is this how it works, Doctor?

You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets, unless there's children crying?

Yes.

You're following me.

Saw you watching me at the marketplace.

You dropped this.

Yeah, when your friend kept bumping into me.

What's that?

There's a hole. We have to go back.

A what? A hole?

Are you stupid? There's a hole in the road. We can't go that way.

There's a travel pipe down by the airlocks, if you've got stamps. What are you doing?

Oh, don't mind me.

Never could resist a "keep out" sign.

What's through there? What's so scary about a hole?

Something under the road?

Nobody knows.

We're not supposed to talk about it.

About what?

Below.

And because you're not supposed to, you don't?

Watch and learn.

-You sound Scottish.

-I am Scottish. What's wrong with that?

Scotland's got to be here somewhere.

No.

They wanted their own ship.

Hmm. Good for them. Nothing changes.

So...how did you get here?

-Oh, just passing through, you know, with a guy.

-Your boyfriend?

Oh.

-What?

-Nothing.

It's just...I'm getting married.

Funny how things slip your mind.

-Married?

-Yeah, shut up, married.

Really, actually married.

-Almost definitely.

-When?

Well, it's kind of weird.

A long time ago, tomorrow morning.

I wonder what I did.

Hey-hey, result!

-Coming?

-No.

Suit yourself. < WHIRRING

Stop! You mustn't do that!

Oh, my God.

That's weird. That's...

SHE SQUEALS

Can't be.

FOOTSTEPS APPROACH

The impossible truth

in a glass of water.

Not many people see it.

But you do, don't you, Doctor?

-You know me?

-Keep your voice down.

They're everywhere.

Tell me what you see in the glass.

Who says I see anything?

Don't waste time. At the marketplace,

you placed a glass of water on the floor, looked at it,

then came straight here to the engine room. Why?

No engine vibration on deck. Ship this size, engine this big, you'd feel it. The water would move.

So...I thought I'd take a look.

It doesn't make sense.

These power couplings, they're not connected. Look.

Look - they're dummies, see?

And behind this wall, nothing. It's hollow.

-If I didn't know better, I'd say there was...

-No engine at all.

But it's working. This ship is travelling though space. I saw it.

The impossible truth, Doctor.

We're travelling among the stars in a spaceship that could never fly.

-How?

-I don't know.

There's a darkness at the heart of this nation.

It threatens every one of us.

Help us, Doctor.

You're our only hope.

Your friend is safe.

This will take you to her. Now go, quickly!

Who are you?

How do I find you again?

I am Liz 10. And I will find you.

CRASHING

'Welcome to voting cubicle 330C.

'Please leave this installation as you would wish to find it.

'The United Kingdom recognises the right to know of all its citizens.

'A presentation concerning the history of Starship UK will begin shortly.

'Your identity is being verified on our electoral roll.

'Name - Amelia Jessica Pond.

'Age - 1,306.'

SHE GASPS Shut up!

SHE GIGGLES

'Marital status...

'Unknown.'

'You are here because you want to know the truth about this starship,

'and I am talking to you because you're entitled to know.

'When this presentation has finished,

'you will have a choice.

'You may either protest... or forget.

'If you choose to protest, understand this.

'If just 1% of the population of this ship do likewise,

'the programme will be discontinued,

'with consequences for you all.

'If you choose to accept the situation -

'and we hope that you will -

'then press the "forget" button.

'All the information I am about to give you

'will be erased from your memory.

'You will continue to enjoy the safety and amenities of Starship UK,

'unburdened by the knowledge of what has been done to save you.

'Here, then, is the truth about Starship UK,

'and the price that has been paid

'for the safety of the British people.

'May God have mercy on our souls.'

'This isn't a trick. You've got to find the Doctor and get him back to the TARDIS.

'Don't let him investigate. Stop him. Do whatever you have to.

'Just please, please get the Doctor off this ship!'

-AMY'S MESSAGE REPLAYS

-Amy?

'You've got to find the Doctor...'

What have you done?

Yeah, your basic memory wipe job. Must have erased about 20 minutes.

-But why would I choose to forget?

-Cos everyone does. >

Everyone chooses the "forget" button.

Did you?

I'm not eligible to vote yet. I'm 12.

Any time after you're 16, you're allowed to the see the film and make your choice.

And then, once every five years...

And once every five years, everyone chooses to forget what they've learned.

Democracy in action.

How do you not know about this? Are you Scottish too?

Oh, I'm way worse than Scottish.

-I can't even see the movie. Won't play for me.

-It played for me.

-The difference being the computer doesn't accept me as human.

-Why not?

You look human.

No, you look Time Lord.

-We came first.

-So there are other Time Lords, yeah?

No.

There were, but there aren't...

Just me now.

Long story. There was a bad day. Bad stuff happened, and you know what?

I'd love to forget it all, every last bit of it, but I don't. Not ever.

Cos this is what I do - every time, every day, every second. This.

Hold tight.

We're bringing down the government.

Say, "Wheee!"

Aaargh!

-SHE CHUCKLES

-It's all right, love.

It's only me.

Aaargh!

AMY SCREAMS

High-speed air cannon. Lousy way to travel.

-Where are we?

-600 feet down, 20 miles laterally - puts us at the heart of the ship.

I'd say... Lancashire.

What's this, then - a cave? Can't be a cave. Looks like a cave.

It's a rubbish dump, and it's minging!

Yes, but only food refuse.

Organic, coming through feeder tubes from all over the ship.

-The floor's all squidgy, like a water bed.

-But feeding what, though?

It's sort of rubbery, feel it. Wet and slimy. DISTANT MOANING

Er... It's not a floor, it's a...

So...

-It's a what?

-The next word is kind of the scary word.

Take a moment. Get yourself in a calm place.

Go "omm".

Omm.

It's a tongue.

-A tongue?

-A tongue. A great big tongue.

This is a mouth?

This whole place is a mouth?

-We're in a mouth?!

-Yes, yes, yes, but on the plus side, roomy.

-How do we get out?

-How big is this beastie?

It's gorgeous!

-Blimey! if this is just the mouth, I'd love to see the stomach.

-GRUNTING

Though not right now. Doctor, how do we get out?

OK, it's being fed through surgically implanted feeder tubes,

so the normal entrance is...

..closed for business.

We can try, though.

-No! Stop, don't move! Too late. It's started.

-What has?

-Swallow reflex.

-SHE YELLS

-What are you doing?

-I'm vibrating the chemo-receptors.

-Chemo-what?

-The eject button.

-How does a mouth have an eject button?

-Think about it!

CREATURE GROWLS

Right, then.

This isn't going to be big on dignity.

-Geronimo!

-AMY YELLS

GRUNTING AND SPLASHING

There's nothing broken, there's no sign of concussion and yes, you are covered in sick.

-Where are we?

-Overspill pipe, at a guess.

-Oh, God, it stinks.

-That's not the pipe.

Oh.

Whoo!

Can we get out?

One door, one door switch, one condition.

We forget everything we saw.

Look familiar?

That's the carrot.

Ooh, here's the stick.

There's a creature living in the heart of this ship. What's it doing there?

No, that's not going to work on me, so come on.

Big old beast below decks, and everyone who protests gets shoved down its throat. That how it works?

Oh, stop it. I'm not leaving and I'm not forgetting

and what are you fellows going to do about it? Stick out your tongues?

SHE GASPS

Doctor?

Look who it is.

You look a lot better without your mask.

You must be Amy. Liz.

-Liz 10.

-Hi.

Eurgh!

Lovely hair, Amy. Shame about the sick.

You know Mandy, yeah?

-She's very brave.

-How did you find us?

Stuck my gizmo on you.

Been listening in. Nice moves on the hurl escape.

So, what's the big fella doing here?

You're over 16, you've voted.

Whatever this is, you've chosen to forget about it.

No. Never forgot, never voted. Not technically a British subject.

Then who and what are you, and how do you know me?

You're a bit hard to miss, love. Mysterious stranger,

MO consistent with higher alien intelligence, hair of an idiot...

I've been brought up on the stories.

My whole family was.

Your family?

They're repairing. Doesn't take them long. Let's move.

The Doctor. Old drinking buddy of Henry XII.

Tea and scones with Liz II. Vicky was a bit on the fence about you, weren't she?

Knighted and exiled you on the same day.

And so much for the Virgin Queen, you bad, bad boy!

-Liz 10?

-Liz 10, yeah.

Elizabeth X. And down!

I'm the bloody Queen, mate.

Basically, I rule.

There's a high-speed Vator through there.

BANGING

Oh, yeah. There's these things.

-Any ideas?

-Doctor, I saw one of these up top.

-There was a hole in the road, like it had burst through, like a root.

-Exactly like a root.

It's all one creature - the same one we were inside - reaching out.

It must be growing through the mechanisms of the entire ship.

What? Like an infestation?

Someone's helping it.

Feeding it.

Feeding my subjects to it. Come on. We've got to keep moving.

Doctor?

Oh, Amy.

BANGING CONTINUES

We should never have come here.

'Don't let him investigate.

'Stop him. Do whatever you have to.

'Just please, please get the Doctor off this ship.'

Winder division one.

Ten has penetrated to the lower levels.

Initiate the protocol.

God save the Queen.

Why all the glasses?

To remind me every single day that my government is up to something,

and it's my duty to find out what.

A queen going undercover to investigate her own kingdom?

Secrets are being kept from me.

I don't have a choice.

Ten years I've been at this - my entire reign -

and you've achieved more in one afternoon.

How old were you when you came to the throne?

40. Why?

What, you're 50 now? No way!

Yeah, they slowed my body clock. Keeps me looking like the stamps.

-And you always wear this in public?

-Undercover's not easy when you're me.

The autographs, the bunting.

Air-balanced porcelain.

Stays on by itself, cos it's perfectly sculpted to your face.

Yeah. So what?

Oh, Liz.

So everything.

DOOR OPENS >

What are you doing?

How dare you come in here?

Ma'am, you have expressed interest in the interior workings of Starship UK.

You will come with us now.

Why would I do that?

How can they be Smilers?

Half Smiler, half human.

Whatever you creatures are,

I am still your queen.

On whose authority is this done?

The highest authority, Ma'am.

-I AM the highest authority.

-Yes, ma'am.

-You must go now, Ma'am.

-Where?

The tower, Ma'am.

Doctor, where are we?

The lowest point of Starship UK.

-The dungeon.

-Ma'am.

Hawthorne!

So this is where you hid yourself away.

-I think you've got some explaining to do.

-There's children down here. What's all that about?

Protesters and citizens of limited value are fed to the beast.

For some reason, it won't eat the children.

You're the first adults it's spared. You're very lucky.

Yeah, look at us. Torture chamber of the Tower of London.

Lucky, lucky, lucky.

Except it's not a torture chamber, is it?

Well, except it is.

Except it isn't.

Depends on your angle.

What's that?

Well, like I say, depends on the angle.

-It's either the exposed pain centre of big fella's brain, being tortured relentlessly...

-Or?

Or it's the gas pedal, the accelerator - Starship UK's go-faster button.

-I don't understand.

-Don't you?

Try, go on. The spaceship that could never fly, no vibration on deck.

This creature - this poor, trapped, terrified creature.

It's not infesting you, it's not invading -

it's what you have instead of an engine.

And this place down here is where you hurt it,

where you torture it, day after day, just to keep it moving.

Tell you what.

Normally, it's above the range of human hearing.

This is the sound none of you wanted to hear.

ROARING & HIGH-PITCHED SHRIEKING

Stop it.

RHYTHMIC BANGING

Who did this?

We act on instructions from the highest authority.

-I

-am the highest authority.

The creature will be released, now.

I said now!

-Is anyone listening to me?

-Liz.

Your mask.

What about my mask?

Look at it. It's old.

At least 200 years old, I'd say.

Yeah, it's an antique, so?

Yeah, an antique made by craftsmen over 200 years ago and perfectly sculpted to your face.

They slowed your body clock, all right, but you're not 50.

Nearer 300.

And it's been a long old reign.

Nah, it's ten years.

I've been on this throne ten years.

Ten years.

And the same ten years over and over again,

always leading you...

here.

What have you done?

Only what you have ordered.

We work for you, Ma'am.

The Winders, the Smilers, all of us.

'If you are watching this...

-'If

-I

-am watching this,

'then I have found my way to the Tower Of London.

'The creature you are looking at

'is called a Star Whale.

'Once, there were millions of them.

'They lived in the depths of space and, according to legend,

'guided the early space travellers through the asteroid belts.

'This one,

'as far as we are aware,

'is the last of its kind.

'And what we have done to it

'breaks my heart.

'The Earth was burning.

'Our sun had turned on us, and every other nation had fled to the skies.

'Our children screamed

'as the skies grew hotter.

'And then it came,

'like a miracle.

'The last of the star whales.

'We trapped it.

'We built our ship around it,

'and we rode on its back to safety.

'If you wish our voyage to continue,

'then you must press the "forget" button.

'Be again the heart of this nation,

'untainted.

'If not,

'press the other button.

'Your reign will end, the Star Whale will be released,

'and our ship will disintegrate.

'I hope I keep the strength to make the right decision.'

I voted for this?

Why would I do that?

Because you knew if we stayed here,

I'd be faced with an impossible choice.

Humanity or the alien.

You took it upon yourself to save me from that.

And that was wrong.

You don't ever decide what I need to know.

I don't even remember doing it.

You did it. That's what counts.

I'm... I'm sorry.

Oh, I don't care.

When I'm done here, you're going home.

Why?

Because I made a mistake?

One mistake?

I don't even remember doing it. Doctor!

Yeah. I know.

You're only human.

What are you doing?

The worst thing I'll ever do.

I'm going to pass a massive electrical charge through the Star Whale's brain.

Should knock out all its higher functions, leave it a vegetable.

The ship will still fly, but the whale won't feel it.

-That'll be like killing it.

-Look, three options.

One - I let the Star Whale continue in unendurable agony

for hundreds more years.

Two - I kill everyone on this ship.

Three - I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can.

And then I find a new name, cos I won't be the Doctor any more.

There must be something we can do, some other way.

Nobody talk to me. Nobody human has anything to say to me today!

Timmy!

You made it, you're OK!

It's me - Mandy.

'Come on, use your eyes. Notice everything.

'Notice everything.'

Our children screamed.

-It came, like a miracle.

-It won't eat the children.

Children screamed. Then it came. It's the last of its kind.

-Just me now.

-The last of its kind.

-Is this how it works, Doctor?

-Never interfere with other peoples or planets...

-Children screamed.

-..unless it's children crying.

-The last of its kind.

-Just me now.

-Unless there's children crying.

-Yes.

-'It won't eat the children.'

-'Then it came.

'Like a miracle.

'The last of the Star Whales.'

Doctor, stop.

Whatever you're doing, stop it now!

Sorry, Your Majesty, going to need a hand.

Amy, no! No!

WHALE ROARS

CRASHING AND SCREAMING

Amy, what have you done?

Nothing at all.

Am I right?

-We've INCREASED speed.

-Yeah, well, you've stopped torturing the pilot.

Gotta help.

It's still here?

I don't understand.

The Star Whale didn't come like a miracle all those years ago.

It volunteered.

You didn't have to trap it or torture it -

that was all just you.

It came because it couldn't stand to watch your children cry.

What if you were really old, and really kind and alone?

Your whole race dead, no future.

What couldn't you do then?

If you were that old, and that kind,

and the very last of your kind...

you couldn't just stand there and watch children cry.

From Her Majesty.

She says there will be no more secrets on Starship UK.

Amy, you could have killed everyone on this ship.

You could have killed a Star Whale.

And you saved it.

I know, I know.

Amazing, though, don't you think?

The Star Whale.

All that pain and misery...

..and loneliness.

And it just made it kind.

-But you couldn't have known how it would react.

-YOU couldn't.

But I've seen it before.

Very old and very kind, and the very, very last.

Sound a bit familiar?

Hey.

What?

-Gotcha.

-Ha!

Gotcha.

Shouldn't we say goodbye? Won't they wonder where we went?

For the rest of their lives.

Oh, the songs they'll write!

Never mind them. Big day tomorrow.

-Sorry, what?

-Well, it's always a big day tomorrow.

We've got a time machine. I skip the little ones.

You know what I said about getting back for tomorrow morning...

Have you ever run away from something because you were scared,

or not ready, or just...

Just because you could?

Once...a long time ago.

What happened?

-Hello!

-PHONE RINGS

Right.

Doctor, there's something I haven't told you.

No. Hang on, is that a phone ringing?

People phone you?

Well, it's a phone box. Would you mind?

PHONE CONTINUES TO RING

Hello?

Sorry, who?

No, seriously. Who?

Says he's Prime Minister. First the Queen, now the Prime Minister. Get about, don't you?

Which Prime Minister?

Er, which Prime Minister?

-The British one.

-Which British one?

Which British one?

Winston Churchill for you.

Oh! Hello, dear. What's up?

Tricky situation, Doctor.

Potentially very dangerous.

I think I'm going to need you.

Don't worry about a thing, Prime Minister. We're on our way.

METALLIC THRUMMING

In bed above, we're deep asleep

While greater love lies further deep

This dream must end

This world must know

We all depend on the beast below.

-Winston Churchill.

-Doctor, is it you?

Cabinet War Rooms, right?

I have something to show you. Our new secret weapon.

-This is one of my ironsides.

-Your what?

DALEK: I am your soldier.

-You didn't invent them, they're alien.

-They'll win me rewards.

They're up to something, but what is it? What are they after?

I've defeated you time and again. I've saved the whole of reality from you.

I am the Doctor, and you are the Daleks.

Behold the restoration of the Daleks.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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