Doctor Who-The Beast Below

                           While Amy Pond is adjusting to a life of time/space travel,partly by floating outside the TARDIS in a contained pocket of air,the Doctor lands them in 29'th century England. Though at this particular point England is a gigantic space faring city escaping an Earth ravaged by solar flares. Within the Spaceship UK as it's called,the Doctor and Amy discover a lone child crying,and a world of people ignoring her and each other's emotional reaction. Having determined they are dealing with the police state,the Doctor and Amy soon of an voting booth where one learns the truth about this repressed society and are given the choice to either forget what they learned or "protest" and be sent to an underground cavern once they reach 16 and therefore voting age. While at first Amy chooses to forget,she warns the doctor by video before hand  to do the same as herself. He does but before he can do much finds himself in "the beast below" as it were. Once there he and Amy,covered in bio matter determine they are in the mouth of a very large creature at the heart of the ship.  They are rescued by a masked lady called Liz 10,the current queen of England who is immune to the effects of the memory erasure by royal lineage. She wishes to help the Doctor to uncover the conspiracy that she finds distasteful to her morals. Though for his part he is curious as to the mask Liz 10 wheres which,in addition to appearing antiquated is perfectly fit to her face. Plus her assertion the Spaceship UK flies without an engine.

                                  These questions are soon answered when the trio are guided to the power center of the city and find a massive brain is providing power to the entire ship. Herself electing to to test herself at the voting booth Liz 10 discovers she herself was responsible for all of this by allowing the capture of an immense space creature called a Star Whale,the last of an extinct race who,while volunteering to power the Spaceship UK was tortured by humanity into doing so out of fear for survival. That not only reveals she's been kept alive for centuries but gives the doctor a near impossible choice:to either destroy the Spaceship UK to save the star whale or maintain this inhumane act. While many of the adult protesters on the spaceship have been sacrificed to the whale in order to maintain order,the whale is not consuming the children in same manner.That not only reveals she's been kept alive for centuries but gives the doctor a near impossible choice:to either destroy the Spaceship UK to save the star whale or maintain this inhumane act. In a moment of revelation when she sees the star whale respond with affection to the petting of the surviving children,Amy realizes the reason the star whale volunteered is because,being the last of it's kind,empathizes with human children so Amy presses a button labeled "abdicate",at which time the whale is no longer the power source of the  spaceship and everyone is able to survive intact. Though vexed of Amy interfering in his work of course,she convinces him to allow her to continue on in her voyages with him even as the Doctor receives an urgent message from Winston Churchill.

                              This is one of those Doctor Who stories where the plot thrust is directly linked with the character development. On Spaceship UK,it would appear that the concept of government conspiracies and class war have followed humanity into the future and outer space as well. Especially the lengths by which the aristocracy of the spaceship are willing to go to conceal knowledge of the what's happened with the star whale from a already overwhelmed population. Again the idea of the children being the ultimate source of morality showcases how vital generation changes can be. This leads directly into the Doctor and Amy's play in all this. When faced with the possibility of perhaps having to destroy the star whale to save billions of lives,the doctor is riddled with an atypical level of uncertainty,in fact relating himself as a time lord to the star whale as both being the last of their kind and burdened with seemingly impossible tasks. Even though Amy's revelation,bought on the by doctors help,wins the day in the end it's a blow to the Doctors now fragile ego and he considers sending her back to Earth until,of course,she reminds him of his connection with the star whale before the two decide to depart together,and both a bit wiser for the wear.