I like my angst subtextual . . .

[promethia_tenk]

So, I've long maintained that "The Beast Below" is a far, far better episode than most people give it credit for.  Then yesterday I was batting around some things with elisi , whose thoughts on such matters I can't really separate from my own anymore, and the following came to me:

Ok, so, "The Beast Below:"

Eleven is going to kill the starwhale. Or, more specifically, he's going to make it a vegetable so that it can still fly around but it "won't feel it."

Eleven is the starwhale.

And then he'll have to find a new name because he won't be the Doctor anymore.



So . . . what do you do around here to stave off the, you know . . . self harm?



(Aside: has anyone else ever tried to make this point before?  I swear I would have remembered it if I'd read it somewhere else, but maybe I missed something?)

Comments

[promethia_tenk]

Pretty much what Ten was doing post-WoM and pre EoT, right?
Yup. I think I see a lot of the early season as still recovering from having been Ten.

Also, I realised recently that Leadworth in "Amy's Choice" is really the Doctor's nightmare more than Rory's dream. It's not just quiet and full of old people who can't die, it's where one of his companions dies and he can nothing to prevent or change than and the other one says "if you can't save people, what's the point of you?" I guess that makes the TARDIS Rory's nightmare.
Very much agreed. Well, actually, I think I'm inclined to see them *both* as the Doctor's nightmare--a dead TARDIS sounds like the kind of thing that would haunt him too. Once we found out who the Dream Lord is, I started looking at almost all of that episode as a reflection of the Doctor.

[sea_thoughts]

That's true. A dead TARDIS would be his worst nightmare, I think... that really would mean Gallifrey has gone. I mean, he had to cope with an exploding TARDIS in the finale and that was bad enough!