After a successful opener which drew in over 8 million viewers, it seemed a challenging task for Steven Moffat to build on the Eleventh Doctor's story in the second episode of Series 5, the Beast Below. For the most part the new head writer manages to up the drama considerably, establishing new rules and risks which the Time Lord will take to maintain what is right, but several elements of this episode simply fail to live up to our lofty expectations. Once again the special FX weren't up to the usual standard produced by Who, but perhaps having seen a London bus zoom through a wormhole and the Earth almost crushed by a war-torn Gallifrey has spoiled this reviewer somewhat, and he expects a little too much of the lower-budget new series. Ah well, the superb double act of Matt Smith and Karen Gillian more than makes up for this, with the former delivering one of the most shocking outbursts of anger we've seen in the titular character for a while, and the latter forming an investigative, witty and therefore loveable companion who will doubtless develop her role over time. It's a shame that the cast for Episode 2 struggle to maintain the high standard, as The Eleventh Hour's stars seemed to possess more enthusiasm during filming, but Ian McNeice's brief yet brilliant cameo as Churchill makes up for this loss, and for once actually gets this reviewer excited for a Dalek story (it's not often you can say that nowadays!)
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