Doctor Who: 10 Most Underrated Episodes Of The Revived Series

5. The Beast Below

Sticking with the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond now for an encounter with The Beast Below which really isn't as risqué as it sounds. It's actually a rather important one as far as Amy Pond's tenure is concerned as it marked her first official adventure in the TARDIS. And let's face it, she had waited long enough. The Doctor was obviously keen to impress his new best friend on her long overdue universal maiden voyage (she was also so excited that she forgot to change out of her nightie) so he took her to Starship UK in the year 3925 where the entire population of Britain was basically being carried through space on the back of an enormous whale. Seriously. Don't let that put you off, though, because the episode served to bring forth an interesting ethical dilemma which allowed Amy to steal the spotlight from the titular Time Lord - and arguably she never let go of it - to affirm the attributes of her moral compass. As this episode proved, sometimes the Doctor's lack of humanity is ultimately his downfall and his initial attitude towards the space whale was also vitally important in establishing what sort of man his latest incarnation was to become. Nobody human had anything to say to him on that fateful day but Amy Pond had other ideas. As it turns out, the space whale was a highly sentient and sensitive being fuelled by the desire to help others which sounds rather familiar when you put it like that, doesn't it? It was probably (nay, hopefully) the first time the Doctor had been compared to a giant, space-borne cetacean but The Beast Below heralded the start of the Eleventh Doctor and Amy's beautiful new friendship. Gotcha. But why is it so underrated? Probably because it was preceded by Matt Smith's long awaited debut, The Eleventh Hour, and followed by the return of his most formidable foes in Victory of the Daleks. Second isn't always best, you know.