| abstract
| - Immediately after the events of the previous episode, the Doctor takes Amy to the distant future, where she finds Britain After solar flares roasted the Earth, every nation took to the skies. Starship UK houses the future of the British people, as they search the stars for a new home. They land in what seems to be a normal, nice and British marketplace, but the Doctor tells Amy to "notice everything" - they're actually in the midst of a police state. Then he places a glass of water on the floor, for seemingly no reason. "There's an escaped fish"? Oh really? Well, Doctor, you're being watched, and it seems that you just did "the thing"... The Doc notices that everyone is terrified of those smiling robot fellows in the booths, so he sends Amy to interrogate an upset little girl. She does so, but she can't stop herself from stumbling upon a tentacle. In a hole, in the road. That's weird, but what's weirder is the sinister-looking group of hooded fellows spraying her with sleeping gas. Meanwhile, the Doctor is off staying out of trouble (badly), and has headed to the engine room with another glass of water. Something's very wrong here -- "an impossible truth", as the mysterious lady in front of him calls it. Wait, what mysterious lady? She wears a spooky mask and a red cloak, and demands to know the Doctor's business with that water. Turns out there isn't an escaped fish, but rather an escaped engine - were there an engine on a ship this big, there would be vibrations. The water would move! The woman needs the Doctor's help in unearthing the truth, and tells him that her name is... Liz 10. She is played by Sophie Okonedo. Amy wakes up in a "voting booth", and there are three buttons before her -- , and . She is identified (Age 1,306?! Shut up!), and a film starts to play on the TV screen before her, apparently detailing the history of Starship UK. Suddenly, a whirlwind of images flash by. Children screaming, violence, terror, pain, and most prominently... the Sun. But no sooner is it all over than Amy finds her hand on the button. What just happened in those last 20 minutes? A clue to this is offered as Amy's recorded message to herself starts to play. On screen, a distressed Amy pleads "This isn't a trick, this is for real, you've gotta find the Doctor, and get him off this ship!" Just then, the Doctor arrives. He examines the lightbulb at the top of the room -- standard memory wipe, must have erased about 20 minutes. But why? And why would Amy choose to forget? Well, according to the crying girl from earlier, Mandy, everyone chooses to forget. But the Doctor isn't scared, and smacks the button. Unfortunately, this catapults both him and Amy down an air-pressure cannon. They land in what appears to be a rubbish dump. But the Doctor soon figures out that it's a tongue. So they're in a giant mouth. Great. The Doctor triggers a vomit wave to escape, but the switch to exit this dark chamber... is a button. And those Smiler androids in the back are getting pretty irritable. The pair are rescued from the Smilers by Liz10, who takes them up to her quarters whilst making remarks about the Doc's history with her kingdom. And why is it her kingdom? Well, that would be because she's been Queen Elizabeth X of England for 10 years! They slowed her body clock to keep her looking like the stamps. In her room, there are a lot of water glasses. And her mask... it's rather old. Very, very old, an antique. Porcelain, too. Stays on because it's perfectly sculpted to her face. So what? So everything, Liz... Just then, some of those hooded blokes show up and ask to take Liz to the Tower of London. She refuses, but it seems that these particular politicians are half-Smiler. Down in the Tower's torture chamber they find a rather odd installation: a laser in the ceiling perpetually fires shots into a very large pain center. Piecing together the puzzle, the Doctor figures out that this pain center, the mouth, and the tentacle from earlier are all part of one creature, and... it's what they have instead of an engine. And they're torturing it to keep it going. And then we find out what's wrong with Liz's mask. It's at least 200 years old... and perfectly sculpted to her face. Wait, that can't be right, she's only been Queen for 10 years! Oh... dear. The same 10 years... over and over again, always leading her to this same place -- a voting booth. It's her choice: or . Her own recorded message to herself starts to play. When the solar flares originally roasted the Earth, the UK weren't quite quick enough to make a ship. Their children were screaming as the skies grew hotter. But then it came... like a miracle... a Star Whale. A massive, old, gentle creature, and the last of its kind. They trapped it, built the starship around it, and now they torture it to keep it moving. Heartbreaking. But hey, at least they feed it... with trash... and people. Protesters and citizens of limited value, to be precise. But it won't eat the children. If Liz chooses to , the ship will disintegrate and everyone will die. But if she chooses to , poor old Space Whale will be in agony for another decade. The Doctor realises that Amy recorded that message to herself ("Get the Doctor off this ship!") because she didn't want the Doctor to have to make an impossible choice. Bad move, Amy -- you don't decide what he needs to know. He tells her that her days as his new companion are over already. The Doc Takes a Third Option, preparing to lobotomise the whale so at least it won't be in pain. He says that it's the most horrible thing he'll ever have to do, and he'll just have to pick a new name because he can't do this and live with himself as a "doctor" any longer, but there's nothing else that can be done. Seeing the tentacles playing with some cute children, Amy takes the Doctor's advice from earlier and notices everything -- "it won't eat the children", "our children screamed!" "It came like a miracle," "Never interfere in the affairs of other planets, unless there's children crying?" "Just me now." "The last of its kind." And then she realises the truth. She grabs Liz's hand to press the button and release the whale, at which point Starship UK starts moving faster. But why? Surely the Whale would take its opportunity to escape? No, the kindly old Space Whale simply wanted to help in the first place. They didn't need to torture or trap it. It came because it couldn't bear to see the children cry. Afterwards, the Doctor tells Amy she couldn't have known that. She responds that maybe he couldn't have known, but that an alien, the last of his kind, who has been through pain and anguish, and just become kinder and unable to see children cry, was something she'd already seen. The Doctor stares at her for a minute, then yanks her into his arms and buries his face in her shoulder. They return to the TARDIS when the console's phone starts ringing. It's Winston Churchill and he wants the Doctor's help, while a Dalek is standing in his office. As they leave, though, we see that there's a crack in the starship...
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