 |
| The Beast |
|
 Name: The Beast
Format:
Television show
Time of Origin: Uncertain; it claims
to be from 'before Time', and was definitely very ancient and powerful,
but the truth of this statement is unknown.
Appearances: "The
Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit"
Doctors: Tenth
Doctor
Companions: Rose Tyler
History: The truth about the Beast is uncertain
even now. If you believe its stories, the Beast was older than the
Universe itself, and had been imprisoned by the 'Disciples of the
Light' at the very beginning of Creation, trapped on a planet on
the outskirts of the Universe. From this point in existence, it had
gone on to become the inspiration for every myth of an evil 'horned
god' throughout existence - if the Beast is to be believed, everything
from Earth's Satan to the Kaled God of War was inspired by the Beast.
Regardless
of this uncertainty about its origins, what is known is the fact
that the planet the Beast was imprisoned on was trapped in permanent
orbit of a black hole, despite the fact that, at the distance the
planet was from the black hole, it should have been sucked into the
planet. This was because the planet generated a gravity field that
kept it in constant balance against the black hole, the gravity funnel's
power source had an inverted self-extrapolating reflex of 66 every
6 seconds - a power demand that was meant to be impossible. It was
buried, along with the Beast, 10 miles below the surface under solid
rock, and registered over 90 statz on the blazen scale.
After several millennia of imprisonment on
that planet, the Beast's world was finally visited by outsiders
in the form of an expedition force from Earth, representing
the 'Torchwood Archive'
- presumably the 'descendant' of the Torchwood organisation
that exists in the present day. The expedition was forced
to remain on the planet
as they drilled down to the apparent location of the power
source that kept the planet in its position - ten miles below
the surface - aided by
the 'slave race' known as The Ood, a species that possessed
squid-like heads and were persistently linked to each other
via a low-grade telepathic
field. The expedition attempted to study the writings that
had been left with the Beast, but, regardless of the truth
of the Beast's origins,
the writing was so old that not even the TARDIS's
translating matrix could translate it.
Once
the drilling reached the ten-mile depth, the Beast took control of
the expedition's archaeologist, a young virgin (Whether this was
relevant to the Beast possessing him over the others is unknown)
called Toby Zed, subsequently transferring himself into the Ood,
where he was able to use the Ood's telepathic field to control all
of them, turning them into the 'Legion of the Beast'. Fortunately,
The Doctor and Rose Tyler arrived on the planet shortly before the expedition
reached the ten mile depth, where they subsequently befriended the
expedition members after the TARDIS fell into the planet during an
asteroid bombardment. With no other options, The Doctor joined Ida
Scott, one of the expedition, to descend to the power source while
Rose remained with the expedition.
When the Beast launched its 'attack' with the Ood, The
Doctor and Ida discovered that the power source was actually located
further down beneath the planet's surface, accessible via a massive
pit. The cable that would have taken The Doctor and Ida back to the
surface was broken, so The Doctor decided to use the cable to go
down into the Pit, leaving Ida to pass a message onto Rose. Encouraging
the expedition to keep fighting, Rose inspired one of the team to
trigger a telepathic pulse that would neutralize the Ood, sending
the Ood into a 'coma'.
Down in the centre of the planet, The Doctor confronted
the Beast, where he learned the story of the Beast's imprisonment
from various pictures on the walls of its prison. As he confronted
the Beast's body, The Doctor realised, much to his horror, that the
Beast facing him was just that - the body, rather than the brilliant
mind that had taunted him and the others earlier. The Beast had transferred
his mind completely into Toby's body after his initial possession
of the archaeologist, and now, as the surviving members of the expedition
fled the planet via the gravity tunnel, leaving his prison the only
way he could... by leaving his body.
Initially, the Beast's plan appeared foolproof; The Doctor
could stop the Beast from escaping by destroying the power source
that created the gravity funnel once and for all, but that would
result in the expedition's rocket - Rose included - falling into
the black hole, killing them all. However, the Beast had made one
mistake; The Doctor would never consider Rose, or any of his companions,
as victims in a grand plan of gods and devils. Reaffirming his long
belief in his companions, The Doctor shattered the power source,
mockingly telling the Beast to enjoy its 'freedom'.
Back in the rocket, the Beast's mind lost any semblance
of control as it realised what The Doctor had done, revealing his
true face to the other expedition members. As the rocket spiralled
back into the black hole, the Beast ranted that he could never die
as the thought of him was forever in the hearts and minds of the
universe, but Rose grabbed a gun from one of the other expedition
members and shot out the window of the rocket, leaving Toby's possessed
body to be sucked out into space as the emergency shield was raised
to replace the broken window.
Just as the rocket was about to fall into the sun, The
Doctor, heading deeper into the caverns where the Beast had been
imprisoned, discovered the one thing he needed now more than ever;
the TARDIS, standing upright where it had fallen after the initial
asteroid shower had sent it falling down into the planet. Taking
the TARDIS, The Doctor picked Ida up from where she'd been left as
he descended into the Pit before using the TARDIS to pull the rocket
away from the black hole. After The Doctor had picked Rose up from
the rocket, leaving Ida behind, the two of them departed, leaving
the expedition to record the deaths that that occurred during the
fight with the Beast, making sure to state that all the victims received
full honours for their actions.
Although the Beast is dead, it is important to note that
it is apparently not the only one of its kind. In the Torchwood episode
"End of Days", a mysterious creature known as Abaddon, referred to
as the 'son of the great Beast' and looking remarkably like the Beast
itself, was released from the temporal rift above Cardiff, but was
eventually defeated by The Doctor's former (And apparently future)
companion Captain Jack Harkness. Whether this means there are more beings
like the Beast in the Universe remains to be seen. |
|
