Doctor Who (2023): The Star Beast - Part 1

Episode:

872

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Serial:

301

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Writer:

Russell T Davies

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Director:

Rachel Talalay

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Air Date:

25-Nov-2023

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching the first of Russell T Davies' 60th Anniversary specials: The Star Beast. That's such a pulp sci-fi title that it shares its name with a Robert A. Heinlein novel from the '50s. RTD ain't going with something as ordinary as 'Rose' this time, we're straight into laser guns and space monsters... presumably. I haven't seen the trailers and I don't actually know what it's about.

There's another familiar RT involved with this: director Rachel Talalay. She missed the first RTD run and skipped the Jodie Whittaker era, but she was trusted with every big season finale of the Peter Capaldi era, including Heaven Sent/Hell Bent so she's definitely who you want setting the tone for the show's latest regeneration.

It seems like they're considering this the start of a new volume of Doctor Who, with the 2005 Revival ending with Power of the Doctor last year. I let this information settle into my brain for a bit and I've decided that I like it. Dividing the show up helps me keep it organised in my head and after 18 years it could use a bit of a relaunch. Though maybe they could've waited until after the big nostalgic return of David Tennant to make a fresh start!

I'm going to be going through the whole episode scene by scene, so beware of SPOILERS. There are 60 years of this show for me to ruin now, so I won't get greedy and spoil things that happen in later episodes.

CLICK HERE TO SKIP THE FIRST 11 PICTURES AND JUMP STRAIGHT TO THE START OF THE STORY

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Good news, Doctor Who has a Marvel Studios-style ident now! Just like Star Wars, Star Trek and everything else.

This is now the Whoniverse and you can tell a lot about the nature of a fictional universe by what gets focused on when it's boiled down to a series of images. Marvel Studios shows off a series of superheroes doing heroic stuff, Star Wars is all droids and helmets, and Star Trek's opening video focuses on the hero ship for the show it's attached to. So what's Doctor Who's most iconic element?

Oh, it's the Doctor. That makes sense I suppose.

They've picked a fairly sensible selection here. Four is the most popular Doctor of the 1963 series and Ten is the most popular of the 2005 series. The First Doctor and Fifteen cover the beginning of the show and its future. Thirteen was the first female Doctor and the most recent. And Three is there because there was a gap (seriously).

But there are also companions, Doctor Who's second major ingredient. Well, Gwen Cooper isn't really a companion, but it was either going to be her or Jack Harkness representing Torchwood... and it wasn't going to be him.

The 1693 era is represented by Susan (First Doctor), Jo (Third Doctor), and obviously Sarah Jane (Third, Fourth and two spin-off series). Pretty solid choices I reckon, though I would've swapped Jo with Leela or Ace. Or Ian and Barbara. Or the Brig. Or... you know what, Jo's fine.

The 2005 era companions are Rose (Nine and Ten), Martha (Ten), and Amy (Eleven). I'm a bit surprised there's no Donna there, considering she's in this episode.

Finally, the Bad Wolf Productions era only has one companion so far, Ruby (Fifteen). And she isn't going to appear until Christmas!

The last ingredient is monsters. Other sci-fi series can tell stories about basically anything, but Doctor Who always has to have a monster.

I'm struggling a little to identify everything in this set. Obviously. there are the (colourised) Daleks, the Cybermen, a Weeping Angel and a Sea Devil, plus they've thrown in Koquillion which is amazing. Especially as he's just a dude with a mask on. But I don't recognise the lizard monster or the big eye. They should've put in the giant snake from Kinda, I would've gotten that.
 
Okay, I've looked it up and they're the Male Leaf Dragon from Class and the Bane Mother from Sarah Jane Adventures, apparently. Oh, plus there's Missy in the middle of the O, on her own little section because she died a hero... also, she was succeeded by the Sacha Dhawan Master, who called himself 'O'.

As idents go I'd rank this above the Star Wars shiny mask showcase and about equal with the Star Trek spaceship flyby. My only real issue with it...

... is that every episode for the foreseeable future is apparently going to have this image of the Fifteenth Doctor crying at the beginning. It's great as an image, but is a sad Doctor really what they want to have as the first thing people see each time they put Doctor Who on. Actually, what am I saying? Everyone loved that 'sad Tenth Doctor in the rain' GIF.

Alright, the very first shot of the third volume of Doctor Who is...

Wow, that's really bad. All that talent, all those resources, and this is the best they were able to do? I mean the hair's pretty impressive, they're definitely making up for how flat Tennant's hair was in The Day of the Doctor, but the rest of it makes a terrible first impression.

In fact, this might be the worst opening shot of any of the Doctor Who specials. Hang on, I need to check this.

(Click for a bigger image)

No, I was wrong, the laughing snowflake from The Snowmen is worse. This is still pretty bad though. Well, at least it fits with the first line, which is also kind of terrible: "Once upon a time, once upon a Time Lord".

Donna Noble joins in with the narration from her kitchen, talking about how she has dreams of impossible things and adventures. Starting with the two protagonists talking directly to camera, that's very... I dunno, Greek? Shakespearian perhaps.

Though hang on, if they're giving us a recap I should do this properly.

Previously on Doctor Who:

The Doctor got fatally wounded by a Dalek, which triggered his regeneration. He had vanity issues at the time however and channelled the excess energy into a convenient severed hand so that he basically regenerated into himself. Funny how that keeps happening. That seemed like the end of it, until his current companion and best mate Donna Noble got too close to the hand and triggered a meta-crisis. She gained Time Lord knowledge and intelligence just in time to save the universe, or reality, or time... whatever it was that week, but at a cost. The strain was going to kill her, so the Doctor went against her wishes and telepathically erased her memory to save her life.

And now, the continuation:

The Fourteenth Doctor claims that she had to forget "everything she ever knew," which isn't true, she just forgot a year or so of time travel adventures. Anyway, if she ever gets her memory back she'll die, and that means it would be a bad idea for the Doctor to ever see her again.

Donna explains to the camera that she's got a nice life now, with a nice husband, a nice house and a nice daughter, but she can feel that something's missing and there's a growing sense that something's about to happen. It's been a lot longer for the Doctor, three whole lifetimes, but now he's back in his 10th face, aged up appropriately and he doesn't know why. It's like this story isn't quite over yet.

Okay, now I finally get to see what the new opening credits are like! Will it have abstract imagery inspired by the original howl-around effect like the Thirteenth Doctor's era? Something flashy and creative like the Twelfth Doctor's journey through an unwinding clock? Or another trip down the time vortex like Russell T Davies' first run had? Either way I hope the new music is a bit less harsh on the ears. I know people have an appreciation for the more alien-sounding themes, but my poor ears just want something catchy, heroic and adventurous.

Hey the time vortex is pretty clouds again! Much nicer to look at than the nightmarish hell dimension of the Chris Chibnall era, in my subjective opinion. The intro is more chilled out and playful as well, with the TARDIS surfing across the sides and leaving trails.

The new theme isn't a radical change, in fact it feels like it's built from elements of previous themes. The good elements though! Again it's less dramatic than in the RTD era, less of a train hurtling towards adventure, but it sounds right. It's comfortable and fun, without the cold and sinister edge of the Jodie Whittaker theme or the harsh screeching of the Peter Capaldi theme.

The trouble I have with the opening is that the visuals don't sync up with the music to add emphasis. The big 3D names used to fly in just as the melody started, but now they come and go before it even begins. In fact, the tune kicks in when the TARDIS is flying through a cloud. And the bit where the TARDIS ducks under the logo is not great. Don't like it.

The logo itself is actually pretty good I reckon. They've taken the Third Doctor's second logo and refined it a bit, just like how the 1996 TV Movie improved on the Third Doctor's first logo. Basically, if you want style, the Third Doctor's run is where you want to be looking.

Also it's a diamond-shaped logo to go with the diamond anniversary, so it earns bonus points for that.

A brand new era with a new production crew and they're still using the same old TARDIS prop. I mean, I'm no TARDIS expert, but that looks just like Jodie Whittaker's box to me. And the Doctor's cleverly parked it under cover to make absolutely sure that UNIT doesn't grab it with a helicopter.

It's a bit sad to see the Doctor on his own again, but he's really only got himself to blame this time, as he chose to drop Yaz off. That's some beautiful cinematography though; the episode's really redeeming itself for that terrible opening image. Doctor Who's been among the best looking of the series I write about ever since it went HD, but it doesn't always nail it like it has here.

I think it helps, weirdly, to have the producer and director credit appear in the corners of the screen. They'd moved them to the opening credits for the Chris Chibnall era, but they're back.

The Doctor walks out into Camden Market and rushes to the aid of a woman with box problems. Unfortunately, it turns out to be Donna Noble, the only one of his old friends who'll die if she ever remembers him. There's no slow build-up to their reunion, it's just immediate, first woman he meets. He tries to undo his assistance and make his escape, but that doesn't work out and soon he's meeting her daughter... Rose.

Some people may have assumed that Rose Tyler had been recast when it was first revealed that she was in this, but nope this is a brand new character with a suspiciously familiar name.

Just then a spaceship comes hurtling over London! It happens sometimes in the RTD era. Donna has a knack for missing things like this, and she doesn't believe when they tell her what's happening right behind her. Investigating alien events is the Doctor's thing so he runs off....

... and by pure coincidence ends up in a car driven by Donna's husband, Shaun Temple, still played by Karl Collins. Well, to be fair the guy was shouting for Rose and it caught his attention.

Donna first appeared in The Runaway Bride when she found herself teleported to the TARDIS and assumed it must be Nerys' fault. The Doctor asked who Nerys was and she replied "Your best friend". So when Shaun asks how he knows Donna, he says he's a friend of Nerys! The guy's memory isn't flawless, I recall he had some issues remembering Ian Chesterton's last name, but he still remembers her name after 1500 years and that's pretty impressive. I'm impressed that RTD remembered her after all this time as well.

It turns out she's had an accident but we're never told what happened or if she's okay. Only that it was her fault.

The End of Time, Part 2

Here she is, the second most famous Nerys in science fiction behind Deep Space Nine's Kira Nerys, in the peach dress she hates.

Nerys only appears at weddings so I had to go back to The End of Time for this picture. Which was also Donna and Shaun's last appearance. The last thing that happened in Donna's story was her getting married and the Doctor giving her a lottery ticket. It was a triple rollover too.

Shaun lets us know what happened next. Donna won £166 million, bought a house, and gave the rest away for some reason! So that's another mystery to add to the list. Well I mean I know why she did it, RTD wanted to keep her relatable, but I don't know why she made that choice in-universe.

A clip from BBC News! Now I'm sure I'm watching an RTD episode. Turns out that the mysterious spaceship came down in a steelworks and set the place on fire.

UNIT doesn't appreciate the attention and has him dragged off to the back of a van on live TV! There are soldiers everywhere, they're really sealing the place off. Not that it stops the Doctor from sneaking inside using his sonic to open the fence. He snoops around a bit until he finds an opportunity to eavesdrop.

UNIT has been trying to work out what the aliens are up to and they've already figured out something interesting: turns out that the ship didn't make a crash landing. It flipped around at the last moment and touched down gently. The fact that it's parked upright was probably a clue.

The visual effects in this story were provided by Untold Studios, taking over from DNEG, who provided effects for the entire Chris Chibnall era. Well, they took over for this episode at least. I don't know whether it was because of the workload, but every 60th Anniversary special had a different VFX company working on it. I'm hoping they're all this good.

Meanwhile Donna and Rose are walking home. I hope this isn't because the Doctor stole their taxi.

Rose Noble is supposed to be around 14, but she's played by an 18-year-old Yasmin Finney and you can tell. RTD had to fudge the numbers a bit to make her even that old, as it's been 14 years since Donna's last appearance and she wasn't pregnant. The Doctor's got a time machine, he could just gone 5 years further to make the age match, but then I guess she wouldn't be getting deadnamed by schoolkids.

Donna is completely against kids calling people names, unless it was her doing it, but Rose doesn't want her mother to get involved.

Hey, Sylvia's back too!  I just finished watching through the David Tennant era in its entirety for the first time in preparation for this, so it's only been a couple of days since I last saw her, but I'm actually happy to see her again. Even if she (like all mothers) is the Doctor's arch-nemesis.

RTD packed a lot into this conversation, as it goes from Donna having lost her job again, to Sylvia worrying that she's done something wrong by calling Rose gorgeous, to Donna feeling like she's missing something. It's pretty well done actually. I'm not going to say something snide like "it's nice to have finally good writing on Doctor Who again", but it'd be funny if I did.

Meanwhile, Rose talks to her neighbour Fudge, who tells her that an escape pod landed nearby.

Okay there's something very wrong about this shot. This is the middle of the night, well away from street lights, and yet I can see what's going on. Didn't the production crew get the memo that scenes taking place at night have to be completely unreadable these days? Doctor Who will never be taken seriously as prestige television if they keep illuminating their actors like this.

In fact, the cinematography's pretty nice in general. I mean sure it gets very orange and teal, but there are other colours in there too. Sometimes.

Rose runs into the alien on the way back home to grab her phone and it's the rabbit version of Baby Yoda!

That's not an elaborate fur shader you're looking at, that's actual real life fur... probably. They used a costume with an animatronic head and added some digital augmentation for lip sync etc., so there are a combination of effects going on, with it becoming more CGI the more it's moving around. It looks about as good as any alien creature I've seen in TV or movies, so it gets a thumbs up from me.

The creature reveals that it's called the Meep and that it hurt its paw. I already knew that Beep the Meep was going to be in this episode to be honest, I got spoiled on that. Fortunately, I managed to avoid actually learning anything about the guy besides his name and his face.

The Meep also reveals that he's being hunted by weirdly retro looking bug creatures. They look like they're from an old episode of the classic series, but I'm fairly certain that they're not, so I'm a bit confused.

Back at the steelworks, Shirley Anne Bingham, UNIT's 56th scientific advisor, finds the Doctor showing off his sonic screwdriver's new ability to protect holographic screens. I suppose it was inevitable really, seeing as even Star Trek combadges can do it now. Tricom badge, whatever.

The Doctor's been sneaking around and staying out of sight, but just opens up to her right away. He tells he that he's regenerated into the face he had when he travelled with Donna Noble and now he keeps running into her, or her family, or spaceships crashing down near her. It's not the first time this has happened to the Doctor, as in the 2005 revival series he kept running into her grandfather Wilf by coincidence.

Maybe the Doctor's so honest with her because he remembers meeting her before... in the Big Finish audio dramas. The actress, Ruth Madeley, played Sixth Doctor companion Hebe Harrison in several stories earlier this year.

UNIT's figured out how to get the spaceship door open by this point, but what they find in there isn't what you want. Pretty purple mind-control smoke. Fortunately, Bingham is spared as the spaceship didn't have convenient wheelchair access. It's probably best for the commander on the scene to keep their distance from the dangerous stuff anyway.

The guy at the front is called Colonel Chan, by the way. Though I'm not sure that's ever said in dialogue. He and the others pull their visors down to hide their glowing eyes and then march out.

The episode checks in with Rose again, who has brought the Meep to her extremely clean and spacious shed. Seriously, I'm sure this place must be bigger on the inside. Or it might just be the way they've filmed it.

The Meep's trying to make friends with all of her stuffed toys, but without much luck. Rose pulls the guts out of one of them to demonstrate their inanimate nature and ends up freaking the poor thing out even more.

Donna comes in and Rose instinctively tries to hide the Meep from her. Or at least keep her from noticing it sitting there among her toys in plain sight.

Personally, if I was the Meep, I probably would've given up and moved before Donna came over and poked me in the eye, but it just sits there perfectly still. Doesn't flinch, doesn't blink, until... poke.

Meanwhile, the Doctor has surreptitiously hitched a ride with the mind-controlled soldiers in the back of their UNIT truck, which brings him all the way to Donna's street. Poor Sylvia is still doing whatever she can to keep Donna from remembering, which is getting very hard with a Meep in the kitchen and the Doctor at her front door. Emotions are running high, everyone's yelling, the Doctor gets slapped... in fact, this would be a pretty dramatic scene if it wasn't for the music turning it into a comedy.

And then chaos abruptly stops as Shaun comes home and sees what's going on. He deals with it very well I reckon.

Back at the escape pod, Colonel Chan tells Major Singh's squadron to go back to the steelworks, so that his brainwashed troops will be free to search for the Meep.

We get to see the Doctor doing a rare bit of medical treatment, as he bandages up the Meep's hand while Shaun reminds him who he's pretending to be (Nerys' friend). This explains everything as far as Donna's concerned; she knew that Nerys had to be behind this somehow!

The Doctor asks about Wilf and is happy to learn that he's still around and UNIT are looking after him. Though Donna just had to say "He's not with us any more," in a way that made it sound like he was dead.

It turns out that the Meep is being hunted by the Wrarth Warriors because of the Meep's fur. Not because they want to use it, they don't do that anymore. Making clothes from Meepkind fur has been banned for being inhumane. So now they go around killing all the Meeps to make sure they're not killed for their fur.

Just then Colonel Chan's brainwashed UNIT squad turns up at the front door, while the Wrarth Warriors blow up the kitchen in the back.

It seems like UNIT's upgraded to laser guns now, so this is more of a fair fight than in the olden days. Oh no, hang on, I think they're just very bright tracer rounds. Either way, they're still not killing anyone.

With the two sides currently at a stalemate in the hall, the Doctor draws another holographic screen with the sonic screwdriver. Though this one he can lean against. This one's solid.

Okay first, I'm a big fan of the new sonic design. It combines elements of all my favourite sonics and looks far far better than the Thirteenth Doctor's device. But every new ability RTD adds to this thing is just making it harder for future writers. I mean who looks at the sonic screwdriver and thinks 'the problem with this device is that it's not overpowered enough?'

So Donna's family is currently trapped between the brainwashed UNIT troops and alien hunters having a shoot out across their house, and if any of this jogs her memory of her adventures in the TARDIS she's dead. Seems like a good place for a cliffhanger.

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 2

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COMING SOON

Next on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's the second half of The Star Beast! Find out whether I love the episode as much as everyone else does. Actually, I don't really know what people think about this, I haven't checked yet. They might all hate it for all I know.

Don't let that stop you from sharing your own thoughts in the comments below.