Doctor Who (2023): The Star Beast - Part 2

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm still writing about The Star Beast, the first of Doctor Who's three 60th Anniversary specials. You can read PART ONE by clicking that text.

I've noticed that a few fans seem disappointed that we've gotten David Tennant back for three episodes as they wanted to get straight to Ncuti Gatwa. I guess some people are kind of done with the idea of returning to older characters and legacy actors in general, after the onslaught of nostalgia we've had this past decade.

In the last 8 years we've had movies and series starring Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, Mulder and Scully, Jean-Luc Picard and Seven of Nine, Neo and Trinity, Rocky Balboa, John Rambo, Laurie Strode, Maverick, Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan Kenobi, Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator, Michael Keaton's Batman, Indiana Jones, Rick Deckard, Captain John Sheridan and Dave Lister. Plus they just made a game with Peter Weller playing RoboCop again!

Personally though, I'm one of the people who keeps watching all this stuff. In fact, I've been thinking I should check out some Big Finish audio dramas, where the classic actors have been reprising their roles consistently for 24 years. It's all good as long as it doesn't get in the way of new characters and actors being introduced, and I don't think it has in this case. Filming for the Barbie movie overlapped with the specials so it doesn't seem like Ncuti Gatwa was ever an option and I'd rather have three bonus episodes with David Tennant than nothing at all. They can continue giving me bonus Tennant stories next year as well if they want, I won't complain.

There will be SPOILERS below, for this and earlier stories.

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

Episode:

872

|

Serial:

301

|

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

Doctor Who (2005) 9-12: Hell Bent

Episode:

825

|

Serial:

262

|

Writer:

Steven Moffat

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Air Date:

05-Dec-2015

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures it's Hell Bent, the epic season finale of Doctor Who series 9! I mean I'm just guessing that it's going to be epic, but they usually are. The Earth, the galaxy, or all of time and space tends to be at stake and only the Doctor...'s companion is special enough to save the day!

It's also epic in runtime as well. The episodes this series have generally been around 45 minutes long, but that's been creeping higher these last few episodes and now it's up to a full hour. If the runtime inflation continues at this rate they'll finally be ready for Peter Jackson to come in and direct an episode by series... 12.

Under this paragraph you'll find a few dozen spoilery screencaps surrounded by SPOILERS for this episode and the ones leading up to it. I won't spoil anything that aired after it though, not that there's much left to spoil. The series took 2016 off, so at the time I'm writing this there's just one Christmas special left (though there'll be two soon).

Doctor Who (2005) 9-11: Heaven Sent

Episode:

824

|

Serial:

261

|

Writer:

Steven Moffat

|

Air Date:

28-Nov-2015

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm back to Doctor Who again. I'm still watching series 9, though not for long as I'm in the middle chapter of the final three-parter! Though the TARDIS Data Core wiki says it's part one of the final two-parter and Wikipedia currently reckons it's just the penultimate story of the series. Either way it's carrying on from a cliffhanger ending and setting up the finale.

Which means that this is the second series in a row to end with an episode featuring 'Heaven' in the title, written by Steven Moffat and directed by Rachel Talalay. It worked out pretty well the last time though, so I'm optimistic.

There will be massive SPOILERS for Heaven Sent, the episode before it and probably other stories too. But only older episodes, never later ones.