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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Martin Belam

Doctor Who: The Star Beast – 60th anniversary special recap

The Doctor (David Tennant) and Rose (Yasmin Finney) in the Doctor Who anniversary special The Star Beast.
The Doctor (David Tennant) and Rose (Yasmin Finney) in the Doctor Who anniversary special The Star Beast. Photograph: Sally Mais/BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/Disney

Has it really been more than a year since we bid Jodie Whittaker farewell in a special episode laden with old-Who references that had to be liveblogged because we weren’t sure if we were going to get David Tennant or Ncuti Gatwa at the end of it?

It really has. But after a fourth-wall busting “new viewers start here” sequence, Russell T Davies, Tennant and Catherine Tate wasted no time in getting on with a whole new era of Who, now being made by Bad Wolf Studios and distributed by Disney globally, and with a visibly big hike in the budget.

We’ve been promised a big bold reimagining of the show for this second Davies era, and while this wasn’t quite that, it felt like a more-than-solid “holiday” special. Davies said at the launch he wanted it to be like a Pixar movie, with laughs as well as scares that the whole family could watch together. It successfully bolted a Sarah Jane Adventures-ish monster story involving kids on to an emotional reintroduction to Tennant and Tate.

Miriam Margolyes’s voice coupled with the Meep’s appearance was adorable, and the “Most High” of the Meeps remained a cutie even when they turned bloodthirsty. Another highlight was having Jacqueline King back as Sylvia Noble. During his initial turn as showrunner, Davies created memorable but somewhat abrasive mothers for the Doctor’s Earth companions, but King got a chance here to show a greater range and more sympathy for her daughter’s plight.

Yasmin Finney as Rose was a bright and kindly presence. The bores who thought the Whittaker era was too “woke” – whatever that means in the context of a science fantasy show that has always pushed stories with progressive values – will be choking on the scene where the Doctor is chastised by her for assuming the Meep’s pronouns.

The Doctor, Shaun Temple (Karl Collins) and Donna Noble (Catherine Tate).
Let the sparks fly … the Doctor, Shaun Temple (Karl Collins) and Donna Noble (Catherine Tate). Photograph: Alistair Heap/BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/Disney

Does the bigger budget show up on screen? You bet. The producers of Doctor Who in the 70s would have bitten your arm off to stage the kind of drone-shot street battle scene we saw here. The centrepiece, though, was the relationship between the Doctor and Donna, and it was genuinely lovely watching Tennant and Tate rebuild that spark.

Sum it up in one sentence?

The Meep steals the show as the 14th Doctor crashes back into the life of Donna Noble and her entertaining family.

Life aboard the Tardis

We didn’t get much inside the Tardis, but we did get a new Tardis inside, and wow, what a beauty. It is packed full of “the round things” and harks back to the classic era more than any Tardis interior since the 2005 revival. It was, apparently, Tennant’s own idea to do all the running round on the ramps, an idea that Davies said seemed less fun for the actor by the eighth take.

Fear factor

The Star Beast was based on a comic book, and these were very much comic-book villains. There weren’t really any frightening moments, unless you truly feared that Donna might die – despite knowing that Tate is in the next two specials. And you definitely couldn’t fear the Wrarth Warriors after they opened their mouths to reveal plummy voices that would have happily featured in Doctor Who in 1963.

Mysteries and questions

We still don’t know why that face for the 14th Doctor, we don’t know how Unit has reconfigured itself since being disbanded in Resolution and then time-manipulated during Flux, we don’t know where the Tardis is heading next and we don’t know who the boss is that the Meep alluded to. Well, OK, we probably do, as we know Neil Patrick Harris is in the third special as the Toymaker, and the three specials probably tie together.

The Meep.
Even a cutie when they’re bloodthirsty … the Meep. Photograph: Sally Mais/BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/Disney

Deeper into the vortex

  • The Star Beast is based on a 1980 comic strip in Doctor Who magazine that originally featured the fourth Doctor, Beep the Meep and the Wrarth Warriors. It was written by Pat Mills who created 2000AD and John Wagner, the co-creator of Judge Dredd, and was beautifully drawn by Dave Gibbons, who is probably best known for his work with Alan Moore on Watchmen. It has long been considered a classic by the DW fanbase, and the plot of children discovering a crash-landed alien and hiding it pre-dates Steven Spielberg’s ET by a couple of years. But unlike Beep the Meep, ET didn’t want to drink anybody’s blood.

  • We heard about Wilf being in sheltered accommodation, and we know the late Bernard Cribbins filmed scenes last year, but he didn’t appear in this. Tennant said in April they weren’t able to film as much with Cribbins as had been intended. Hopefully we will get to see the wonderful old storyteller’s final appearance in the Whoniverse in the next couple of weeks – after all, Cribbins first stepped into the Tardis in the 1966 Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 AD movie, and it would be a lovely 60th anniversary treat and tribute to see him one last time.

  • If you are wondering why Tennant had a new sonic screwdriver since Power of the Doctor was broadcast, Doctor Who magazine has been publishing a 14th Doctor comic story – Liberation of the Daleks – which picked up directly from the regeneration scene and led in to last week’s Skaro-based Children in Need skit, and has seen Jodie Whittaker’s sonic screwdriver design come a cropper. Twice. All the people who hate the sonic being waved around so much in modern Who are probably not going to like the new features it had in this episode.

Next time

At the time of writing there hadn’t been a standalone trailer for Wild Blue Yonder, and so, dear reader, you might already know more than the Guardian. Davies has said the episode is “weird” and really stretched the design team to realise what was on the page. Tennant has said it is “unlike any Doctor Who episode ever”, and the latest issue of Doctor Who magazine redacted the guest cast. So who knows. See you next week – allons-y!

60th anniversary specials

Special 1: The Star Beast
Special 2: Wild Blue Yonder
Special 3: The Giggle
Christmas special: The Church on Ruby Road

Flux / Series 13

Chapter one: The Halloween Apocalypse
Chapter two: War of the Sontarans
Chapter three: Once, Upon Time
Chapter four: Village of the Angels
Chapter five: Survivors of the Flux
Chapter six: The Vanquishers
New Year's Special: Eve of the Daleks
Spring special: Legend of the Sea Devils
BBC centenary special: The Power of the Doctor


Series 12

Episode 1: Spyfall part one
Episode 2: Spyfall part two
Episode 3: Orphan 55
Episode 4: Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror
Episode 5: Fugitive of the Judoon
Episode 6: Praxeus
Episode 7: Can You Hear Me?
Episode 8: The Haunting of Villa Diodati
Episode 9: Ascension of the Cybermen
Episode 10: The Timeless Children
New Year's special: Revolution of the Daleks

Series 11

Episode 1: The Woman Who Fell to Earth
Episode 2: The Ghost Monument
Episode 3: Rosa
Episode 4: Arachnids in the UK
Episode 5: The Tsuangra Condundrum
Episode 6: Demons of the Punjab
Episode 7: Kerblam!
Episode 8: The Witchfinders
Episode 9: It Takes You Away
Episode 10: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos
New Year's special: Resolution

Series 10

Episode 1: The Pilot
Episode 2: Smile
Episode 3: Thin Ice
Episode 4: Knock Knock
Episode 5: Oxygen
Episode 6: Extremis
Episode 7: The Pyramid at the End of the World
Episode 8: The Lie of the Land
Episode 9: Empress of Mars
Episode 10: The Eaters of Light
Episode 11: World Enough and Time
Episode 12: The Doctor Falls
2017 Christmas special: Twice Upon A Time

Series 9

Episode 1: The Magician's Apprentice
Episode 2: The Witch's Familiar
Episode 3: Under The Lake
Episode 4: Before The Flood
Episode 5: The Girl Who Died
Episode 6: The Woman Who Lived
Episode 7: The Zygon Invasion
Episode 8: The Zygon Inversion
Episode 9: Sleep No More
Episode 10: Face The Raven
Episode 11: Heaven Sent
Episode 12: Hell Bent
2015 Christmas special: The Husbands of River Song
2016 Christmas special: The Return of Doctor Mysterio

Series 8

Episode 1: Deep Breath
Episode 2: Into The Dalek
Episode 3: Robot of Sherwood
Episode 4: Listen
Episode 5: Time Heist
Episode 6: The Caretaker
Episode 7: Kill The Moon
Episode 8: Mummy on the Orient Express
Episode 9: Flatline
Episode 10: In the Forest of the Night
Episode 11: Dark Water
Episode 12: Death In Heaven
2014 Christmas special: Last Christmas

Series 7

Episode 1: Asylum of the Daleks
Episode 2: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
Episode 3: A Town Called Mercy
Episode 4: The Power of Three
Episode 5: The Angels Take Manhatten
2012 Christmas special: The Snowmen
Episode 6: The Bells of Saint John
Episode 7: The Rings of Akhaten
Episode 8: Cold War
Episode 9: Hide
Episode 10: Journey to the Centre of the Tardis
Episode 11: The Crimson Horror
Episode 12: Nightmare in Silver
Episode 13: The Name of the Doctor
50th Anniversary special: The Day of the Doctor
2013 Christmas special: The Time of the Doctor

Series 6

Episode 1: The Impossible Astronaut
Episode 2: Day of the Moon
Episode 3: The Curse of the Black Spot
Episode 4: The Doctor's Wife
Episode 5: The Rebel Flesh
Episode 6: The Almost People
Episode 7: A Good Man Goes To War
Episode 8: Let's Kill Hitler
Episode 9: Night Terrors
Episode 10: The Girl Who Waited
Episode 11: The God Complex
Episode 12: Closing Time
Episode 13: The Wedding of River Song
2011 Christmas special: The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe

Series 5

Episode 1: The Eleventh Hour
Episode 2: The Beast Below
Episode 3: Victory of the Daleks
Episode 4: The Time of Angels
Episode 5: Flesh and Stone
Episode 6: The Vampires of Venice
Episode 7: Amy's Choice
Episode 8: The Hungry Earth
Episode 9: Cold Blood
Episode 10: Vincent and the Doctor
Episode 11: The Lodger
Episode 12: The Pandorica Opens
Episode 13: The Big Bang
2010 Christmas special: A Christmas Carol

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