The Star Beast skips the part where a new Doctor spends twenty minutes figuring out who he is, and it’s better for it. Normally these specials give you the roundup time. I just transformed, what’s going on, here’s my new screwdriver, here’s my new TARDIS. This one, David Tennant steps out and he’s already the Doctor. We saw him with all the questions on his face at the end of the last regeneration, so he already freaked out once. We don’t need to see it again.
It’s been about a year and a half that Mrs. Know-It-All and I have been excited for this one. Tennant’s back, only this time he’s the Fourteenth Doctor, hot on the heels of Jodie Whittaker, who regenerated into him at the end of her specials. So we get a new old Doctor, a new old companion in Donna, and a new new companion in Donna’s daughter, Rose Noble, played by Yasmin Finney. We get Sylvia back. And we finally get to see Donna’s husband, who we literally caught a glimpse of at the end of Tennant’s run and that was it.
Mrs. Know-It-All’s first reaction, for the record: “It was great. Maybe I was just too excited, but I enjoyed finally sitting down and watching Doctor Who again.” And then, “That’s my Doctor.”
A Storybook Open and That Disney Money
I really like the way they brought us into the episode. The Doctor talks, then Donna talks. “A Time Lord and a human. We traveled the stars together.” “Sometimes I have dreams about impossible things.”
It reminded me of Matt Smith’s era. During the second season of his run they did those openings with Amelia Pond, the storybook intro. “When I was a little girl I had an imaginary friend, and when I grew up he came back. He’s called the Doctor.” This is the same kind of move. It’s a little fourth wall breaking, I agree, but it was the fastest, most efficient way to get us back into the story of the two of them, and it gave us more story for the time it bought.
Then we get the new intro, and I was taken aback. One of Mrs. Know-It-All’s friends on Facebook said, “well, clearly they spent that Disney money.” Every Doctor I’ve watched has had their own opening, and they’ve all had a look, but this one felt grand in scale. You get the TARDIS going through that flaming space-time vortex, and then you get something that’s almost like the multiverse. That’s the nearest comparison I’ve got. There are these constellations that look like Gallifreyan text, round, circles, and you’re sitting there asking if he’s flying through some weird way station. The letters come out and it’s very cinematic. Or, as her friend so tactfully put it, Disney money.
Donna Gave It All Away
He lands back in London and walks smack into a woman having trouble carrying boxes. He picks a box up, and it’s her. He puts it right back down with a quickness.
I love Donna so much. In a lot of ways she reminds me of Mrs. Know-It-All. She speaks her mind, she’s brash when she has to be.
Then you find out she gave away all of the money. For those of you playing at home: at the end of Tennant’s run, when Donna got married, the Doctor gave them a wedding gift, and it was a lottery ticket. A triple rollover, worth 166 million pounds. Do the exchange and that’s roughly, probably close to about 180 million American, maybe a little more. And she gave it all away. She never knew why. She just knew she had to.
I was immediately sitting there going, she was trying to help everybody out. Sure enough, she confirms it later, when things are starting to come through for her. She says she did what she thought he would do. Right on. Good for you.
Then a spaceship crashes not far away, because when it rains it pours. The Doctor shows up, Donna’s right there, a spaceship comes down right in front of her, and she misses it. You always hear about it with Donna and you always think, how could she possibly be that oblivious? Luckily RTD showed it to us. “I don’t think that’s a plane.” “It’s a spaceship in trouble.” “Mom, look, it’s a spaceship.” And she gets up when it’s all done and wants to know what we’re talking about now. Oh, Donna. I love you.
Rose Noble, and a Show That Moves With Its Year
There’s a moment where Donna and her daughter are walking home and Rose gets catcalled by some kids. She gets deadnamed. She’s a trans woman, and I wouldn’t have known anything if nobody had said anything to me. I love that they called it out directly, so anybody who’s uneducated doesn’t get to sit there making crass statements. There are people online who say horrible things about the way people look. Look, man, that’s a beautiful young woman. And these kids are going on, and Donna gets pissed. She’s such a mama bear in that moment.
The part I really loved came after. We’ve had to deal with stuff like that in our own family, and my father-in-law, Grandpa Know-It-All, has had to kind of get used to it. So when Sylvia is asking, am I saying the right thing, is that okay, I never used to have to say this, and she’s so sorry about it, that felt honest and true to me. I love that they addressed it. Life’s changing, culture’s changing, people are finding their footing.
I haven’t even looked yet, but I guarantee you there are people online already calling it woke. You can call it that, but it’s no different than the year we live in. Go back to the start of Doctor Who. Polly was the assistant who came along because women had to be looked after. Years later Rose was tough, rough and tumble, and she looked after him. Each one is a product of her culture. This is the show evolving with the times the Doctor is existing in.
I’m all for it. Keep the show going forward, keep the characters and the universe they live in evolving. Things don’t have to stay static, especially when you’re dealing with space and time.
The Meep
A neighborhood kid comes around saying a little piece broke off the ship. It’s an escape pod. Not tiny, but small. And of course it’s Rose who finds what came out of it, in the back alley behind the trash: this adorable creature. The Meep. Baby Know-It-All came running in at one point, saw it, said “oh, that’s so cute,” and sat and watched the rest of the episode.
You see it in this really cool E.T. type setup, hiding in the stuffed animals, because that’s what Rose does. She makes all these plush toy monster creatures and sells them online. And apparently she has a buyer in Dubai who buys all her stuff.
I want this on the record. I feel like that little tidbit is absolutely going to come back to bite us. I don’t know how, but if that doesn’t lead us somehow to the Toymaker or something like it, I’d be surprised. Mrs. Know-It-All just didn’t want to believe me.
Donna shows up, and at first it’s “oh, it’s so cute,” and then she touches the Meep’s eye and loses it in classic Donna style.
UNIT, Number 56, and a Sonic With New Tricks
Meanwhile the Doctor goes to the crash site, and it turns out the ship didn’t crash at all. It basically did an about-face. There he meets UNIT’s new science advisor, number 56, a young woman in a wheelchair, and the wheelchair matters later, which is why I’m calling it out now.
Before she rolls up on him, he’s sitting there with the sonic screwdriver throwing a hologram wall into the air, a whole screen, moving things around on it. I’m a huge fan of when they add new abilities to the sonic, and if that’s what we’re doing with it now, I’m all about it.
Then he does something I never expected. He gives up all the goods. He tells her he’s worried because he has a new face that’s an old face, and he describes the Doctors who came after this one the first time around. You got your old face back. I love that they haven’t ho-hummed that or hand-waved it away. It’s a thing, and I believe it’s going to be a through line. He says if destiny exists, it’s coming after Donna Noble, and I thought that was very telling.
RTD has had quite a few years to think through how he’d ever do this. He just did a piece in the Radio Times where the pull quote, the headline of it, was that he knew he had more stories to tell. That was all it took. And remember, he’s not just doing the 60th anniversary specials. He’s on for Ncuti Gatwa’s new seasons as the Fifteenth. Let’s go.
Sylvia at the Door, and the Husband I Already Love
The Doctor gets to Donna’s house, hears her freaking out, and knocks. Sylvia had this amazing look on her face when she turned around. You expected her eyes to glow and flames to shoot out of her ears. She was mad.
Then Donna’s husband walks into the middle of all of it with “hey, something smells nice.” I love this guy. I love his simplicity. I hope at some point he gets to accidentally do something with them, because he’s great.
The Doctor takes a second and talks to the Meep, and they find out the Meep’s personal pronoun is the definite article. The Meep. And he says, great, just like me, I’m the Doctor. Okay. That works, man.
The Meep’s story is that its people were hunted for their fur, and the hunters destroyed its home world, so now it’s running. Then the doors get busted in by UNIT soldiers who’ve been possessed by something blue and glowy. Later they explain it as a kind of psychedelic sun that turns you evil. They’re after the Meep, and so are these alien soldiers that look like the Federation soldiers from Rick and Morty. I swear that’s the first thing I thought when I saw them in live action. Then they flew, and I said, RTD must watch Rick and Morty, because these are those guys.
In wonderful BBC style they’re walking around on stilts. Very practical. There’s a ton of really great practical effects work in this one, which Doctor Who has always been known for, the rubber suits and all of it, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Court in a Parking Garage
During the gunfire the Doctor uses his new trick to throw force shields up out of midair, and while he’s doing it he hands the sonic to Donna out of habit, and she just takes it. No problem. Oh my God, she’s got to be ready.
(Mrs. Know-It-All would like it noted that she needs a sonic screwdriver. I do have a laser screwdriver from back in the day, but that’s the Master’s old one, and I’m not going to dignify that on this set.)
He gets everybody to a parking garage, intercepts the soldiers’ teleport, conveniently, because plot’s going to plot, and then he pulls out a wig, very Fourth Doctor, and holds court right there in the middle of the place. He invokes the Shadow Proclamation. “There will be no violence until such time as I deem it fit and proper.”
He susses out pretty quickly that these soldiers aren’t trying to kill anyone. They’re using stun guns. I inadvertently called it, because I was sitting there going, come on, how cheap are these special effects, they’re hitting the car and nothing’s happening. Then the Doctor asks Donna to check for scorch marks.
And the Meep is evil. It tries to look evil, it’s got the sharp teeth, but it still looks kind of cute. It looks like an evil gremlin, like those toys where you’d press a button and they’d go evil. Mrs. Know-It-All called it horrific. It kills the two soldiers, the possessed UNIT troops show up, and everybody goes back to the ship. The Doctor struts the whole way. He walks around Earth like he owns it. Or as Matt Smith once said, “I’ve put a lot of work into it.”
Don’t Make Me the Problem
Donna gets her family to an escape route, shuts the door behind them, and says she’s got to help him. She doesn’t know why. She just knows she has to. That’s right after number 56 takes out the guards holding the Doctor with darts fired out of her wheelchair.
Mrs. Know-It-All wanted to stop on this, and I’m giving it to her in her words. “As someone that has to use a wheelchair sometimes, a walker and a cane, I love how she just was. I don’t think actors and actresses using mobility aids give much credit to themselves, and I don’t think we give them enough. Those are just their legs.”
The line she pointed to is the one at the stairs. Someone apologizes to her about the stairs, and she says, “Don’t make me the problem. Just get in there.” And they went right with it. No hurt feelings. She just knew. Mrs. Know-It-All said she took a lot of comfort in that, knowing there are things she can’t do anymore. But that woman was the boss, she knew what needed to get done, and it got done.
Nine Million People and a Row of Trigger Words
The ship runs on what they call a dagger drive. “A dagger drive gets its energy by stabbing down.” It would extract five square miles. “The whole of London town burnt as fuel.” That’s nine million people.
So Donna isn’t going to let her family die. I think she’s starting to remember. She’s dropped the Doctor’s name, she’s said the thing about trying to be like him. It’s slowly coming back, even with her mother walking around insisting none of this is real.
The Doctor trips something and they end up stuck on two sides of a doorway, and he explains it to her. There’s one thing left he can do. The two of them can save everyone, save everything, but she’s going to die. It’s a heavy moment. Her daughter is down there, and it’s not just Rose, it’s nine million people.
Then, almost like Bucky in the Winter Soldier, he starts saying a series of trigger words. About halfway through she picks up on them, her memory comes back, and then she gets pissed, because that’s what Donna would do. The first thing out of her mouth is about the money she gave away, all because she had this memory loop in her trying to make her soft inside like him. It’s great. Oh, you want to see angry? She starts shutting things down, he helps, and they stop the ship.
Then it looks like she’s going to die. The door opens, and they have a wonderful moment. David Tennant and Catherine Tate haven’t missed a beat. They felt exactly like those characters.
She Called It
Then the possessed soldiers come in, the colored light gets sucked right out of them, and you see hands flipping switches. It’s Rose, talking all Doctor-like.
Pause. About midway through the episode Mrs. Know-It-All turned to me and said, what if Rose has something to do with it, because wouldn’t Donna have passed something on to her? And I said you’re right, why wouldn’t she, that makes perfect sense. So when Rose comes on telling the Doctor and her mom to come on out, they’re good, I already knew who to look at on the couch. Donna split the metacrisis with her daughter when she gave birth, which is why Donna didn’t die.
You’re going to find people out there saying that’s mighty convenient. Dude, storytelling is convenient. The man regenerates just so you can explain how another actor takes over. Don’t get me started on convenient.
They catch the Meep, and the Meep gets cryptic. “A creature with two hearts is such a rare thing. Just wait till I tell the boss.” It looks mean saying it and it’s still kind of cute. And Tennant’s Doctor, bless him, points out that it’s awfully cryptic and he hates that.
Donna and Rose find out they can just let it go, and they do. They release the Time Lord energy out into the universe and that’s it.
The New TARDIS, and One Prediction on the Record
Back at the TARDIS, the Doctor suggests one trip. Let’s go see her granddad, he’ll get a kick out of it. Sylvia says one trip and that’s it. And we get our first look through the doors at the brand new TARDIS. It’s huge. Tennant’s Doctor runs around it like an exuberant child, stairs and ramps everywhere. It’s bigger than bigger on the inside.
It has the round things, too. “I love the round things.” “What are the round things?” “No idea.” They’re color coded and you can change them, kind of like my light setup here.
Before they go, Donna checks with her husband, and he says a lot of husbands would worry, his wife in a box with another man, but not this one. They really took a moment to hang on that scene, and Mrs. Know-It-All thinks that’s the setup. Her prediction: Donna and Rose both make it all the way through these specials, and when the regeneration happens, Ncuti Gatwa’s new Doctor is going to want Donna to come along. I’ll paint the scene. He says let’s go, and her husband, who’s a Black man himself, says ah, no, not with him. That’s the symmetry. I don’t believe Gatwa gets his new companion until the first episode of his own season, so there’s room for it.
If it happens, she called it, right here.
The Verdict
Doctor Who: The Star Beast lands at a 9 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index from me, and Mrs. Know-It-All has it at an 8.5.
I really thought it was good. The whole thing felt like a love letter to the past, in a good way, and a step forward at the same time. With two more specials to go, I feel like they did a great job buttoning this one up and making it work. I didn’t have any issues.
I’m going to be a hard person not to give a 10 out of 10 to every episode of this run, because this felt like a warm hug. It felt like the era we left. Tennant jumped right back into being the Doctor without skipping a beat. I loved the little references too, like when he flashes the psychic paper, it calls him a mistress of something or other, and he just goes, “catch up.”
Gatwa’s new season is supposed to be called season one, because it’s heralding a whole new era of Doctor Who. I’m here for it.
What did you think of this brand new era now that it’s begun? And give me your predictions for how the next two specials are going to go. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
