Doctor Who: The Star Beast

Doctor Who returns to celebrate its 60th anniversary with The Star Beast, the first of three special episodes starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate, who reprise their roles as the Doctor and Donna Noble, respectively.

Written by Russell T Davies, The Star Beast is adapted from the 1980 comic strip by Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons published in Doctor Who Weekly (now titled Doctor Who Magazine). In Davies’ modern adaptation, he introduces the cute alien, the Meep, voiced by Miriam Margolyes, who finds safety at home with Rose Noble (Yasmin Finney) and mother Donna, seeking a place to hide from the Wrarth Warriors, who are hunting the adorable creature.

However, having an alien in Donna’s home is incredibly unsafe. Audiences will likely remember that the Doctor wiped her mind fifteen years ago during the conclusion of Journey’s End, and any recollection of the Doctor, aliens, or any of their previous adventures together would kill her. Whilst the Doctor had a fail-safe in case of emergencies, unfortunately, it was removed in The End of Time when Donna’s mind expelled some of the power, saving her from the pursuing Master (John Simm).

Interestingly still, audiences were left wondering after The Power of the Doctor as to the cause to explain why Jodie Whittaker mysteriously regenerated back into David Tennant, a feat previously not seen on-screens, even if alluded to by Tom Baker’s Curator in The Day of the Doctor. How the Fourteenth Doctor became David Tennant and why the Universe was attracting the Doctor and Donna together once more had audiences bewildered.

It fell onto Russell T Davies, the returning showrunner, who, following the Doctor Who tweet-along idea by Emily Cook, reunited Tennant and Tate to solve the question of how the Doctor and Donna could share the screen again. Under his leadership, the Fourteenth Doctor had already undertaken adventures before The Star Beast. He appeared in Destination: Skaro for Children in Need and aptly was given a canonical fourteen-part story titled Liberation of the Daleks in Doctor Who Magazine.

Paying homage to the magazine as inspiration for being the original source of The Star Beast, its fourteen-part story also served as an ode to the Doctor’s fourteenth regeneration whilst offering fans a bridge into the world of Who during its year-long break.

It is also in the comic series where it is explained to readers how Daleks destroyed the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver, last seen with Whittaker’s incarnation, and that the undoing of the Dalek’s plan accidentally activated a return trip in the TARDIS leading to the events of Destination: Skaro.

Some fans may be annoyed that story hooks, like the sonic screwdriver being destroyed, happened off-screen; however, as pointed out in the short minisode: “the timelines and canon are rupturing”. There seems to be an interest in the media used to tell the story of the Doctor, so perhaps it explains why Davies started the anniversary specials with a story adapted from Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons’ work.

Character	Cast
The Doctor	David Tennant
Donna Noble	Catherine Tate
Voice of the Meep	Miriam Margolyes
Rose Noble	Yasmin Finney
Shaun Temple	Karl Collins
Fudge Merchandani	Dara Lall
BBC Reporter	Matt Green
Colonel Chan	Jamie Cho
Major Singh	Ronak Patani
Shirley Anne Bingham	Ruth Madeley
Sylvia Noble	Jacqueline King

For the Fourteenth Doctor’s adventure to have already started, and the coverage for the anniversary specials reminding audiences of the importance of what happened fifteen years prior, there is a slight confusion as to why the Doctor and Donna both break the fourth wall and address the audience during the show’s cold open. Especially as this episode will sit alongside the rest of the show’s history and will likely be rewatched on BBC iPlayer or Disney+, where audiences can dip in and out of the stories through the years.

Putting this into perspective, starting the episode with self-awareness ignores the knowledge that audiences can watch immediately from Journey’s End to The Star Beast, skipping past the last decade and making the recap redundant – though perhaps once this ends up on streaming, it will be ignored by a skippable button.

Though, in true Russell T Davies fashion, the writer is constantly pushing the boundaries of how to tell a story, reinforcing his reputation as a writer who continually reinvents himself for his audience. His modernity and understanding of how the audience interacts with the show are evident.

This is no more apparent than in The Star Beast with newcomer Yasmin Finney. Since his last run, Russell T Davies has been vocal about having actors cast to represent the characters with personal connections to the role. Speaking to the RadioTimes in 2021 regarding It’s A Sin, Davies said, “You wouldn’t cast someone able-bodied and put them in a wheelchair, you wouldn’t black someone up. Authenticity is leading us to joyous places.”

Following his announcement as showrunner, Doctor Who in April 2022 introduced Charlie Craggs as the first transgender lead to the show in Doctor Who: Redacted, but it’s through Yasmin Finney that audiences can finally see transgendered representation on-screen with her introduction as Rose Noble.

Rose’s story in The Star Beast tackles the issues experienced by the trans community, including bullying and ignorance towards understanding through names and pronouns, with her family fighting alongside her for acceptance. Davies even goes as far as to call back to Journey’s End, where Donna gets stuck looping the words ‘binary’ to highlight her anguish as the DoctorDonna.

Through Rose, identifying as neither wholly male nor female gender binary, the term is recontextualised. As such, she can channel the meta-crisis to save her mother from the looming destruction made clear by her mindwipe.

Whilst it does highlight Davies’ development as a writer and his understanding of the societal zeitgeist, unfortunately, when compared to the writing by Juno Dawson for Doctor Who: Redacted, the reprisal feels heavy-handed, and though there are scenes of sincerity, such as how Finney reacts to being called her character’s deadname, the weight of what it is trying to say, versus what it achieves never equalises and results in scenes feeling clunky.

Conversely, introducing Ruth Madeley as Shirley Anne Bingham is a solid addition to the Unified Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT). Where disabled members of spy agencies typically are portrayed as villains, evidenced throughout the James Bond franchise, Madeley proudly illustrates, empowers and celebrates that there are roles for the disabled community on-screen in a heroic capacity.

Born with spina bifida, Madeley, and her character, becomes the surrogate for audiences in linking the two Doctors played by Tennant, contextualising how time has given growth to this Fourteenth version. As Davies said, “Authenticity is leading us to joyous places.”

As the show’s 60th anniversary launchpad, there were specific beats that the episode needed to hit whilst adding to the show’s history. Unfortunately, it spends so much time reiterating what we know and repeating the same facts that the smaller moments of diluted joy, like the Doctor and Donna together in the TARDIS or the Doctor trying to understand precisely what differentiates this Fourteenth version from the Tenth, get lost amongst the noise. For instance, how many audiences will have spotted that finally, the Doctor can admit his love for a companion after failing to do so at Dårlig Ulv Stranden (Bad Wolf Bay)?

While there are moments of creativity from the production designers in illustrating the memories of the Doctor and Donna’s adventures, the inclusion of a toy supposedly meant to replicate Karvanista from the Flux serial did feel odd and out of place, especially with a close-up shot, as if expecting audiences to associate the story with the pair, like the Daleks, Cybermen, Ood and Judoon.

Unfortunately, it’s a great representation of the broader failings of the episode. While everyone in each specific department attempts to recreate the magic of the mid-2000s Doctor Who, there seems to be a lack of synergy across the departments, resulting in The Star Beast feeling more like fan service than its own identifiable story. It’s not a bad episode per se, which audiences have certainly become accustomed to over Chris Chibnall’s tenure. Still, when Davies has grown from strength to strength as a writer since his first time running the show, audiences’ expectations for a high-quality, meaningful episode remain unfulfilled.

The Star Beast is available to stream on BBC iPlayer for those in the UK as part of the new Whoniverse collection and is also available to watch internationally exclusively on Disney+.

Role	Crew
Writer and Executive Producer	Russell T Davies
Director	Rachel Talalay
Producer	Vicki Delow
Director of Photography	Matt Gray
Composer	Murray Gold
Executive Producer	Jane Tranter
Executive Producer	Julie Gardner
Executive Producer	Phil Collinson
Executive Producer	Joel Collins
Production Company	BBC Studios
Production Company	Bad Wolf Studios