Dr Who Anniversary Specials — The Star Beast — A Review

25th November, 2023: the Introduction.

Right … 

I’ve started this piece a little earlier than I normally would.

It’s some roughly five to four on a Saturday afternoon.

And?

I’m going to grab dinner in a minute.

Then?

Once I’ve washed up, and put everything away?

I’ll be settling in with a cup of tea, and a comfy chair.

And be watching The Star Beast: the first of three special episodes of Dr Who, designed to celebrate the show’s sixtieth anniversary.

Will it be any good … ?

We’ll have to see, won’t we?

~≈👽≈~

26th November, 2023: “The Star Beast”.

Episode 1 — “The Star Beast” opens with the new Whoniverse ident …  then shifts: to show us the 14th Doctor (David Tennant) addressing us directly: reminding us that he had a friend — Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) — who’s memory he’s had to wipe, in order to save her life.

We also see Donna breaking the fourth wall: telling us her life is going well but the she feels there’s something missing.

And that she’s having dreams that something, something dreadful, is coming.

The scene shifts: first, to the newly revamped opening credits.

Then shifting again.

To show the TARDIS materialising in a darkened corner of Camden Market: and a newly regenerated 14th Doctor happily nosing his way around London’s version of a Turkish souk.

Until?

Until he spots one shopper having trouble carrying a pile of boxes: and decides to help re-stack the things.

Only to find that the overburdened shopper … is Donna Noble: the one person on Earth he has to keep away from!

Thankfully?

Donna is unaffected by seeing someone that she, literally, has no memory of.

She is more concerned by the fact her daughter, Rose (Yasmin Finney) … is buying supplies for her online business, rather than doing her homework.

And that the mysterious stranger has re-stacked her packages, in the worst possible way.

Leaving Donna very distracted … whilst everyone else in Camden Market watches the spaceship crash, not far away … 

There’s only one thing for it.

The Doctor has to investigate the ship: not only could someone on it be in trouble … but it gets him away from Donna … 

~≈👽≈~

Now … 

What did I make of The Star Beast … ?

Of this first episode of a re-vamped Dr Who … ?

I have to confess, I’ve had a bad week and went into the episode feeling decidedly grotty.

By the end of the episode, I felt vaguely disappointed.

That’s not to say The Star Beast was bad: far from it.

Just that I had a very ambivalent reaction to it.

For starters … ?

I can’t fault the ensemble performance.

Tennant and Tate turn in the expected performances: and I can’t fault them there.

Yasmin Finney?

Yasmin Finney was great as Rose.

Having someone transgender playing a trans character shows those of us unfamiliar with the trans community — me, included — a slice of their lives, and the kind of social difficulties they face.

That casting allows Ms Finney to draw on personal experience.

Unlike that of trans Coronation Street character, Hayley Cropper, played by cis-gender actress, Julie Hesmondhalgh.

Julia’s casting always seemed counter-intuitive to me: although I’m told she played the character well, it seemed similar to getting a white actor to play a known, black, historical figure.

~≈👽≈~

As an aside, there?

Yes: I’ll happily admit not knowing many people in the LGBTQI⁺ community: and — more specifically — not that many trans people.

So dealing with members of the community?   Isn’t something I’m, necessarily, good at, or comfortable with: I can only hope bitting my tongue and being polite hides my unfamiliarity with someone who has very different life experiences to myself.

~≈👽≈~

At any rate?

Yasmin Finney put in a very sympathetic performance as Rose.

And has a beautiful speaking voice: I thought that from the moment I saw the preview clip of her and the Meep that aired on YouTube, a few days ago.

Hopefully?   That will serve her well: and get her the sort of bread and butter voice-over work many actors use to get by.

~≈👽≈~

Ms Finney’s performance?

Is one amongst many.

As I’ve said, both David Tennent and Catherine Tate put in the good job we’ve come to expect from them.

Although, speaking personally?

The big scene towards the end — where the 14th Doctor helps Donna to safely recover her memories, and stop the Meep’s ship from taking off? — was one I felt was a touch … … off.

It relies on replaying a version of the climactic scene from “Journey’s End”: where the Tenth Doctor has to wipe Donna’s mind.

Yes: off seems the safest way to put it.

That’s a gripe: and a minor one.

As a counterpoint?

For the rest of the episode, both performers put in a sterling job.

The other stand outs?

For me, were Miriam Margolyes: the veteran performer was an absolute delight, voicing the villainous Meep.

And Ruth Madeley as Shirley Anne Bingham, UNIT’s fifty-sixth scientific adviser, was a delight.

She plays the part well, with her inability to climb stairs saving her from being brainwashed.

She’s knowledgeable about, and friendly to, the Doctor: but not especially deferential.

And she comes with a wheelchair armed with machine guns and missiles.

Where can a body go wrong?

~≈👽≈~

The plot?

Owes much to the original strip: although there have been changes.

Sharon — the strip’s heroine — becomes Rose.

Her best friend at school, Fudge, is now a British Asian kid, rather than a white kid: and less involved than  the original character.

Fudge’s chain-smoking Mum is — effectively — replaced by Donna.

The British Army troops?   Are now UNIT special forces: hypnotised by a Psychedelic Sun, rather than the ominous sounding Black Sun Drive.

And, of course, Beep the Meep?

Is now simply the Meep.

The steel works that provides the setting for the strip’s climax is unchanged: although the Meep’s ship is now powered by a Double Dagger Drive: rather than the Black Sun Drive mentioned in the strip.

It’s a reasonably good adaptation, I’d say: trying its best to contain the story in a one hour format, whilst making the changes and cuts needed to make the story work for television.

Granted?

I felt disappointed with it, after a bad week, personally.

I felt — immediately after watching The Star Beast — that it was possibly a touch too retro for me to be completely happy with it.

And that it didn’t answer the question: of why the Fourteenth Doctor looks like the Tenth.

After a night’s sleeping on things?

I feel less let down: and more engaged.

And caught by a couple of things.

We get to see the new TARDIS interior.

And I have to say, I’m impressed.

The Thirteenth Doctor’s blue and gold crystal TARDIS did look good … but had no internal doors, nothing that told us “This is a big ship!”

This new, glowing white, interior?

Has interior doors.   What’s behind those doors?

“Next stop, anywhere”, never seemed a truer word.

The other thing … ?

Is a last line of the Meep’s.

“A creature with two hearts is such a rare thing.   Just wait ’til I tell … THE BOSS!”

What on Earth did the Meep mean by that … ?

We’ll probably find out … when the next two episodes, Wild Blue Yonder* and The Giggle*.

Which air on BBC One in the UK, and Disney+, internationally, on 2nd December and 9th December, respectively.

~≈👽≈~

Frankly?

I’ll be watching those, as and when they air: and have my written and video reviews up, the night after.

Before then?

Before then?

Before then is Monday, 22nd November: and I will be watching more TV.

I’ll be watching “The Bear Hug”: and will hopefully have my written and videos reviews up on Tuesday night, on 27th November, 2023.

Feel free to follow this blog — and subscribe to my YouTube channel — to catch those when I release them.

Until then … ?

Until then, I’ll leave you with the words of №6.

“Be seeing you.”

The Star Beast.

★★★☆

*        Those links may contain spoilers: be careful!