Written by Randy Allain
Doctor Who hit Disney+ with the first of three 60th anniversary specials over the Thanksgiving weekend with ‘The Star Beast.’
“The Star Beast” marks the triumphant return of original “New Who” showrunner Russell T. Davies, as well as David Tennant’s beloved Tenth Doctor and Catherine Tate’s fiery yet selfless Donna Noble. Together, this power trio confronts an insidious evil that has been lurking in the shadows for over a decade … and we’re not talking about the plot of the episode.
Before we go any further, please be warned that the spoilers in this review are thicker than the pomade in David Tennant’s glorious hair. First, let’s take a quick look back at how we got here.
Back in 2005-2010, Tennant charmed his way through time and the cosmos, and straight into our hearts. He established himself as the face of “New Who” and one of the most popular iterations of The Doctor. It wasn’t just about his Casanova good looks or the tight suits, either. It was his range. He could jest about snogging Madame de Pompadour just as comfortably as he could broil with anger, desperation, and a sense of duty before sacrificing himself to save Wilfred “Wilf” Mott from a blast of radiation.
Of course, the 10th Doctor wasn’t perfect — that was part of his charm. Unfortunately, there is one particularly dastardly deed on his resume that even the most inventive mental gymnastics can’t excuse: he erased Donna Noble’s memories without her consent. It was cruel, cold, and painful, even though he explained that the weight of a Time Lord’s memories and experience are too much for the human body to bear. He was wiping Donna’s memory to save her from the metacrisis. It made sense (as much as Doctor Who makes sense), but it didn’t make Donna’s desperate pleas to retain her memory any easier to stomach.
Of course, the thievery itself wasn’t the only problem, it was the Tenth Doctor’s attitude. He doomed Donna to an empty existence, and seemed to assume that she couldn’t find a way to fill that existence without his experience and intervention. When Donna’s mother and grandfather asked how they would keep Donna in the dark while clear evidence of outer space and adventure spun all around her (like the fact that planet Earth had just been dragged across the galaxy), he didn’t seem very concerned: “It’ll just be a story. One of those Donna Noble stories where she missed it all again” (4.13 Journey’s End). It was a depressing and insulting end for a companion who had grown so much and taught The Doctor so much about humility.
‘The Star Beast’ sets out to rewrite and redefine this regressive character arc. After a brief recap and quick opportunity for Tennant to strut and swagger out of the TARDIS, The Doctor stumbles across Donna Noble and learns that nobody was ever going to keep Donna down. Her husband Shaun Temple (Karl Collins) is a trusting, accommodating, and open-minded partner; her daughter Rose (Heartstopper’s Yasmin Finney) is a self-assured artist and an entrepreneur. On top of that, we see Donna defend her daughter against transphobic bullying and spare Rose the trouble of educating her (well-meaning) grandmother, Sylvia (Jacqueline King). The family may be struggling financially, but it’s only because Donna gave up the money from the winning lottery ticket Ten left her before his regeneration. The Doctor thought she needed to be taken care of, but it turns out that Donna has a fundamental drive to help others.
Thankfully, Donna still has all of the wit and fire we know and love. Tennant and Tate jump right back into their electric squabbling; Donna will not be spoken down to, and she won’t let her Doctor off the hook for his too-tight suit. It is clear we are in for a lot of fun over the course of the remaining specials.
On top of all that nostalgia and character building, we also get a full Doctor Who story featuring an old comics character. The Meep, voiced by Miriam Magolyes, is not only a cute and cuddly piece of future merch with a voice of childlike wonder, but also, we learn, a bloodthirsty wannabe conqueror with two hearts and some cryptic foreshadowing for the latest iteration of The Doctor (he hates that). UNIT shows up with a smart and scrappy new science officer, Shirley Anne Bingham (Ruth Madeley), but they are also kidnapping journalists and firing heavy ordnance in residential neighborhoods. We will have to wait and see if the series plans to reckon with that, but UNIT leader Kate Stewart gets a prominent mention in the episode, so perhaps she will shed some light on the situation at some point.
In the end, we finally get to reckon with Donna Noble’s memory wipe. After her familiarity with The Doctor slowly dawns on her throughout the episode, she ultimately sends her family to safety and runs toward danger with her inevitable companion, The Doctor. As the duo struggle to disable The Meep’s escape vehicle/weapon of mass destruction, a glass barrier separates them. In a clear callback to Ten’s final sacrifice where he faces his own mortality in a conversation with Wilf through a panel of glass, The Doctor realizes he will have to reactivate Donna’s memories in service of millions of innocent lives. After a few activation words, The Doctor Donna reemerges, releases regeneration energy and swiftly sabotages the spacecraft. The Doctor mourns Donna Noble once again.
But it’s not the end, because Donna weakened the impact of the deadly metacrisis by sharing the burden with her daughter. It turns out that Rose, too, has been repressing a lifetime of Time Lord memories. Together, Donna and Rose contain multitudes; the bond between mother and child, as well as the capacity for a nonbinary understanding of identity are here to save the day. Adding a female perspective was the key all along, because a male-presenting Doctor can never understand the ability to “let go.” Donna and Rose understand how to simply release the power and angst of the metacrisis – Donna even shouts out Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor with another stab at the new Doctor: “And you know nothing. It’s a shame you’re not a woman anymore, ‘cause she’d have understood.”
Some folks will likely criticize the episode for baking the language of gender identity so clearly into the resolution of the episode, but this ending was both earned and effective. First of all, it works on a metafictional level. Science fiction often aspires to champion progressive ideas and unheard perspectives; The Doctor, in particular, is a character who gravitates toward and supports marginalized people.
The ending of ‘Star Beast’ also works on a pure story and character level. David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor always struggled with ego and privilege. He often lacked the emotional intelligence to properly respect his companions. He never told Billie Piper’s Rose that he loved her; this was the crux of their final conversation. He ignored Martha Jones’ affections and her feelings. He thought the only path forward for Donna Noble was a lottery payday and an easy life.
After a stint as a female Doctor, this new iteration seems a bit more open to new ideas and his own lack of understanding. You have to suspect he has more to learn from the Nobles before all is said and done.
I’m thrilled with the start of this three-episode run. It promises adventure, laughs, and more emotional growth for our favorite Time Lord; it also offers an opportunity to frame some new emotional challenges for the next Doctor. Most importantly, it teased the potential for one more check in with the late Bernard Cribbins as king of our hearts Wilfred “Wilf” Mott. I can’t think of a more exciting reward for Whovians. I’ll see you next week for “Wild Blue Yonder!”
