‘Doctor Who: The Star Beast’ review: A safe homecoming

Celebrating the anniversary of anything that has been around as long as Doctor Who cannot be an easy task, one that only gets more insurmountable the bigger that anniversary number gets. For the 60th anniversary of one of the few British exports to not leave the world worse off, the BBC and returning showrunner Russell T. Davies have decided the best course of action would be to go with what worked fifteen years ago. The whole gang is back, from David Tennant putting the sand shoes back on to Murray Gold once again composing. As a result, “The Star Beast” is really just a classic Tenth Doctor era story rather than something truly new. 

“The Star Beast?” More like, “We’re so back”

As far as the plot of “The Star Beast” goes, everything is pretty standard fare for a Doctor Who adventure: The Doctor (Tennant) arrives just in time for a weird thing to happen (in this case, a good old spaceship crash), has a bit of a wacky time trying to get a handle on the situation, not everything is what it seems, and a tough call has to be made before the day is saved. Despite all the hemming and hawing to the contrary, Tennant really is just playing his Tenth Doctor again — right down to the “allons-y.” I have a hard time coming down on that, since the Tenth Doctor is my first one, so this is mostly a situation of getting back to the good stuff, but I admit to having some trepidation back when David Tennant popped out of the regeneration effect, new clothes and all.

I worried that like another certain sci-fi franchise’s recent efforts, instead of bouncing back from perceived stumbles with a new energy and direction, the direction was given to retreat back to what’s been popular before and spin wheels. This episode has not assuaged those concerns entirely, but I will grant that this has given Doctor Who a compelling idea to run with. Tennant really is playing Ten, but he’s playing a Ten that he couldn’t have played before. This isn’t a time-displaced version but one who also has seen everything that came after. He knows that Gallifrey didn’t burn in the Time War, he’s seen how far the Twelfth Doctor was willing to go to save a companion, and has all the processing the Thirteenth has gone through in regards to the truth of their identity. It’s this Doctor that is reunited with a beloved companion, rather than doing so through someone else’s face. 

Just like The Doctor himself states in the episode, everything converges around Donna Noble (Catherine Tate), one of the Tenth Doctor’s former companions that had to have her memory erased following her adventures thanks to merging her mind with his — it’s a long story. “The Star Beast” wastes no time catching everyone up on the important part anyway, that if Donna’s memory is restored, her brain will burn out from too much information. This is the real driving force of the episode as the daughter Donna had in the intervening years finds herself caught up in the adventure herself when she takes in The Meep, the survivor of the spaceship crash.

As a result, The Doctor has to do his thing all the while trying to avoid doing anything specific enough to kick her memories back in. Tennant and Tate have electric best friend chemistry, so it’s very fun to see him have to resist the urge to play off of her boisterous energy. Donna hasn’t been stagnant either, and the episode wisely doesn’t just situate her as a mother now, though that is a part of her new characterization. She has more of a purpose and a complete family like she’s always wanted, but is still reeling from the pain of being sent away from the TARDIS, even if she’s not aware of that being the cause. These changes give Tate some new beats to play off of her own that might not have worked as well if having to act against a different actor in the Doctor role. I fully admit, by the time the two finally got to get back to the “Partners in Crime” routine, I was hooked all over again.

Why so (not) serious?

Despite Donna’s situation, “The Star Beast” is not setting the stakes very high. The Doctor’s own nature causes him to create a huge slapstick scene with Donna’s whole family and when he’s not doing that, he’s too focused on the task at hand to actually avoid the problem of Donna’s wellbeing. At one point, Donna just gets handed the Sonic Screwdriver without any hesitation. This isn’t a deal breaker as much as it is a reminder of The Doctor’s natural inconsistency, but it does deflate what stakes there are further and the ultimate resolution of the metacrisis that originally saw Donna leave the show is, pretty literally, washed away.

The low stakes seem to be the point, though. Despite being relatively self-contained, “The Star Beast” is only the first of a three part story, something that the episode does take care to remind us of in a similar fashion to the quartet of specials that originally ended Russell T. Davies tenure as showrunner — and that’s not the only familiar pattern that “The Star Beast” brings back to Doctor Who. Davies’ most recognizable storytelling moves are just as back as the gang: the aforementioned family shenanigans, an attempted subversion of the alien’s agenda, and the push towards a more diverse world both in the show and in ours.

Doctor Who is getting with the times

That message is probably going to be the most talked about aspect of “The Star Beast” and likely would be regardless of the episode’s other contents, so best to take this head on: just as Davies did during his previous tenure on Doctor Who where he worked to create more visible characters of marginalized backgrounds, particularly queer men, his new run is very much aiming to do the same. “The Star Beast” in particular includes Donna’s transgender daughter Rose (Yasmin Finney) and UNIT science advisor Shirley Anne Bingham (Ruth Madeley).

Cheeky naming aside, Finney does a great job with Rose as the show uses her to showcase another side to Donna — adding a fierce and loving mother to Donna’s impressive resume — and as a proper character in her own right. There is a sense of things being a bit on the nose in regards to Rose’s identity, but it fits her place in the narrative of the episode. Given how nightmarish things are for our transgender friends and family right now, especially in the UK where everyone from mid-tier children’s book writers to the member of Monty Python the rest don’t talk to anymore just has it out for transgender people, seeing Rose and The Doctor demonstrate how easy it is to clarify someone’s pronouns or Donna and her mother (Jacqueline King) having a discussion about supporting Rose without platitudes or boomer whining should probably be mandatory viewing for the region.

Madeley’s Shirley is also fun; she trades barbs and technobabble with Tennant easily enough, but from a representation angle her arc is a bit more in the vapid direction. A couple of key moments for her in the episode find her on the receiving end of some less than stellar dialogue, particularly a line from another UNIT soldier sheepishly apologizing for the scaffolding around the crash site only being stairs, forcing her character to have to brush the whole thing off. The entire sequence is mechanically an excuse to exempt her from most of the episode more than it is about UNIT not having a robust accessibility focus. A later sequence tries to make up for it, but again it leaves Shirley shortchanged by The Doctor’s shock and awe at her ability to defend herself. Compared to other representation in the episode, these moments are far more pandering than they should be. 

It’s possible this might be heightened thanks to timing, as “The Star Beast” comes just days after Davies made comments regarding representation of disabilities in Doctor Who. In a Children in Need special released last week, iconic baddie Davros returned with a full retcon into an able-bodied character. Whether it’s transgender or disabled representation, Davies and his team seem to have their hearts in the right place, and I’m not exactly in the position to specifically call any of their efforts misguided. That said, ideally this will not only happen on the screen itself.

For a series like Doctor Who to truly evolve to the next step, these steps need to also happen in the writer’s room. That’d be a really good way to avoid these instances where attempts at better representation come off as pandering. In fairness, it looks like Shirley is set up to return in the future, so it’s entirely possible that when we get settled in with Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor following these specials, those stories will indeed have new voices behind them. In any case, the steps that have been taken are welcome ones, even if they don’t land 100% of the time. 

Just like coming home

As a jumping off point for a new era of Doctor Who, “The Star Beast” is mostly a safe and soft launch. What it will be remembered for is likely more the controversy that monsters will try to make of its new characters than anything those characters do. Even so, the episode is a solid example of why people loved the show during this period of time so much, and to have it back for a set and limited amount of time for this anniversary is a treat. What’s more, the ending indicates that whatever is next for our older Donna and Fourteenth Doctor will be something new — and there is that “boss” that gets mentioned still out there. For the time being, I think it’s fine to settle back in and hope for the next two specials to bring the real fun parts of the ride. 

Doctor Who: The Star Beast is available to stream now on Disney+.

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Featured image ©BBC Studios Worldwide