by Andrew HarrisonFeatures correspondent
In the first of three 60th anniversary specials, the sci-fi show is back with exactly the warm, inclusive, fun and dramatic family adventures that made it great, writes Andrew Harrison.
Yes, it’s a show about time travel. But viewers of Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary special The Star Beast – the first of three extended episodes before the debut of the 15th Doctor, Nkuti Gatwa, at Christmas – could be forgiven for feeling that they too were entering a portal Are back through. Time.
WARNING: This review contains spoilers for the Doctor Who special The Star Beast
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It’s not just that David Tennant, perhaps the most successful Doctor Who of the modern era and certainly its first rock-star, heartthrob leading man, is back as the wandering Time Lord, alongside Catherine Tate. as his outspoken partner/foil Donna Noble. Nor is Russell T Davies, the showrunner who revived the dormant series with great success in 2005, back either. Both were surprisingly appointed, especially Davis’ signature, which some fans compared to Steve Jobs returning in 1997 to restore a disintegrated and failing Apple Computer. Never before has Doctor Who called on past favorites to restore the show during its periodic decline. ,
And it’s not as if The Star Beast’s plot revolves around questions of Who lore, which are helpfully fleshed out in an ominous pre-credits scene in which both the Doctor and Donna address the audience directly. We are reminded that in 2008, the Doctor accidentally imbued Donna with the Time Lord’s knowledge, and then had to erase her memory to save her from death. Now, if she ever remembers her adventures in the TARDIS, she will die. So how can Donna and the Doctor possibly meet again? And in any case, what has caused him to be resurrected (degenerated?) into the face he previously wore?
You’d expect plenty of nostalgia in an anniversary special – previous editions have put former Doctors and monsters together in honors and halls of fame – but The Star Beast does something different. It expertly delivers multiple levels of Who-stalgia both intrinsic and extrinsic to the plot, reaching back a few decades to get a sense of not only what’s happening in the show, but what it feels like to be a viewer of it. has been, to evoke a warm glow about it. Strange and unique TV institution.
a plot with a half-time twist
The plot is simple, which, to the absolute delight of hardcore fans, closely adapts a story from the 1980 edition of the Doctor Who weekly comic, whose creators – Pat Mills and Dave “Watchmen” Gibbons – Davies clearly respects. A plane bursts into flames and crashes on Earth. Its passenger, discovered in hiding by Donna’s daughter Rose (Yasmin Feeney), turns out to be a frightened furry ball of cuteness named The Meep. Who can deny that this poor, luxurious haven is haunted by the horrors that haunt it: giant, heavily armed insectoid monsters called Wrath Warriors? At least Rose, a trans girl who identifies with The Meep’s sense of loneliness and difference?
The twist half-time is that the Doctor discovers that the beloved Meep is actually an evil, manipulative galactic war criminal. There are disgusting rage goodies, space police with polite, received-accented speaking voices and scrupulous respect for the law. Innocent sentimentality be damned, human aesthetics are no guarantee of moral virtue, and monsters are never what you expect them to be.
In sharp contrast to the often avant-garde Jodie Whittaker/Chris Chibnall iteration of Doctor Who, director Rachel Talalay has turned this into hectic, epic, action-packed entertainment. In addition to Tennant’s kinetic antics, Tate’s comic bluntness, and the most comfortable Unite-versus-Regans street fight ever done by Doctor Who, The Star Beast offers a full deck of crowd-pleasing Davis tropes. There’s massive destruction throughout London that everyone forgets about five minutes after the crisis is over, comic technobabble (“Gravity Stanchion Brandish”?), continuity titles for fans (Psychic Paper! The Shadow Proclamation!) and domestic comedy. Too. The first time Donna’s mother Sylvia (Jacqueline King) encounters the Doctor again, she punches him. “Ooof…” wheezed the Winding Time Lord, “here we go again”. In 2005, Davis had the genius insight of connecting the hapless antisocial doctor with something he couldn’t handle: a busy, dysfunctional human family. The age-old hero now stood in a new light. He could do things and go places we could never imagine – but he could never have what we have.
There are flaws, inevitably. The rebuttal’s attempt to connect Rose’s trans identity to Donna’s mental dilemma feels clumsy. Murray Gould’s music remains crisply clear, despite the loss of several scenes. But what makes the whole experience really satisfying is the shadow of sadness behind Tennant’s slapstick, humiliated nervousness of Tate – he actually gets some great lines, not least angrily calling The Meep “Mad Paddington”. While denouncing as – Davis’ wit and Talalay’s Sturm-und-Drang. Tennant’s Doctor ends his last stint alone, ruining everything around him. Now, trapped behind an old face that stirs old memories, he no longer knows who he is. In a wonderful little moment, Donna is given the sonic screwdriver and looks at it in surprise, as if she’s only half-remembering what it means. “Sometimes I feel like there’s something missing,” she tells her mother. “Like I had something I loved, and it’s gone.” Don’t we all?
Nostalgia means a phantom pain for what has been lost, a desire to return to a home that no longer exists. And Doctor Who represents the best of childhood in all its vivid possibilities, its curiosity and candid idealism. Unique among TV shows, it constantly refreshes itself, always different, always the same. In The Star Beast, Davis has woven the nostalgia of his characters and his audience into something that is truly poignant, something that only this particular show can do.
Doctor Who always prospers when it’s a show watched by the whole family, and withers when it retreats to the comfort of dreary bedrooms and continuity-obsessed sci-fi stagecraft. If you’re a child of the 2005 reinvention, The Star Beast is Doctor Who as you remember it from your childhood: warm, inclusive, funny, engaged and dramatic, with a rich and believable human supporting cast. If you’re older, it’s a throwback to the show you might have watched with your kids, when you saw their eyes light up like they did when they were their age. Flaws and all, it’s just the way it used to be. It finally turns out that you can go home again.
Doctor Who: The Star Beast is available to watch on Disney+ in the US and internationally, while the second and third 60th The anniversary special will launch on the platform on December 2 and 9.
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