Doctor Who Is NEW!: The Star Beast

Doctor Who Is NEW!  

The first of the 60th anniversary specials debuted on Disney+ Saturday afternoon to a LOT of anticipation here at the Fortress of Ineptitude. 

• My wife Andrea was doing a countdown.
• Our son Dean was ready to kill her for it. 
• Rosie was oblivious.(She heard K-9 wasn't going to be in it and lost interest.)   

And I...

And I, your humble blogger Dave-El, was...

Well, I was psyched too! 

After years of earnestly praying (for lack of a better word) for Chibnall not to screw this up and seeking satisfaction if he didn't achieve less than not screwing up, I invested a LOT of super high expectations on the return of Russell T Davies.

• And David Tennant 
• And Catherine Tate.
• Not to mention composer Murray Gold
• And director Rachel Talalay.  

"The Star Beast" delivers! 

OK, for a show that is ostensibly part of a 60th anniversary special, it felt like a regular episode of Doctor Who.

Which is a good thing.  As Tom Brevoort put it on his blog, "that certainly felt like an episode of Doctor Who....The whole thing just felt like a warm, nostalgic hug for old time Who viewers."

But given it's big debut on a brand new delivery platform on Disney+, the episode works as a fairly good jumping on point for people discovering Doctor Who anew. 

Even if we did have to start with an awkward 4th wall breaking info dump from the Doctor and Donna Noble. 

We've got a new kick ass revised theme from Murray Gold (I am so glad he's back) and the opening graphics are cool and distinctive with the TARDIS whirling about the time vortex in new and interesting ways.

Russell adapted this episode from a 1970's Doctor Who comic written by Pat Mills and drawn by Dave Gibbons who get credited right up front with Russell in the opening instead of being buried in the closing credits as a "special thanks to" brush off. 

The Doctor crosses paths with Donna Noble which is not good on account of Donna remembering the Doctor will kill her. But Donna and her family (mother Sylvia, husband Sean and daughter Rose) seem to be in the crosshairs of a new alien mystery. 

A spaceship has crashed outside of London, a cute furry alien critter known as Beep the Meep is seeking escape from killer bug eyed aliens called Wrarth Warriors. 

Except none of that is true. 

The ship didn't crash, it landed. The Meep is a genocidal maniac. And the scary alien dudes are trying to stop that maniac from killing again.  

Being familiar with comic book this was based on, I knew the twist with the Meep was coming. But Donna Noble is the emotional core of this story and her arc is what makes this episode so incredibly engaging.  Although she is fiercely devoted to her family and especially towards her daughter who is (like the actor) is transgender. As Donna tells Rose, "I will burn down the world to protect you."  

But even with her life filled with caring for her family, Donna is still haunted by the feeling that something is missing from her life, her memories.   

Then the Doctor pops up and Donna is confronted head on with the possibility there is more to her life than she knows. 

Russell T Davies manages to square the circle of this dilemma of having our beloved Donna Noble restored without killing her. 

It's not all a nostalgia trip. In addition to Rose Noble, we also meet UNIT's new scientific advisor, Shirley Anne Bingham.  The character (like their actor Ruth Madeley) uses a wheel chair. The chair lacks the ability to levitate but it does come with serious weaponry in the form of guns and missiles. Shirley geeks out a bit over meeting the Doctor but unlike say Malcolm or Osgood, she's very chill about it.

Also new is the TARDIS interior.  

Is it a bit too bright, too open a floor plan? Yeah, maybe.  But after years of the distressingly low lighting inside the 13th Doctor's TARDIS (I never had a handle on the actual layout of the main console room), this new layout at least can be seen and has room perhaps to fill in the empty spaces. And the set itself is a massive place, truly evoking the TARDIS is bigger on the inside than on the outside. 

"The Star Beast" may not be an all time classic Doctor Who episode but damn if it doesn't do the job of setting the stage for a newly re-energized series.

Doctor Who may be 60 years old but this episode makes it feel new again.

Next Monday, I will have another Doctor Who Is NEW!   post about special #2 "Wild Blue Yonder" dropping on Disney+ on Saturday, December 2nd.