Doctor Who: The Star Beast Review: A Return with a Lot of Heart, or Rather, Many Hearts
Cast: David Tennant, Catherine Tate, Yasmin Finney, Karl Collins, Ruth Madeley, Jacqueline King, Miriam Margolyes
Director: Rachel Talalay
Streaming Platform: Disney+
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars)
Doctor Who: The Star Beast is the first of three specials created to celebrate sixty years of the series. Some actors often become attached to certain roles from which they find it difficult to break away: think for example of Daniel Radcliffe with Harry Potter, who struggled a lot to break away from the character, almost to the point of repudiating him, because he didn’t want people to remember him only and exclusively for his interpretation of the famous boy wizard, but that they also saw something more in his interpretation and that they noticed his talent even outside of that franchise. Sixty years and not feeling it. It was November 23, 1963, when the first episode of Doctor Who debuted on the BBC, the longest-running science fiction series in the history of television, with a longer first block more or less uninterrupted until 1989 and a second, currently underway, started in 2005.
A phenomenon now destined to become even more global, since starting from the three specials created to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary (then followed by the usual Christmas special which will arrive on the 25th December) the international rights of the show are in the hands of Disney+ with the availability of the new episodes on the platform at the same time as the linear broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom (where the streaming rights are linked to iPlayer, the broadcaster’s dedicated service British national team). It is the first of these new specials that we talk about in our review of Doctor Who: The Star Beast, the beginning of a new era in every sense.
Doctor Who: The Star Beast Review: The Story Plot
To help newcomers, the episode begins with a nice, self-deprecating recap of what happened fifteen years ago (fourth season of the revival, spring 2008): the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble were best friends, but a cataclysmic event forced the Time Lord to erase the memory of his human ally, and if she ever remembers him, she will die. But something is happening. “I think the story isn’t over yet,” says the Fourteenth Doctor, an anomalous incarnation as he has the face of the Tenth, a phenomenon that has never occurred before with a regeneration (although it had been suggested in the past that it could happen). While the Doctor wonders what happened to him, he arrives in London just before the spaceship lands, and within a few minutes, he meets Donna and her family, her husband Shaun Temple, and daughter Rose. A twist of fate? It’s the question the Doctor will try to answer as he investigates the arrival on Earth of the creature known as Beep the Meep.
The Doctor (David Tennant) has just regenerated, but his appearance is the same as he took on with his tenth incarnation. Unable to give himself an explanation for this event, he decides to travel with the TARDIS to London, where he accidentally meets Donna Noble (Catherine Tate), his old companion whose memory has been erased, but there is a huge problem: if she should he remember him, he would die instantly, having previously gained all the knowledge of a Time Lord, which his mind and body could not handle. Meanwhile, a spaceship crashes into London and its occupant, the Meep, is forced to find refuge in Donna’s house thanks to the help of her daughter Rose (Yasmin Finney), who tries to hide it in her shed to defend it from evil Wrath, intent on hunting the creature for its fur.
Doctor Who: The Star Beast Review and Analysis
In The Star Beast, there is truly everything that has always been part of the Doctor Who narrative: the inclusiveness, the humor, the action, the racing, the alien creatures, and the typical mystery and fascination with adventure of the Doctor’s events. All embellished by the masterful performances of the actors present on the screen, who both with the return of Tennant and Tate and with the arrival of new faces such as Yasmin Finney and Ruth Madeley, manage to maintain a high-level narrative and restore that which was the original feeling of the series, in addition to the purely British charm that characterizes it. Seeing the “dynamic duo” again on the screen was like meeting two old friends after a long time, but despite this, it was as if not a second had passed, as I found the two actors had aged very little and still had a freshness in reprising their old roles truly goosebumps.
In particular, David Tennant seems to be perfectly at ease in the role of the Doctor, as he was 15 years ago, demonstrating that it was a role almost tailor-made for him and which, if it were up to him, he would probably have wanted to play for his entire life. The naturalness with which topics such as inclusion and self-acceptance are treated is truly commendable, something that a show like Doctor Who has never failed to do: in fact, the series has always featured every type of being human (or alien), with its facets, its sexual orientation, and its own gender identity, without ever appearing cloying or forced, but appearing normal both for narration and purely representative purposes, exactly as it should be. In The Star Beast in particular, the care with which the character of Rose, a transsexual girl, and Donna’s daughter, is treated is truly impeccable and contains a series of profound reflections that deal with the topic with tact and without appearing forced.
Despite everything, however, the special is not free from defects, in particular in the ending and the resolution of the story, resulting in everything being too rushed and brought to a conclusion in a hasty and perhaps a little too superficial manner. Not that it’s a bad thing to get straight to the point, but a more detailed study on some points relating precisely to what happens in the final bars would certainly have been appreciated. This combined with the fact that, however, it is necessary to know what happened previously in the tenth episode, to have a complete picture of everything and to be able to definitively put an “end” to some outstanding issues.
Doctor Who has always been described as “a low-budget British science fiction series”, which has become both a hallmark and a weakness, especially for those who wanted to start watching the show and who resent “puppets”. But especially in recent years, and in particular, with this new direction, we are witnessing a leap forward regarding staging and special and visual effects. If on the one hand, we always have the good old animatronics and costumes of aliens and creatures that are increasingly credible and frightening, on the other we have a relatively limited use of special visual effects, but with a quality at truly high levels, to be compared also to other series with very high Hollywood budgets: lasers, plasma screens, explosions… all realistic and with attention to detail.
Even the special effects department has undergone a notable increase in quality and budget: we have cars that blow up, explosions, walls of houses that are knocked down, and so on, in a riot of action that rarely we saw in the British series so much attention to detail. The return of Russel T. Davies, historic showrunner, at the helm of the series manages to please long-time fans like me, also intriguing those who would like to approach the show for the first time. The use of leading actors such as Tennant and Tate is an added value to the arrival of Doctor Who on Disney+, which will handle its distribution outside the United Kingdom. This first special serves as an appetizer for something bigger and opens up a series of questions that I’m sure will be answered over the next few weeks.
The Star Beast manages to bring fans back to the original mood of the series, also dealing with delicate issues such as gender identity and self-acceptance, seasoned with a fresh, frenetic, and classic adventure, in what will surely be the beginning of something big. Where previous anniversary specials were essentially an excuse to have various incarnations of the Doctor interact, with plots that were specious to say the least, The Day of the Doctor, broadcast in 2013 for its fiftieth anniversary, used that trick to reflect deeply on the identity of the protagonist and analyze its meaning after five decades, and given the decades to come. From that episode, written by Moffat, Davies seems to have learned the same philosophy for the sixty-year-old, apparently less tied to the minutiae of the franchise’s mythology (although the mystery of how the Fourteenth Doctor ended up with the face of the Tenth will be part integral to the overall project.
Composed of three specials that are self-contained in their way with pieces of connective tissue between them), but equally attentive to the psychology of the characters. And amid a dramatic increase in the budget, evident above all in the way in which director Rachel Talalay deals with macro-sequences that in other years had to be performed on a smaller scale, what is most striking is precisely the more intimate aspect, with the universal scope of the show and its message – here it is underlined once again how anyone, among the spectators, can identify with the Doctor since his identities are multiple and multifaceted – conveyed between one explosion and another, through the conversations between two old friends which we had missed, and which will keep us company for another two episodes. Allons-y!
The creature called Meep is simply adorable in all its facets, cartoonish to the nth degree… also because it is taken from a Doctor comic (drawn by none other than Dave Gibbons) from 1980 which managed to precede some aspects that have become then famous with ET The Extraterrestrial, a tender and frightened alien wanted by the military who befriends a very young Earthling. And it is precisely the teen element of the Special, Rose, that captures the attention of viewers because she brings interesting inclusive, and comforting themes, which are also intelligently integrated into the plot. Note of merit then for the inclusion of another inclusive character, the unprecedented Shirley Anne Bingham, who in a few seconds pierces the screen with her being a decidedly atypical Nick Fury.
The story is really simple and is resolved in a rather hasty manner, not without some forcing or carelessness, but those who appreciate Doctor Who have always known how to play the game and know that elements of the genre are part of the package because what matters is the thrill carousel ride and, truly, this carousel is spectacular enough, fun enough and full of good feelings. Where will the future take us? What will happen to the new characters and how will the Fifteenth Doctor fit into all this? We’ll find out soon.
Davies, while bringing Doctor Who into a new era with a straight leg, wisely harks back to the past, bringing the show back to a recreational family atmosphere suitable for all ages and appreciates – or at least doesn’t have any problems with it, for one reason or another – the camp or over the top elements that have always characterized Doctor Who but which in the world of modern serials seem to have almost disappeared under the aura of seriousness of many popular products. The Star Beast is not afraid of having the linearity and absurdities of a Saturday morning cartoon and alien foam rubber soldiers, because it is something desired, and iconic, and when it wants to show its muscles (also thanks to the renewed budget) it does so, throwing into context new progressive elements that have always been fuel in good science fiction. Tennant and Tate, moreover, are always priceless, whether you already know them as a couple or not. The (re)start, therefore, is more than good, even if there is still room for improvement.
Doctor Who: The Star Beast Review: The Last Words
Doctor Who: The Star Beast is a truly promising return to the series’ roots. Seeing Tennant and Tate on the screen again was truly exciting and they certainly did not disappoint expectations. The show, however, always manages to innovate while remaining anchored to what makes it unique and special. There are some lightnesses in the writing phase, but we can let them slide in favor of the overall beauty of the entire special. Russell T. Davies, David Tennant, and Catherine Tate return to the fold to properly celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the series, with a first story (out of three) that finds that magical balance between epic and intimate which characterizes the Doctor’s best adventures.
Doctor Who: The Star Beast Review: A Return with a Lot of Heart, or Rather, Many Hearts - Filmyhype
Director: Rachel Talalay
Date Created: 2023-11-25 18:25
4
Pros
- Expertly dosed retro and camp atmospheres
- Excellent Tennant and Tate
- Technically very valid for the type of product
Cons
- Very simple and straightforward story
