It’s been a long time since I reviewed a Doctor Who Episode and most of those reviews are only found on the wayback machine as I’ve not bothered to retrieve them from the old blog so we’ll make this short and to the point:
Plot: The cute and cuddly Meep fleeing pursuit has fallen right into the hands of the Temple/Noble family. What danger does he bring, besides the Doctor?
Writing: Russell T Davies adapts this story from a 4th Doctor Comic Book story (You can read that here). It had actually been already adapted into a Big Finish audio four years ago by Allen Barnes staring Tom Baker (you can buy that here). Being familiar with both my take might be different than others without that familiarity. Given the limitations of squeezing’s the story down to 60 minutes of TV rather than the much less expensive visuals from the comics or from the imagination generated by the audio AND given the complexities of fitting this into a newly returned David Tennant he does an admirable job. There are a lot of balls in the air and he pretty much keeps them in said air. There is one elephant in the room that needs to be discussed but we’ll deal with that in a bit.
Acting: After four years of limbo David Tennant shows how it’s done again and Catherine Tate has not lost either a comic or a dramatic step. Nor has either lost a tiny bit of the chemistry they exhibited from day 1. The supporting cast does a good job as a whole but Jacqueline King REALLY shines and threatens to steal every scene she is in. I think Miriam Margoles overdid it as Beep but again you have the limits of squeezing a long story into a shorter time frame so the character couldn’t develop so it might not have been a reflection on her.
Best moment: The Trial great stuff very doctory.
Worst moment: The coffee business, seriously he couldn’t come up with better than that? Lame.
Funniest Moment: Donna’s blaming the Doctor for giving the money way
Ah HA Moment: Donna’s realization that she gave away the fortune to be like the Doctor harkened to Rory’s moment in Vampires of Venice where he notes people take stupid risks to impress him.
Oh Brother moment: The Meep pronouns business, was tempted to shut it off right there.
The elephant in the room: I didn’t mind the transgender child nor even how it was handled in the dynamics of the family. It seemed for a moment like Davies was reverting to his 2005-2012 form keeping making his “social agenda” points in the background while concentrating on story but alas no this is 2023 and not 2005 and like the Jew hating anti-Semitic Muslims of England who would not have dreamed of being so open about their “death to Israel, death to Jews” back then Russell Davies apparently feels freed from having to hide is social agenda and thus makes not just Donna having a child the basis for saving day but having a “non-binary” child being it. In fact the whole “you would have gotten this if you were a woman speech” was the type of in your face preaching that Davies would never have tried decades ago. Alas that means no change from the last three years except we get to be preached to with a higher quality writing and a better cast
I strongly suspected this would be the case and thus was not so much disgusted as disappointed.
Bottom line: I really thing The Star Beast suffered from the format. If this has been made as a two part story from the Tennant Era I think Davies would have done a better job with it and given more time to develop characters from the Noble family to Beep itself that would have at least diluted the preaching. An original story would have been a better choice for the reboot but taking it as it was my judgement is this:
If you grade the episode based on the last five years of the series it’s clearly better than anything fans have seen since the last episode of the Capaldi years and many will react accordingly but alas I’ve been following the series for since the I was in high school (graduated in 1981) so I’m grading it on based on actual Doctor Who. It’s pretty much a lower mid range Tennant episode say Unicorn and the Wasp or 42.
You know type you watch once or grab a scene to repeat online but not the one you’re dying to repeat or seek out. Only the return of Tennant & Tate make it memorable.
3 3/4 stars of five but I’d bet real money if Davies had another 30-40 minutes to play with it would have reached 4 or maybe even 4 1/2.
Bonus review Children in Need Doctor Who special Destination: Skaro: (takes place before the Star Beast) As it’s only 5 minutes long I’ll include it in its entirety at the end:
Plot: You all know that the Daleks were the Mark 4 Travel Machines, but what ever happened to the Mark 3?:
Writing: Davies mini episode is as close as a primer to how to write a Doctor Who episode as it gets. If there is a flaw in this mini episode I don’t see it.
Acting: Julian Bleach hits it out of the Park as Davros and plays the straight man to perfection. Mawaan Rizwan was hilarious and David Tennant brings back his Doctor in style. Again as good as it gets.
Best Moment: The look on Mr Castavillian (Rizwan’s) face when Davros re-enters the room and sees the Dalek.
Worst Moment: I really don’t get the liking of “exterminate” as a phrase
Ah HA moment: The “Canons are rupturing” is a playful homage to the fans pissed of at Chibnall redoing the entire canon of the show.
WTF moment: The tip of the multi claw adaptable thing should not pierce the “wood” of the TARDIS shell
Hmmm moment: It’s plain that the Tardis interior redesign revealed in the new show (kind of meh) has not taken place yet from the glimpses we see.
Bottom line: Five Stars, Worth watching again and again and it doesn’t get any less entertaining the 17th time around.
UPDATE: Being a sane and rational man that this episode was set before Davros’ accident that made him into the character we know to cut down on the costs involved in the makeup etc for the Children in need special.
And then I saw this video from the Critical Drinker which had a clip from Russell T Davies saying that this was in fact a Davros redesign:
“There is a problem with the Davros of old in that he’s a wheelchair users who is evil and I had problems with that. “
Seriously?
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