*Ahem ahem*
PREVIOUSLY ON DOCTOR WHO: Jodie Whittaker signed off as the Thirteenth Doctor after a six-year run marked by her giving her all to a show that, per critics, ultimately failed to match her. Showrunner Chris Chibnall passed the torch back to Russell T. Davies, who resurrected the long-dormant show in 2005 and steered it through Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant’s runs as the Ninth and Tenth Doctors. To celebrate the show’s sixtieth anniversary (and, perhaps, build up some goodwill), Davies brought none other than Tennant back with him — not as the Tenth Doctor, but as the Fourteenth.
Fourteen will appear in three weekly specials alongside Catherine Tate’s returning Tenth Doctor companion Donna Noble before Ncuti Gatwa takes over as the Fifteenth Doctor. The first of these, “The Star Beast,” is adapted from a Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)-starring comic by Pat “Judge Dredd” Mills and Dave “Watchmen” Gibbons (who, in a very welcome change of pace, receive a credit in the opening and were paid for their work).
“The Star Beast,” directed by Doctor Who veteran and Tank Girl maestra Rachel Talalay, is wonderfully big-hearted and a lot of fun in a lot of ways. On a textual level, it offers closure to Donna (last seen with her memories [and thus character development] wiped to save her life) and the Doctor (Fourteen, though deeply confused about why he’s wearing an old face, gets to make right one of Ten’s worst calls). On a metatextual level, it rebukes the UK’s increasingly vicious transphobia not merely by casting a Black, trans actress to play a Black, trans character (Yasmin Finney of Heartstopper as Donna’s toy-making daughter Rose) but in insisting on Rose’s humanity.
She knows who she is, and she’s still figuring herself out. She has a family who adores her and who would burn down the sky for her, and the hateful misgendering taunts of the local jackasses on bikes still hurt. It is pointedly blunt, only slightly less than Davies’ own kiss-off to the dead-eyed bigots who hiss at trans existence (“Shame on you and good luck to you in your lonely lives.“). Pop culture cannot and will not save the world by existing. But it can help folks save themselves, help them get through to tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. “The Star Beast” takes a shot at that, and acknowledging that I’m writing from a position of privilege and it’s entirely possible that I’m missing something, I think it succeeds admirably.
“The Star Beast” is willing to be silly (a sinister would-be conquerer proudly carries the imperial title of “the Beep,” wordplay abounds, Fourteen carries a judge’s wig just in case he needs to call a court), to poke at itself without sneering (Davies, Tennant, and Tate gleefully jab the messier parts of their original run), to indulge in throwing around Disney money (Episode leading alien The Meep, performed by creature actor Cecily Fay and voiced by Miriam Margoyles, is a marvelous monster suit and, hey, kids! It’s a massive alien gunfight with at least one car getting blown right up!).
It’s frequently a hoot, especially once the villain makes themselves known and goes all in not on “evil” or even “EVIL” but “EEEEEEEEEVVVVVVVVIIIIIIILLLLLLLL.” Their sneering overconfidence and casual brutality successfully thread the needle between goofy and genuinely menacing.
It’s also willing to slow down, take a moment, and let the cast and the world breathe. Donna and her mother Sylvia (Jacqueline King) talk about their efforts to do right by Rose, how they’ve succeeded and they’ve failed and how they keep going. Fourteen and wheelchair-using UNIT advisor Shirley Anne Bingham (Ruth Madeley) dig into his confusion over why Ten’s face came back and the Doctor’s general confusion about who he is overall after the massive, paradigm-shaking revelations about their past during Thirteen’s run. Hell, the best part of “The Star Beast’s” climax turns on Tennant and Tate’s chemistry and the ways Donna’s rapidly failing amnesia and Fourteen being a markedly different person compared to Ten have mutated their relationship. They’re big, hearts-on-sleeve swings, and they connect.
To speak personally, I was drawn to “The Star Beast” out of curiosity. I was a fairly dedicated Whovian for a few years in the early 2010s, having come aboard right at the end of Davies and Tennant’s run (I’m pretty sure “The Waters of Mars” was the first episode I watched live.), and actively followed it until midway through Steven Moffat and Matt Smith’s run with the Eleventh Doctor.
I’ve seen the fiftieth (with John Hurt’s War Doctor) bits and pieces of Peter Capaldi’s run as Twelve and bits and pieces of Whittaker’s tenure as Thirteen, but I’ve been out of the Who game for a while now. Tennant’s Tenth Doctor is up there with Baker’s Fourth as an iconic, paradigm-setting take on the character, and the fact that Fourteen would not be Ten was what drew me in. How would Tennant and company hold to their previous work? How would they deviate? That’s what got my attention.
Much like his costume, Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor is, in some ways, very close to Ten. He’s emotive, curious, acts decisively when he has to, and takes hurt very hard (see the climax, where, in a moment of despair, Fourteen screams, “Why does it have to be this?!” at the prospect of saving the day by sacrificing someone he loves. Tennant bunches himself up in the scream, and the result is wrenching.) In his pondering why Ten’s face came back, as well as the Doctor’s larger identity, Fourteen carries an echo of the Byronic brooding that drove Ten toward the end of his life.
But, while they’re certainly closer to each other in general aura than, say, Smith’s Eleven and Capaldi’s Twelve, Fourteen is not Ten. The Doctor’s lived three whole lives between the two, lives that demonstrably changed them. Where Ten struggled to admit his emotions — particularly love (romantic or platonic), Fourteen surprises himself with how freely he’ll tell the people he loves that he loves them. Where Ten would, late in life, admit that his ability to manipulate his opponents into taking their own lives was perhaps more ruthless than being an outright killer, Fourteen (all of an episode in, mind you) would sooner trick two parties in the middle of a gunfight into shooting at forcefields that prevent them from hitting each other, throw himself in the line of fire, or bait the episode’s villain into exposing themselves through, of all things, an impromptu trial (hence the judge’s wig).
Ten, at his worst, would play God and make choices for others that were arguably about him at their core. Fourteen, for all that it anguishes him, accedes to someone else’s plan and respects their call. It’s very, very fine work from Tennant and his collaborators, and I’m very curious to see how Fourteen will change over the next two anniversary specials.
I enjoyed “The Star Beast,” I enjoyed it quite a bunch. It’s got me actively following Doctor Who for the first time in over a decade, and for that, I salute it.
“The Star Beast” and all following episodes of Doctor Who are and will be available on Disney+.
Join the AIPT Patreon
Want to take our relationship to the next level? Become a patron today to gain access to exclusive perks, such as:
- ❌ Remove all ads on the website
- 💬 Join our Discord community, where we chat about the latest news and releases from everything we cover on AIPT
- 📗 Access to our monthly book club
- 📦 Get a physical trade paperback shipped to you every month
- 💥 And more!
You must be logged in to post a comment.