Doctor Who: The Star Beast

Well now, if nothing else, that certainly felt like an episode of DOCTOR WHO.

That said, as I was concerned about ahead of time, I don’t know that this was necessarily the best place to try to bring a new audience in, as so much of what was the most effective in this episode was the return of old friends and the resumption of old plot lines. The fourth-wall-breaking infodump that led things off might have been enough to put people off, as it drops just a mountain of backstory on the viewer right at the start. In fairness, that’s so that the episode doesn’t have to deeply dive into any of it again later on.

But I must say that it was a delight to see Catherine Tate again, who I think is probably the MVP of this first special, and certainly its emotional center. It really did feel as though no time had passed. David Tennant, too, was in fine form, and a much more overtly action-oriented and heroic Doctor than we’ve had in quite some time. And the remainder of the returning cast was quite good as well, as was newcomer Yasmin Finney as Rose. The whole thing just felt like a warm, nostalgic hug for old time WHO viewers, a perfect reunion special.

Story-wise, given that the episode was adapted from a comic book story released in the 1970s (which had itself later been turned into a Big Finish audio drama) there wasn’t a whole lot in terms of plot surprises for me. Add to which I had heard through the grapevine about what the solution to Donna’s metacrisis was going to be. In general, this was a pretty spot-on adaptation of the original story, modified as necessary to be shot in real life and to accommodate David’s Doctor rather than Tom Baker’s. The pacing, I thought, was a little bit odd. The episode felt as though it was determined to charge ahead, even at points where taking a moment to stop and catch its breath would have been welcome. But that may just be down to the fact that the beats that I liked the best, and which I thought landed the most successfully, were the smaller, slower character moments.

Either way, in doing so it perhaps lost a little bit of the verisimilitude of the series from the earlier Russell era. He’s always been a big believer that you can hand-wave away any sort of dodgy plotting so long as you make the audience feel something, and its a formula whose strength is undeniable. So, yes, portions of the plot don’t really make too much sense, and even among those unfamiliar with the core story, the central twist is telegraphed a mile away. (My wife had no knowledge of the Star Beast, but she twigged to what was going on early on.) But any time Donna is reflecting on her lost years or the Doctor is fretting about the possibility of accidentally causing the death of his friend through his very presence, everything works.

Let’s talk about that larger budget for a second. As has been reported pretty much everywhere, while DOCTOR WHO might not be sporting a STAR WARS-sized budget yet, it is operating with multiples of the amount of money it used to be made on. I’ve heard people complain that they didn’t really see that up on the screen, and honestly I don’t know what they’re looking at. Sure, this still looked like DOCTOR WHO, but all of the effects were sharper, the sets a bit grander, and the set pieces wilder. I did somehow like, though, that it still maintained its homemade quality. The Wrarth-Warriors, for example, were fairly unconvincing as genuine aliens, but they were perfect DOCTOR WHO monsters and they faithfully re-created the look of Dave Gibbons’ designs from the 1970s. In some ways, I’m always skeptical about a bigger budget bringing bigger results–for example, I was always a lot more enamored of RED DWARF in the early years when they had no money and were forced to hold your interest through strong scripts. While they were fun, I don’t know that the new sonic screwdriver capabilities were all that necessary.

By that same token, I really didn’t like the new TARDIS set, although I’m sure that it will grow on me. It feels too large and too sterile, like something that would have been a better fit in a STAR TREK series in the 1990s. Too plausible, somehow. And I’m sure that this was all part of the remit, but I’m much more attracted to the TARDIS sets that feel lived-in and a bit shopworn and bodged together. This felt entirely too much like a Heathrow Airport terminal for my tastes.

I will say that I really liked the updated title sequence, which I went back to rewatch immediately after the conclusion of the show. It feels, oddly enough, like a STAR TREK opening from the 1990s, with the Tardis at varying sizes surfing through the cosmos. It’s fun in that it gets some new angles on that old police box that just wouldn’t have been possible even a year ago. And Murray Gold’s remixed opening theme is a grand overture to the adventure as always–I didn’t hate the Jodie-era remix but it did feel a bit like it was trying too hard to come across as legitimate. Say what you will about Russell’s DOCTOR WHO, but he understands what sort of a show he’s making, and he embraces that whole-heartedly.

So this was far from the greatest episode of the series ever done, but it did represent a return to form. If it were not a 60th Anniversary Special, if it was just another week’s episode, I’m sure it might have scored higher, because that’s about where its ambitions seemed to be aimed. And I did enjoy it mightily, and will no doubt do so again later this evening when I watch it again. Now, the episode that I’m most interested in is next week’s Wild Blue Yonder, about which precious little has so far been revealed, apart from teh fact that it’s apparently a very odd thing indeed. And certainly Neil Patrick Harris’ turn as the villainous (Celestial) Toymaker is likely to be enjoyable. So there’s plenty to be positive about and look forward to still.