Doctor Who Recap: Star Beast of Burden — Grade Anniversary Special No. 1 Starring David Tennant
David Tennant and Catherine Tate returned to the Whoniverse this Saturday in the whimsically titled Doctor Who Special 1: The Star Beast, the first of three hour-long, Disney+ episodes designed to introduce the recently announced Fifteenth Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa.
This first special prefaces itself with a handy recap: For the good of the universe, Donna Noble (a returning Catherine Tate) cannot ever remember the Doctor. Her heroics saved everyone, but the price — all of her memories — meant that any knowledge of who she used to be would kill her. She has been living happily and obliviously for years, but dreams plague her. The Doctor, meanwhile, has no idea why his latest reincarnation recycled an old face (meaning Tennant’s smiley mug), but he surmises that “the story is not yet over.”
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The Star Beast wastes no time moving the ball forward: Within minutes of Tennant — now sauntering about as the Fourteenth Doctor — arriving in London, a spaceship crashes nearby. He has already accidentally run into Donna Noble, her husband Shaun Temple (Black Mirror‘s Karl Collins) and their daughter Rose (Heartstopper’s Yasmin Finney), effectively reintroducing its key players in the opening minutes and setting the stage for a doozy of a special.
As the city scrambles to organize itself, the Doctor has Temple take him to the crash site. Officials at the scene deduce that the ship parked rather than crashed, and discover that the pilot and an escape pod are missing.
Later that night, Rose encounters a marsupial-esque alien known as the Meep (voiced by Merlin’s Miriam Margoyles). The wide-eyed, raspy-voiced creature laments its situation and tells Rose that “monsters” are after it.
Meanwhile, the escape pod, having crashed close to Donna’s home, has stirred up excitement in their quiet neighborhood. Giant gun-toting insects called Wrarth warriors arrive soon after and verbally confirm their interest in finding the Meep.
A mysterious energy possesses a troop of soldiers investigating the crash site and deploys them to find the Meep, whom Rose is hiding in her workspace behind her family’s home. Donna shows up to speak with Rose and discovers the Meep hiding among the various googly-eyed plushes crowding the small space. She’s understandably freaked out, causing enough commotion to pique the curiosity of both friend and foe.
The Doctor, having hitched a ride with the soldiers to Donna’s neck of the woods, arrives in time to assist. However, his appearance causes a separate problem: Because Donna and Rose only remember him from earlier that night, his sudden reappearance confuses and frightens them. The Doctor can’t tell them who he really is, so he beats around that bush and instead redirects the focus back to the Meep.
The possessed soldiers and the Wrarth warriors attack simultaneously, cutting the exposition short and forcing the Doctor, Donna, her mother Sylvie (Jacqueline King), Temple and Rose to flee. The firefight between the soldiers and the Wrarth bleeds out into the neighborhood while the Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver to get them to safety. As they’re leaving the scene, the Doctor stoops to check the pulse of a fallen soldier, who should be dead but is instead merely unconscious.
Once they’re all far enough away from the battle, the Doctor summons two Wrarth warriors using the sonic screwdriver and demands they explain what’s happening. He deduces that the Wrarth were using their weapons to stun the soldiers, not kill them. The Doctor has that glint in his eyes, a knowing sparkle indicating his suspicion that all is not as it seems.
The Wrarth explain that the Meep thrived until their living sun went mad and turned Meepkind into insatiable, murderous beasts. After the Meep killed (and ate!) the Galactic Council, the Wrarth were deployed to stop them. They were able to destroy all of the Meep except one — their leader, who happens to be the creature currently in their company. Baring row upon row of previously hidden fangs, the Meep kills the two Wrarth warriors and summons the soldiers, who are revealed to have been possessed by radiation from the psychedelic sun. The Doctor and his friends are taken back to the crash site, where the Meep’s ship is waiting. It’s here the Meep reveals its grand plan: use a massive drill — referred to only as a “dagger drive” — to destroy London.
New character Shirley Anne Bingham (Outnumbered‘s Ruth Madeley) breaks them out of the ship’s holding cell and guides them to an exit route.
Donna, sensing her greater purpose, stays behind to help the Doctor stop the dagger drive while Rose and the others escape. She begs him to let her help, but he refuses, saying she can’t get involved. Realizing they can only stop the Meep together, the Doctor triggers Donna’s memories and sends her into a button-mashing, switch-flipping frenzy that disables the dagger drive. The day is saved…?!
Kind of. The sun-possessed soldiers close in as Donna appears to die, but Rose, having stayed behind, saves them by remotely pulling the psychedelic radiation from the soldiers.
The Doctor then experiences three game-changing revelations:
The first concerns the power with Donna. The Time Lord’s might — the same cosmic strength that was supposed to kill Donna if she ever remembered the Doctor — divided itself between Donna and Rose.
The second is that the shed doubling as Rose’s workspace was inspired by the TARDIS, and the third reveals the stuffed animals Rose made and sold were subconsciously plucked from their adventures through time and space.
The Wrarth take the Meep into custody, but not before the dastardly creature can deliver an ominous warning: “A creature with two hearts is such a rare thing. Just wait ’til I tell… the boss!”
Sound like a concern for another day? Donna and the Doctor seem to think so, because after the Meep gets its 10,000-year prison sentence and London is saved, they hurry to the TARDIS for one last adventure.
The Doctor and Donna, together again, marvel at the TARDIS’ sleek new interior, but their awe is short-lived. The machine catches fire, prompting the Doctor to cry out, “We could end up anywhere in time and space!”
Cue the credits.
What did you think of the first of three Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials?
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