By Volo on Saturday, 25 November 2023
Category: Sci-Fi

Doctor Who - The Star Beast

Warning! This contains spoilers!

David Tennant and Russell T. Davies is back! And after enduring a Hollywood actor, screenwriter's and director's strike. The TV industry in England is unaffected, but the timing could not be any better as this episode is oddly familiar as it was it was extremely refreshing. In some ways I feel like I've grown a lot since the days of watching David Tennant playing Dr. Who and want things more complicated. In other ways, I'm just happy with seeing this show again and with the promise of good writing and good performances.

The show continues from the same previous premise of the final doctor who episode with Donna Noble, Journey's End, where Donna is imbued with Timelord energy and knowledge. She uses the knowledge to defeat a seemingly hopeless situation where the Daleks have created a reality bomb to destroy all matter in the universe. This energy causes a human metacrises that causes Donna's brain to overload. The only solution would be to wipe Donna's memory so that she may survive, under the condition that she never regain her memory. The doctor, after being a woman regenerates as his 10th doctor self (David Tennant) and appears near Donna. The over-arching question is why is the doctor back with this face and why are things circling around Donna Noble again?

The doctor has charmingly awkward scenes with Donna and her daughter, Rose, when suddenly a rocketship is seen crashing into the distance. This prompts investigation from the Doctor while Donna and family go home. Rose is introduced to the Meep who are running from a seeming menace set out to kill them for their fur. Some UNIT soldiers are affected by a fluorescent haze that puts them under control of a central force. Ultimately everyone ends up at Donna's house and a shoot out occurs. The Doctor leads everyone out via an escape route through the attics of several houses until they end up in a parking structure where the Doctor takes a leap of deduction to figure there is more to the story than what we realize... The Meep outs herself as leader of the Meep and takes everyone Hostage by using the controlled UNIT soldiers as her henchmen.  Donna has an inkling of memory return and follows the doctor when he directs them to flee. She and the doctor eventually make their way into the rocketship and the Doctor is forced to give Donna's memory back in order to disable the ship. Otherwise its ignition would cause the death of the city of London.

Once Donna regains her memory, she and the Doctor defeat the Meep but they are seemingly about to be destroyed by the Meep's human henchmen when the fluorescent haze leaves their eyes and the Meep becomes powerless. Donna does not die as expected and it is explained that the human metacrises was split between her and Rose when Donna gave birth. Donna and Rose decide to release the timelord power and thus free of the metacrises. Donna and the Doctor eventually decide to take one last trip to see her Father, but while in the new Tardis, Donna spills coffee on the controls of the Tardis and it goes haywire sending them to a completely random place.

Characters of interest

Donna Noble

The story of Donna Noble is one of amazing character development and depth. She starts out being an extremely annoying self-deprecating character in the fourth season of the new Doctor Who but by the 11th episode really shows her acting skill as her character's self-confidence and importance.

Trivia

Analysis

Why did Donna Noble give away her huge fortune? ​She subconsciously was being the Doctor.

Who is the Boss? The meep refers to this at the end of the show.

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