Review of The Star Beast by WhoPotterVian
29 July 2024
This review contains spoilers
A brilliantly faithful adaptation of one of Doctor Who Magazine's best ever comic stories. If you love The Star Beast comic like myself, then you will adore this episode.
Beep The Meep is deliciously evil, with her faux adorability creating the same misleading sweet image as her comicbook counterpart. Miriam Margoyles is the perfect voice for Beep, and the way she switches from the innocent voice to the more malicious intonations is flawless.
The Wrarth Warriors are also as authoritative and imposing as in the Doctor Who Magazine Star Beast, and work well as the obvious baddies only to be goodies. For audiences unfamiliar with the comics storyline, they may seem a tad similar to the Judoon, which can make them seem unoriginal, but their design strikes a powerful presence.
The new title sequence is spectacular, and truly feels like Doctor Who on a much bigger budget. These are the Doctor Who titles on steroids! I also adore the Sonic Screwdriver's new features; the screen, and the shields feel like a natural extension of its functions, and introducing such cool new features feels like an excellent way to attract the attention of new viewers. I really hope we get a new Doctor Who videogame during RTD2, as playing with the new Sonic Screwdriver would be a ton of fun in a platformer.
Then there's the new TARDIS interior, which is utterly stunning. It is the ideal combination of the classic series interior with the white roundels (even if they do change colour) and the new series interior, with the different platforms being akin to Matt Smith's.
David Tennant and Catherine Tate have lost none of their chemistry. They are as hilarious as ever, but are still able to pull on the heartstrings with the more dramatic moments. The reason behind Donna regaining her memories feels natural without being a cop out, and the fourth wall breaking sequence at the beginning is such a clever way of getting new viewers up to date with Donna's situation. It's also nice to see the Nobles again. A shame that Wilf is yet to appear, however understandable considering Bernard Cribbins' sad passing.
Does it work as a 60th Anniversary Special? Not really. It feels more like a standard episode of the show, designed to get new viewers onboard with this new era, rather than a celebration of the show's entire history. Outside of David Tennant as the Doctor again and the Nobles, the only returning characters here are Beep The Meep and the Wrarth Warriors, and they previously featured under a different continuity.
Wild Blue Yonder and The Giggle always seemed more likely to be traditional anniversary Specials, and only one of them is perhaps likely to be a traditional 60th celebration (NB: Neither were 'traditional' anniversary episodes), but it would have been nice had they managed to sneak in a cameo from somebody connected to UNIT who we had already been introduced to, such as Martha, Osgood, or Jo Grant.