Doctor Who: The Star Beast – 60th anniversary special recap | Television & radio

Has it really been more than a year since we bid Jodie Whittaker farewell in a special episode laden with old-Who references that had to be liveblogged because we weren’t sure if we were going to get David Tennant or Ncuti Gatwa at the end of it?

It really has. But after a fourth-wall busting “new viewers start here” sequence, Russell T Davies, Tennant and Catherine Tate wasted no time in getting on with a whole new era of Who, now being made by Bad Wolf Studios and distributed by Disney globally, and with a visibly big hike in the budget.

We’ve been promised a big bold reimagining of the show for this second Davies era, and while this wasn’t quite that, it felt like a more-than-solid “holiday” special. Davies said at the launch he wanted it to be like a Pixar movie, with laughs as well as scares that the whole family could watch together. It successfully bolted a Sarah Jane Adventures-ish monster story involving kids on to an emotional reintroduction to Tennant and Tate.

Miriam Margolyes’s voice coupled with the Meep’s appearance was adorable, and the “Most High” of the Meeps remained a cutie even when they turned bloodthirsty. Another highlight was having Jacqueline King back as Sylvia Noble. During his initial turn as showrunner, Davies created memorable but somewhat abrasive mothers for the Doctor’s Earth companions, but King got a chance here to show a greater range and more sympathy for her daughter’s plight.

Yasmin Finney as Rose was a bright and kindly presence. The bores who thought the Whittaker era was too “woke” – whatever that means in the context of a science fantasy show that has always pushed stories with progressive values – will be choking on the scene where the Doctor is chastised by her for assuming the Meep’s pronouns.

Does the bigger budget show up on screen? You bet. The producers of Doctor Who in the 70s would have bitten your arm off to stage the kind of drone-shot street battle scene we saw here. The centrepiece, though, was the relationship between the Doctor and Donna, and it was genuinely lovely watching Tennant and Tate rebuild that spark.

Sum it up in one sentence?

The Meep steals the show as the 14th Doctor crashes back into the life of Donna Noble and her entertaining family.

Life aboard the Tardis

We didn’t get much inside the Tardis, but we did get a new Tardis inside, and wow, what a beauty. It is packed full of “the round things” and harks back to the classic era more than any Tardis interior since the 2005 revival. It was, apparently, Tennant’s own idea to do all the running round on the ramps, an idea that Davies said seemed less fun for the actor by the eighth take.

Fear factor

The Star Beast was based on a comic book, and these were very much comic-book villains. There weren’t really any frightening moments, unless you truly feared that Donna might die – despite knowing that Tate is in the next two specials. And you definitely couldn’t fear the Wrarth Warriors after they opened their mouths to reveal plummy voices that would have happily featured in Doctor Who in 1963.

Mysteries and questions

We still don’t know why that face for the 14th Doctor, we don’t know how Unit has reconfigured itself since being disbanded in Resolution and then time-manipulated during Flux, we don’t know where the Tardis is heading next and we don’t know who the boss is that the Meep alluded to. Well, OK, we probably do, as we know Neil Patrick Harris is in the third special as the Toymaker, and the three specials probably tie together.

Deeper into the vortex

• The Star Beast is based on a 1980 comic strip in Doctor Who magazine that originally featured the fourth Doctor, Beep the Meep and the Wrarth Warriors. It was written by Pat Mills who created 2000AD and John Wagner, the co-creator of Judge Dredd, and was beautifully drawn by Dave Gibbons, who is probably best known for his work with Alan Moore on Watchmen. It has long been considered a classic by the DW fanbase, and the plot of children discovering a crash-landed alien and hiding it pre-dates Steven Spielberg’s ET by a couple of years. But unlike Beep the Meep, ET didn’t want to drink anybody’s blood.

• We heard about Wilf being in sheltered accommodation, and we know the late Bernard Cribbins filmed scenes last year, but he didn’t appear in this. Tennant said in April they weren’t able to film as much with Cribbins as had been intended. Hopefully we will get to see the wonderful old storyteller’s final appearance in the Whoniverse in the next couple of weeks – after all, Cribbins first stepped into the Tardis in the 1966 Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 AD movie, and it would be a lovely 60th anniversary treat and tribute to see him one last time.

• If you are wondering why Tennant had a new sonic screwdriver since Power of the Doctor was broadcast, Doctor Who magazine has been publishing a 14th Doctor comic story – Liberation of the Daleks – which picked up directly from the regeneration scene and led in to last week’s Skaro-based Children in Need skit, and has seen Jodie Whittaker’s sonic screwdriver design come a cropper. Twice. All the people who hate the sonic being waved around so much in modern Who are probably not going to like the new features it had in this episode.

Next time

At the time of writing there hadn’t been a standalone trailer for Wild Blue Yonder, and so, dear reader, you might already know more than the Guardian. Davies has said the episode is “weird” and really stretched the design team to realise what was on the page. Tennant has said it is “unlike any Doctor Who episode ever”, and the latest issue of Doctor Who magazine redacted the guest cast. So who knows. See you next week – allons-y!