 "The Star Beast" is the first of three hour-long special stories forming part of the celebrations of Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary. This story was written by returning head writer and showrunner Russell T Davies and was directed by Rachel Talalay.
This is the first full onscreen adventure for David Tennant, as the Fourteenth Doctor, the return of Catherine Tate, as Donna Noble, and the first story of Russell T Davies's second stint as showrunner.
This story is an adaptation of the comic strip story ‘Doctor Who and the Star Beast’ by Pat Mills and John Wagner, which featured the Fourth Doctor meeting Sharon Davies after she had been tricked by Beep the Meep. It was illustrated by Dave Gibbons and appeared in 6 parts, in issues 19 to 26 of Doctor Who Weekly, from February to April 1980. The full comic strip was also included with issue 598 of the Doctor Who Magazine. The original story was also adapted by Alan Barnes for a Big Finish Productions Fourth Doctor audio story in 2019.
Though this story is not the first television story to be adapted from other media, most other adaptations were written by the same person as the original source material, such as "Dalek" (adapted from the Big Finish Productions audio story "Jubilee" written by Robert Shearman), "Human Nature/The Family of Blood" (adapted from the Virgin Books' The New Adventures novel "Human Nature" written by Paul Cornell) and "The Lodger" (adapted from the comic story published in Issue 368 of the Doctor Who Magazine written by Gareth Roberts).
This story comes a year after the introduction of David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor in "The Power of The Doctor", and follows on from his first adventure in the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip "Liberation of the Daleks" and his first onscreen appearance in the 2023 Children in Need special mini-story "Destination: Skaro".
This story serves as the reintroduction of David Tennant and Catherine Tate, with David Tennant making his first regular appearance as the Fourteenth Doctor, having previously played the Tenth Doctor during Russell T Davies' original tenure as showrunner, as well as in the 50th anniversary special "The Day of The Doctor" in 2013, while Catherine Tate reprises her role as companion Donna Noble. This story also sees the return of Jacqueline King (as Sylvia Noble) and Karl Collins (as Shaun Temple), with newcomer Yasmin Finney (as Rose Noble) and guest stars Miriam Margolyes as the voice of the alien Meep.
This story focuses on the newly-regenerated Doctor being drawn back to the life of former travelling companion Donna Noble, whose memory he was forced to wipe after her human mind became overwhelmed by the Time Lord knowledge in the 2008 story "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End". Upon his arriving in modern-day London, he is caught in a fight to the death when a spaceship crash-lands, with an alien army of Wrarth Warriors pursuing a small furry creature known as The Meep.
This story is the first Doctor Who story to be led by Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner since the two-part 2009 Christmas special "The End of Time" and marks the return of former producer Phil Collinson, who left the programme after the conclusion of Season Thirty (New Series 4), as an Executive Producer. Composer Murray Gold also returned to the show for the first time since the 2017 Christmas special "Twice Upon a Time". Jane Tranter also returned to the show as an Executive Producer, alongside newcomer Joel Collins.
Director Rachel Talalay previously directed every season finale for the Twelfth Doctor, as well as the 2017 Christmas special "Twice Upon a Time".
On the 25th December 2022, it was announced that Jacqueline King and Karl Collins were set to return - both of whom last appeared in the final Tenth Doctor story "The End of Time" in 2009/2010, and that Ruth Madeley would appear as Shirley Bingham. Yasmin Finney joined the cast to portray a character named Rose. The BBC later confirmed that Rose’s surname would be Noble, so revealing that this character was going to be the daughter of Donna and Shaun. On the 14th September 2023, Miriam Margolyes was announced as providing the voice of The Meep.
This story begins the fourth era of production in the revived series, following Russell T Davies' first tenure as Executive Producer from 2005 to 2010, Steven Moffat's from 2010 to 2017 and Chris Chibnall's from 2018 to 2022.
In July 2021, the BBC announced that Chris Chibnall, who had served as Executive Producer and showrunner of Doctor Who since 2018, would leave the show after a run of specials in 2022, alongside Thirteenth Doctor star Jodie Whittaker. The future of the programme was first teased by Controller of BBC Drama, Piers Wenger, on the 25th August 2021, when he revealed an upcoming change for Doctor Who would be ‘radical’.
On the 24th September 2021, it was then announced that Russell T Davies would return to Doctor Who as its showrunner, after having acted as showrunner for the Ninth Doctor and the Tenth Doctor, succeeding Chris Chibnall for the show's 60th anniversary in 2023 and beyond. Russell T Davies was joined by the Bad Wolf production company, which was founded by fellow former Doctor Who Executive Producer Julie Gardner and former BBC head of drama Jane Tranter, with Bad Wolf taking over creative control of Doctor Who beginning with this special.
Russell T Davies confirmed in March 2022 that pre-production had begun at Bad Wolf Studios in Cardiff. Filming for this story then commenced in May 2022 and was completed in July the same year.
This story features the Fourteenth Doctor meeting Rose Noble during a reunion with Donna Noble that involves Rose being tricked by The Meep. In this story The Doctor begins to have doubts over his own identity after his recent regeneration gave him the Tenth Doctor's face and body again. This phenomenon, wrapped in questions and mystery, becomes a major part of the Fourteenth Doctor's character throughout the three stories that make up this season.
Shirley Bingham briefly mistakes the Fourteenth Doctor for the Tenth Doctor, referencing his involvement with UNIT in the 2007/2008 Tenth Doctor story "The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky". The Doctor likewise recalls that he was UNIT's first scientific advisor, as seen in the 1970 Third Doctor story "Spearhead From Space".
Although not mentioned in this story, the Fourteenth Doctor has a new sonic-screwdriver because of the events of the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip story ‘Liberation of the Daleks’, in which, his old device was destroyed.
The Doctor uses his sonic-screwdriver to resonates the mortar to dislodge bricks and create holes in the walls between the attics of several houses. He is heard claiming that it is very good at resonating concrete. He mentioned this before in the 2005 Ninth Doctor story "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances". However, the Sonic Screwdriver is still useless against a Deadlock seal. This was first revealed in the 2005 Ninth Doctor story "Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways".
The Doctor is seen using his psychic paper, as first seen in the 2005 Ninth Doctor story "The End of the World". However, it seems that it takes time to properly reflect The Doctor's gender in titles, as it refers to him as a ‘Mistress’, having not updated itself since his recent regeneration.
The Doctor mentions ‘wearing a bowtie’, being ‘a Scotsman’, and ‘a woman’ in his previous three incarnations.
The Doctor it seems carries a barrister's wig and conducts a trial like the Fourth Doctor did in the 1978 story "The Stones of Blood".
The Doctor is heard again shouting ‘Allons-y’ when encountering Shaun Temple in his taxi, a common catchphrase from his tenth incarnation.
The Doctor and Shirley mention Jammy Dodger biscuits. It was a favourite food of the Eleventh Doctor as seen in the 2010 story "Victory of the Daleks" and the 2013 story "The Bells of Saint John".
The Doctor is seen throwing his coat off again when he enters the TARDIS, similar to the Tenth Doctor in the 2006 story "New Earth".
The Doctor's Theme is briefly heard when The Doctor uses his screwdriver. Likewise, a variation of the Eleventh Doctor’s theme song ‘I Am The Doctor’ is heard in this story.
Catherine Tate’s last regular appearance as a travelling companion Donna Noble was, fifteen years previously in the 2008 Tenth Doctor story "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End" and thirteen years after her last actual appearance in the 2009/2010 Tenth Doctor story "The End of Time".
This story resolved what had happened to Donna following her last adventure with the Tenth Doctor, with it being revealed that a portion of the Human-Time Lord metacrisis that had led to the creation of the DoctorDonna had transferred from Donna to her child. The story not only saw Donna fully regaining her memories of The Doctor, but the end of the DoctorDonna and the release of the metacrisis, now shared between two brains instead of only one.
Donna continues her habit of managing to miss alien events, as first noted in the 2006 story "The Runaway Bride". In this story it is while she is focussing on sorting her shopping rather than paying attention to a falling spaceship.
The last three words that The Doctor uses to reactivate the DoctorDonna are ‘Binary, Binary, Binary’. This is a reference to the first word Donna fumbled over in "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End".
Wilfred Mott (played by the late Bernard Cribbins), who was last seen in the 2009/2010 Tenth Doctor story "The End of Time", is mentioned. Now, due to being 94-years-old and unable to use the stairs in their home, he is staying in a cottage as ‘sheltered accommodation’ with UNIT covering most of the expenses, as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart said she would look after the ‘old soldier’.
The Doctor Who Official Annual 2024 contained several works of fiction which teased some of the characters in this story. Namely the short story ‘We Are Family’ hinted towards the reunion of the Noble family and The Doctor, with Rose meeting The Meep.
Rose Noble named herself after The Doctor’s former companion Rose Tyler due to the subconscious memories that she got from the DoctorDonna.
Donna is heard sarcastically calling Shaun ‘Bob the Builder’ after he corrects The Doctor on the brick wall being made with mortar and not concrete.
The Wrarth Warriors and The Meep make their first onscreen appearance.
Rose Noble points out that The Doctor assumes The Meep's pronouns, bringing up gender identity.
The Meep threatens to explode the engines of his spaceship to ‘rupture Earth and damn everyone to Hell’.
Donna snidely refers to The Meep as ‘Mad Paddington’.
The TARDIS surprises The Doctor with a new console room, which it had previously done in 2010 Eleventh Doctor story "The Eleventh Hour" and 2018 Thirteenth Doctor story "The Ghost Monument".
The Thirteenth Doctor’s TARDIS also had a coffee machine similar to the one in the Fourteenth's, as mentioned in the 2020 story "Orphan 55". The Thirteenth Doctor's however, was not built into the console, but her console did have a biscuit dispenser.
When Donna spills her coffee on the TARDIS console it produces a similar reaction to when Iris Wildthyme spilt gin on her TARDIS console in the Big Finish Productions audio story "Iris Wildthyme: The Panda Invasion".
This story starts with an opening monologue by the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna. The Doctor starts off by saying ‘Once Upon a Time Lord’. Before this story, there has been a graphic novel and a comic strip story using this as their title.
The notable differences between the televised story and the original comic strip story are:
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When The Doctor tells The Meep he has two hearts, Sylvia tries to convince Donna that he means it metaphorically.
The Doctor creates a holographic screen to analyse data about The Meep's spaceship. He adjusts the dials at the base of his sonic-screwdriver to begin the scan.
The Doctor creates mobile force fields to protect himself, The Meep and the Noble family from both energy and projectile weapon fire. These appear as two-dimensional rectangles which resemble holographic screens, which he creates in the air, using his sonic-screwdriver.
The Doctor is heard mentioning The Shadow Proclamation, invoking ‘Protocols 15, P and 6’.
Rose Noble's toy designs are based on Daleks, Cybermen, Judoon, Ood, Lupari and the Adipose.
According to Rose Noble, London has a population of nine million people.
UNIT has a new headquarters located near the Gherkin, in the City of London. This skyscraper towers above the buildings in the immediate area and has a helipad.
The titles for this story include a credit for Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons as the writers of the comic story this story is based on.
This story contains a number of errors. Namely: in the shot of the UNIT Headquarters, the Leadenhall Building can be seen, despite this being the site of the UNIT Headquarters in "Power of The Doctor". The onscreen geography also places the new UNIT Headquarters in the middle of Leadenhall Street.
This story had its press release and premiere on the 6th November 2023 at the Battersea Power Station in London. It also had a special screening, as part of the anniversary celebrations, on the 23rd November 2023 at the Royal Television Society in Cardiff.
This story aired one year, one month, and two days after the previous story "The Power of The Doctor" was broadcast - making this the longest gap between two consecutive stories since the show's return in 2005.
This is the first regular story to be broadcast on a Saturday since the 2017 Twelfth Doctor story "World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls".
With this story it is the first time that the Executive Producers have been credited straight after the title sequence.
This is the first story to air on Disney+ internationally. The Disney logo also appears in the end titles.
A novelisation of this story, written by Gary Russell, is due to be published in paperback in January 2024, and then on audio in February 2024, as part of the BBC Target Collection.
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The Firsts:
The first of three stories celebrating the show's 60th Anniversary
David Tennant’s first full story as the Fourteenth Doctor.
Catherine Tate’s first appearance as companion Donna Noble since "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End".
Russell T Davies' first involvement in the show during his second stint as Executive Producer.
Julie Gardner's first involvement in the show during her seconf stint as Executive Producer.
First time Murray Gold's version of the signature tune, sound and music is heard during his second stint in the show.
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