Doctor Who TV Review: The Star Beast

Episode: The Star Beast
Story Number: 301
Series: Specials (2023)
Screenwriter: Russell T Davies, from a story by Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons
Director:  Rachel Talalay

Thoughts:

Doctor Who is back after another interminably long gap between seasons.  And we have a new(ish) show runner in Russell T Davies and a new(ish) Doctor in Rachel Talalay.  Also returning are director Rachel Talalay and Catherine Tate as Donna Noble.  The Tennant/Tate combo is one of my all-time favorites in modern Who (with Peter Capaldi/Jenna Coleman running neck in neck), so it is great to see them together again.  When last we saw Donna in “Journey’s End,” the Doctor forcibly erased her memories because taking on being a Time Lord would kill her.  This didn’t set well with a lot of viewers, some of whom called it a “mind rape.”  After 15 Earth years, and hundreds or thousands of years for the Doctor, they’ve found a solution to bring Donna back and I think it’s a very satisfactory one.

The review continues with SPOILERS below the trailer….

I’ve made no secret of my general dislike for the Chris Chibnall Era, and watching this episode I felt bad for Jodie Whittaker that she didn’t get better scripts to work with.  In fact, I can almost imagine a scene where the Doctor and Donna natter on with increasingly silly technobabble is a parody of how Whittaker’s Doctor always had to talk to herself about the ridiculously complicated plots.

This episode does a fine job of linking itself to the show’s past without wallowing on nostalgia.  This is a new era and the Fourteenth Doctor is not the Tenth Doctor, he has grown and changed (for the better, I think).  It’s great to be reunited with Donna’s family, her mother Sylvia and husband Shaun while meeting her daughter Rose, played by Yasmin Finney (I hope she gets a ride in the TARDIS, she deserves it).  Representation is important, and not only does a transgender woman play a transgender character, but Rose’s identity plays a key role in the story.  The new UNIT character Shirley Bingham (Ruth Madeley) is also an interesting new character who happens to use a wheelchair.

I have to admit that I saw the twist with The Meep coming a mile away.  Nevertheless, the early part of the show where The Meep was very cute was a lot of fun with shades of an homage to E.T.   The switch to The Meep as villain was perfectly executed and hilariously portrayed.  If there’s one thing that bugged me about the episode it’s that the fissures extending through the streets of London magically sealed up again, but that’s a minor thing.

This was a 60th Anniversary Special that didn’t feel like a big event but allowed us to spend time with beloved characters.  Of course, when you have three anniversary specials to work with, there is room to breath.  I’m excited to have Doctor Who back and see its new direction and I eagerly await “Wild Blue Younder.”

Rating: 8 of 10

Doctor Who Television Review: Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways

Episode: Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways
Story Number: 166
Series: 1
Screenwriter: Russell T Davies
Director:  Joe Ahearne

Thoughts: “Bad Wolf” became dated more than any other episode of Doctor Who simply by basing it around the early 2000s popularity of reality game shows.  The Weakest Link and Big Brother seem archaic in 2023, much less hundreds of thousands of years in the future.  That it takes place in the same location as “The Long Game,” probably the weakest episode of series one, is all a demerit.  But it has it’s strengths, mainly in one of my all-time guest characters Lynda with a Y (Jo Joyner), who is the one guest character I most wish could’ve lived and traveled with the Doctor.

All of this is a set up for an cliffhanger reveal of the Daleks.  “The Parting of the Ways” is a much better conclusion to the two-parter with the Doctor facing off in duel to the end versus the Daleks.  Lynda and Jack have great moments, but of course it is Rose (with the help of Mickey and Jackie) who determines to save the Doctor by opening the TARDIS console.  As much as I wish Christopher Eccleston stayed in the role of the Doctor for longer, ending the season with his regeneration (and explaining the concept to new viewers) is a such a perfect way to end the first season.

Rating: 8 of 10

Doctor Who Television Review: Boom Town

Episode: Boom Town
Story Number: 165
Series: 1
Screenwriter: Russell T Davies
Director:  Joe Ahearne

Thoughts:

This is another episode that I enjoyed when I first watched it and was surprised that it was unpopular with fan after the fact.  When I learned later that it was a last minute replacement for another episode, I was even more impressed.  It does a lot to set up the finale, and future seasons of Doctor Who, not to mention Torchwood. Apart from that, I liked the slapstick humor in this episode that I guess others find off-putting.  The Doctor and Margaret’s showdown over dinner is particularly well done.  But I think Annette Badland also gets the opportunity to give some gravitas to Margaret and give us a more well rounded view than just “monster of the week.”

Rating: 7 of 10

Doctor Who Television Review: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances

Episode: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
Story Number: 164
Series: 1
Screenwriter: Steven Moffat
Director:  James Hawes

Thoughts:

It’s always a treat to return to this two-parter which is the first script by Steven Moffat, the first appearance of Captain Jack Harkness, and the first masterpiece of the New Who Era.  The Doctor and Rose travel to London during the Blitz in 1941 on the heels of a mysterious cylinder.  The main threat of the story is nothing more than a little boy in a gas mask asking “are you my Mummy?” who causes anyone he touches to mutate into a gas mask face and also ask for “mummy.” Rose meets and shamelessly flirts with Captain Jack (one thing I love about series one is that Rose has romantic interests outside of the Doctor), while the Doctor becomes acquainted with a group of orphans who steal food during air raids lead by Nancy (Florence Hoath). The stories tie together seamlessly with a resolution so terrific the Doctor shouts in joy “Everybody lives, Rose!  Just this once, everybody lives!”  It’s a great example of Doctor Who setting a simple domestic story at the heart of big events like World War II and alien shenanigans.

Rating: 10 of 10

Doctor Who Television Review: Father’s Day

Episode: Father’s Day
Story Number: 163
Series: 1
Screenwriter: Paul Cornell
Director:  Joe Ahearne

Thoughts:

It’s a surprise that it took so long for a Doctor Who episode to explore the companion’s past and family history. Russell Davies introduced the seemingly obvious concept of the companion having family and friends on Earth who are left behind when she travels, and whose ongoing story the Doctor and Rose frequently reenter.  Thus we have Doctor Who crashing into a serial drama.  This pays off in this episode as we see the Doctor take Rose to her own past and we see younger versions of Jackie, Mickey, and Rose herself as a baby.  And this story introduces Rose’s father Pete who died when Rose was a baby.  Rose saves his life creating a world-ending paradox, giving her the opportunity to finally know her father and learn that he wouldn’t be a particularly good father.  The tension between the Doctor and Rose, between Jackie and Pete, and Pete’s realization that he’s met his grown-up daughter and should not be there all pay off with an emotional wallop. After repeated viewings, it remains one of my favorite episodes of the Eccleston Era and of Doctor Who.

Rating: 9 of 10

Doctor Who Television Review: The Long Game

Episode: The Long Game
Story Number: 162
Series: 1
Screenwriter: Russell T. Davies
Director: Brian Grant

Thoughts: The Long Game is an odd duck among series one episodes as it’s the type of story that doesn’t really return in the new series.  The setting, a space station called Satellite 5, actually does return for the season finale, but the story in that two-parter feels much more 2000s.  The Long Game is a far future story that has a lot more of a sci-fi feel to it than other Doctor Who stories. In fact, it feels very much like the futuristic dystopias that functioned as leftist social critiques in stories from the 1980s when Andrew Cartmel was script editor.  This is appropriate because Russell T. Davies actually submitted this script to Cartmel back in the 80s.

Among things that are unique to this story is a companion, Adam, picked up at the end of Dalek to be a companion for one episode.  In reality, Adam is Rose’s companion rather than the Doctor’s.  He only lets Adam come along it seems because he knows that Adam will prove himself unworthy.  When Adam does mess up, the Doctor dismisses him rather meanly.  It’s hard to stickup for Adam because his character is never really developed and his side plot is half-baked.  I like that in Series One, Rose is interested in other men rather than being The Doctor’s “one true pairing,” but it’s obvious that Adam is not the one.

That leaves us with the main plot, a somewhat heavy handed metaphor for how news media is manipulated to control people.  Being Doctor Who, the manipulator is a giant monster called The Jagrafess aided by a human middleman played slickly by Simon Pegg.  The Doctor motivates a reporter named Cathica (Christine Adams) to revolution and the problem is pretty much solved without the Doctor or Rose really doing much of anything.  While there’s a lot of interesting ideas and visual imagery in this story, there isn’t much story to it.  But it does feel like a noble failure in at least trying something even if the outcome is simply learning that this is not the kind of story Doctor Who will try again.

Rating: 5 of 10

Doctor Who Television Review: Dalek

Episode: Dalek
Story Number: 161
Series: 1
Screenwriter: Robert Shearman
Director:  Joe Ahearne

Thoughts: Before watching Doctor Who, I had the misconception that the Daleks (which I mispronounced as “Day-leks”) appeared in every episode in a constant battle with the Doctor. Thankfully, I was wrong about that, although I still wondered how something as silly-looking as a Dalek could be scary.  Well, this story featuring just one Dalek is scarier than any story featuring throngs of Daleks, and may still be the best Dalek story of modern Who.

Robert Shearman wrote the script very loosely adapted from his Big Finish Audio Drama Jubilee.  This episode features a tour-de-force performance by Christopher Eccleston who shows a darkness and vulnerability we had not seen in his Doctor to this point.  But this episode clearly belongs to Rose, whose compassion is unfortunately a cause for the crisis of this episode but also the solution.  All these years later, Dalek remains a tense drama with a lot of action.

Rating: 9 of 10

Doctor Who Television Review: Aliens of London/World War Three

Episode: Aliens of London/World War Three
Story Number: 160
Series: 1
Screenwriter: Russell T. Davies
Director:  Keith Boak

Thoughts: The Doctor and Rose return to London one year into their future just in time for another alien invasion.  This time, it’s the Slitheen, a family of mobsters who simply want to initiate a global nuclear war and then sell of the radioactive pieces of Earth. Of course, the plot takes its time getting to the revelation, and we get the capers of farting aliens in 10 Downing Street while the Doctor and Rose investigate what is going on.  This story also solidifies that returning to the companion’s home and having their family and friends as recurring characters is a feature of New Who, different from the Classic Era.  And Jackie and Mickey get some great character moments in this story.

At the time I first watched this story, I didn’t realize that it was near-universally disliked among the Who fandom.  I mean, the farting aliens are a bit broad, but this is a funny story with a lot of clever satire about how people and the media respond to significant events.  It also introduce one of my favorite characters of the RTD Era, backbencher MP Harriet Jones (Penelope Wilton).  Rewatching this story in 2022 when the UK is cycling through new Prime Ministers like toilet paper makes this story all the more funny.

Rating: 7 of 10

Doctor Who Television Review: The Unquiet Dead

Episode: The Unquiet Dead
Story Number: 159
Series: 1
Screenwriter: Mark Gatiss
Director:  Euros Lyn

Thoughts:

“What the Shakespeare is going on?”

The third episode of the revived Doctor Who continues to set precedents that have continued through today. This is the first script written by Mark Gatiss, who, like Russell T. Davies, made is first contribution to Doctor Who writing for the Virgin New Adventures book line.  It’s also the first modern Who story that involves traveling to the past, setting a pattern for new companions of stories set in the present, future, and past (in whichever order).  Surprisingly, the Classic Doctor Who never really had the Doctor teaming up with famous historical figures, at least after the pure historical story was phased out during the Second Doctor’s run.  Here we see the Doctor meet and work with Charles Dickens (played by the veteran English actor Simon Callow) who acts as a skeptical foil, and ultimately the hero of the story.

The episode also introduces The Cardiff Rift, a key feature of the RTD Era of Doctor Who and especially its spinoff Torchwood.  And speaking of Torchwood, Eve Myles guest stars as the Victorian house servant with a gift for extra-sensory perception.  Of course, if you’re watching this for the first time with no knowledge of the precedents, it’s actually just a cracking, if rather thin, zombie story with corpse reanimated by an alien species known as The Gelth.

What makes the episode is the many great character moments from Cowell, Myles, and especially Billie Piper.  Three stories in, and Rose is already jumping into action out of compassion for the old woman who collapsed at the theatre (which unfortunately leads to her being abducted, a Classic Who trope).  The scene between Rose and Gwyneth where Rose really gets to understand what life is like for a woman of the past is so brilliant, and something I’d like to see more of in Doctor Who today.

Of course, the elephant in the room is that this whole story plays out like a nativist metaphor of immigrants “invading” and taking over England.  I’m certain this was not Gatiss’ intention when writing the story but it is an inescapable comparison and feels even uglier in these post-Brexit and MAGA times.  Being sensitive to how they tell stories of alien invasions is something I think Doctor Who has gotten better about over time.  Nevertheless, this story is otherwise a fun and charming adventure.

Rating: 7 of 10

Doctor Who Television Review: The End of the World

Episode: The End of the World
Story Number: 158
Series: 1
Screenwriter: Russell T Davies
Director:  Euros Lyn

Thoughts:

In my review of the debut of the new Doctor Who, I noted that Rose offered some parallels to “An Unearthly Child,” the first episode of the original series in 1963.  The parallels continue in The End of the World where the Doctor takes the new companion(s) on their first trip through time. In the original series, they traveled back in time to 100,000 B.C., putatively to the origin of humankind.  In the new series, they go the other direction to the far future where the not only meet the last human but witness the destruction of Earth (well, Rose does).

Revisiting this episode after many years, it strikes me in a way that didn’t occur to me earlier just how cruel it is for the Doctor to take Rose to see the destruction of her planet, especially on her first journey.  We also get the first look at Rose’s compassion, especially in the scene with the mechanic, that will become her defining characteristic and play a part in transforming the Doctor.  This episode also features a Mos Eisley cantina gallery of aliens and creatures, which sets this episode apart as that type of alien costuming was never a frequent feature of the original Doctor Who and wouldn’t become a trend in New Who either.

The most notable “alien” of course is Lady Cassandra (Zoë Wanamaker), who claims to be the last human being despite being essentially a large piece of skin stretched out on a frame.  She is simultaneously one of the nastiest Doctor Who villains and a terrifying example of body horror.  The plot of this episode is pretty forgettable, but I do like it as a collection of good character beats and comic moments.

Rating: 6 of 10