Everything Old is New Again in the Doctor’s Latest Adventures
By Tom Hill Jr. | Observer Designer
November 23, 2023 marked the 60th Anniversary of the longest-running science fiction program in history: a little BBC show called Doctor Who. To celebrate its 60 years on our television screens, three special episodes were released.
For the uninitiated, Doctor Who is the story of an alien known as the Doctor and their various companions. They travel through time and space in a ship called the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space), solving mysteries, fighting monsters, and just generally experiencing the weird wonders of the cosmos. The Doctor has the ability to “regenerate” when they are about to die, a process that changes every cell in their body, leading to different physical appearances and personality quirks, but remaining the same character. This was a mechanic introduced to keep the show running when the first actor to portray the Doctor, William Hartnell, left the role. To date there have been thirteen “main” actors who have portrayed the Doctor, with occasional “one-off” appearances from other actors in the role.
The actor portraying the Doctor (the Fourteenth Doctor) in these specials is David Tennant; this is notable, since he has already played the Doctor (the Tenth Doctor), back from 2005-2010. Tennant’s is not the only face returning to Who, as showrunner Russel T. Davies has come back to helm the series, having brought it back from hiatus in 2005 before handing over the reins to Steven Moffat in 2010. Davies’ run on the show is looked back at fondly by many Who fans, so his return was met with much anticipation. Did the resulting specials live up to the hype? Let’s dig in…
The first special, entitled The Star Beast, is based on a comic strip that ran in Doctor Who Magazine in 1980, written by Pat Mills with art by Dave Gibbons. Its plot, involving the Doctor trying to save a furry alien called the Meep from the fearsome, bug-like Wrarth Warriors, is adapted fairly faithfully. The rest of the plot involves the Doctor trying to protect returning companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) and her family from the ensuing alien attack, with the added hurdle that Donna cannot remember her previous time with the Doctor; he had to erase her memory to save her life, and if she remembers him again, she will die. This is a lot of backstory to know going in, and while there is a handy (if oddly handled) bit of narration at the beginning of the episode to help ease in new viewers, it may not be enough to fully get them up to speed. Other than this, however, the plot is fairly easy to follow, with only two main beats to keep track of: Meep vs. Wrarth Warriors, and Donna’s family, with the Doctor being the link between the two.
Besides the returning cast of Tate as Donna, Jacqueline King as her mother, Sylvia, and Karl Collins as her husband, Shaun Temple, new characters include Ruth Madeley as sassy scientific adviser Shirley Bingham, and Yasmin Finney as Rose—Donna and Shaun’s daughter who runs her own crafting business and has been noted as one of the first major trans characters in Doctor Who. Rose presents some nice character development for Donna, who seems determined to be a much more supportive mother than Sylvia was, sometimes to comic effect. There are plenty of nice character moments throughout the episode, especially among the Noble clan, and it’s the characters that help sell the story. A standout is the Meep, voiced by Miriam Margoyles and realized brilliantly through a mixture of CGI, puppetry, and good old people-in-suits. The visual effects overall are pretty spectacular among all three specials, especially for Doctor Who, which is notorious for having ideas far larger than its budget. Aside from a few wonky CGI effects shots here and there, it is possibly the most cinematic the show has ever looked. And the practical sets are nothing to sneeze at either, with the most impressive being the new console room for the TARDIS, truly putting the emphasis on “bigger on the inside.”
Despite enjoying the episode overall, there did seem to be a few pacing issues, especially toward the end, where the solution to Donna’s life-threatening memory situation is resolved too quickly and tidily.
The second special, entitled Wild Blue Yonder, sees the TARDIS leaving Earth behind and crash-landing in the cargo hold of an abandoned spaceship. The Doctor and Donna head out to explore, but the TARDIS then takes off without them, leaving them stranded. They decide to try to figure out where they are and what happened to the ship’s crew. This episode is actually best experienced knowing as little about it as possible, so I’ll not go into too much detail from there. Plot-wise it is the closest of the three specials to a traditional Doctor Who episode, with the Doctor and his companion landing in a place and then experiencing a weird, high-concept sci-fi problem. Take it as a nice sampler for the show in general (hopefully it is but a taste of the seasons yet to come). This episode also serves as a character piece for the Fourteenth Doctor, who despite sharing the face and some quirks of personality with his Tenth incarnation, doesn’t feel like “just the Tenth Doctor, again.” Tennant plays him as more open with his emotions, more “mature” than his younger self, having experienced three other lifetimes since we last saw this face. It’s subtle, but you can sometimes hear lines or see facial expressions delivered almost in the same way one of those previous incarnations might have done. This episode also features an appearance from Wilfred Mott, Donna’s lovable grandfather, played by the late Bernard Cribbins in his final posthumous role, and the episode is dedicated to him.
The final special is titled The Giggle, and, for various reasons, it is most likely the one to cause the biggest stir among Doctor Who fans. The villainous Celestial Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris), a character that hasn’t appeared in the show since 1966, resurfaces in the Doctor’s life and is bent on revenge, using Earth as his playground and the human race as his toys. On top of a returning villain, The Giggle also sees the reappearance of Mel Bush (Bonnie Langford), a companion of the Doctor’s from 1986-87, as well as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave), head of UNIT (Unified Intelligence Taskforce), a military organization specializing in fighting aliens that has been a mainstay in Doctor Who since the 1960s. Among all these familiar faces we get a few new ones, too, the main addition being (minor spoilers) Ncuti Gatwa as the incoming Fifteenth Doctor. Gatwa brings a different energy to the character than Tennant—less world-weary, more bright-eyed and ready for adventure. His character is instantly likable and easy to forward to seeing how he develops in the role. How he appears will probably be a bit contentious among fans, as it involves some major lore updates (get ready to hear about “bi-generation” for a while).
Altogether, The Star Beast, Wild Blue Yonder, and The Giggle present an interesting set of adventures that do a decent job of capturing Doctor Who as a whole; ranging from the smaller-scale aliens-on-Earth stories covered in Star Beast, the ambitious sci-fi problem solving in Yonder, and the big event-size spectacle in Giggle, all connected by enjoyable characters, intriguing plots, a dash of techno-babble, and one little blue box that’s bigger on the inside.
Happy Birthday, Doctor Who. Here’s to many more!
Comments are closed.