The Star Beast (TV story)

The Star Beast was the first of the three 2023 specials of Doctor Who, broadcast on 25 November 2023 as part of the 60th anniversary, and it was also the first episode since Russell T Davies's return as showrunner.

A year after his introduction in, and following on from his first adventure in the comic strip and his first full onscreen appearance in , The Star Beast marked the first full onscreen adventure of David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor. 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. The Fourteenth Doctor's sonic screwdriver is also seen for the first time onscreen, along with a new TARDIS control room.

The Star Beast saw the return of Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, fifteen years after her last regular appearance as a companion in and thirteen years after her last appearance in, which The Star Beast also acts as a sequel to by revealing what became of Donna and her family following her wedding. Alongside Tate, the special marked the return of Jacqueline King as Sylvia Noble and Karl Collins as Shaun Temple, and the introduction of Yasmin Finney as Rose Noble, the daughter of Donna and Shaun.

The Star Beast is notable for resolving 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.

Most notably, however, The Star Beast was an adaptation of the comic story, and, as such, saw the first onscreen appearance of the popular Doctor Who Magazine antagonist the Meep, voiced by Miriam Margolyes.

Synopsis
A spaceship crashes in North London. Not that Donna Noble noticed; she had other things on her mind. Besides, there's no such thing as aliens — right?! But then one turns up in her garden shed: the Meep. Another — the Doctor — barges into her kitchen. By the time a squadron of Wrarth Warriors shows up on her doorstep, the Noble family must face facts: Donna's past is catching up to her. And her mind is about to be blown...

Plot
In a cold opening in the vastness of the universe, the Fourteenth Doctor recaps the adventures he once had with Donna Noble. He notes after she had gained his memories and intelligence during their last adventure, he had to completely wipe her mind of their adventures and of the Doctor himself to save her life, as it put her in danger. Donna on the other hand can't shake the feeling that deep down something is missing in her life, however there's one thing on the Doctor's mind right now that he can't fully figure out or understand: his face. Why has he regenerated back into a body identical to his tenth incarnation? The Doctor has only one guess: it has something to do with Donna, and maybe the last time they were together wasn't the end of their story like he originally believed.

The TARDIS lands in London in 2023, as the Doctor ventures out and strolls down the road. He wanders into a bustle of people before seeing a woman holding a large pile of boxes, which he tries to help with. He helps her with a few and is shocked to discover Donna, who doesn't remember him. Her daughter, Rose Noble, a trans teenage girl, runs up as Donna becomes distracted with her boxes, missing the spaceship that crashes to earth not too far away. Donna and Rose head off right before Shaun Temple drives up in his taxi. The Doctor convinces Shaun to take him to the crash, and as they drive he pumps Shaun for information, claiming to be a friend of Nerys's.

The Doctor manages to access the crash site inside the Millson Wagner Steelworks even as UNIT has established a perimeter around it. He isolates himself inside and begins to analyse the data from the crash as Shirley Anne Bingham comes up and offers him her readings on the site. He expresses hesitancy to work with UNIT — he doesn't fully know who he is at the moment. He has his old face again and he's not sure what to make of that, or of the fact that he ran into Donna Noble almost immediately after. Soldiers come up and mention that they've found the escape pod to the wreck and are sending a team after it, prompting the Doctor to leave with them.

After the Doctor leaves, UNIT manages to unlock the ship and sends a squad of soldiers to secure whatever's inside. As the door opens, tendrils of light flow out into the eyes of the soldiers, leaving them aglow as they turn and walk away.

Meanwhile Rose and Donna return to their house and three boys (including Josie Wingate's son) on bikes harass Rose by mockingly deadnaming her. Donna is appalled by this, but Rose tells her to leave it. They come back to see Sylvia who's cooking dinner. Donna asks Sylvia if she heard anything about the spaceship that everyone's been talking about, which Sylvia resolutely denies. Rose finds a creature as she's taking out the recycling. The creature names itself the Meep and insists that there are others after it, "monsters". Rose hides the Meep in her backyard shed though Donna stumbles in. Donna first mistakes the Meep for a stuffed toy that Rose designed before prodding it in the eye, realizing that it's alive and panicking. The Meep tries to calm Donna down and Sylvia intervenes, insisting that the entire thing is just a hallucination - the Meep doesn't exist. The Doctor shows up at their house after UNIT stops nearby, realizing that something must have happened, unlocking the door using his sonic screwdriver.

The UNIT team with glowing eyes order those who are guarding the escape pod back to the steelworks and begin to search for the Meep.

The Nobles, the Meep, the Doctor, and Shaun, who came in not too long after the Doctor, discuss what to do with the Meep, with the Doctor and Sylvia insisting that he should take the Meep. The Meep explains to them all that the Wrarth Warriors used to hunt meeps for their fur, and when the rest of the galaxy put a stop to the practice they decided to kill the entire species. UNIT soldiers knock at the door, and as the Doctor answers it he scrolls up their visors, seeing glowing eyes. The Doctor closes the door on them right as the back entrance is smashed open by two Wrarth Warriors, the UNIT soldiers crashing through almost immediately after. The Doctor, the Noble family, and the Meep escape through the attics on the street using the sonic screwdriver to weaken the brick walls between them. The group drives off and stops in a car park.

The Doctor dons a wig and uses his sonic screwdriver to summon two Wrarth Warriors, Zogroth and Zreeg. The Doctor notes how there was no damage done to the taxi and that the fallen UNIT soldiers weren't killed, merely unconscious. The Wrarth Warriors confirm, their weapons apply an anesthetic. They consider the tale of the meep to be tragic, a species whose sun turned psychedelic and mutated them all into maniacs bent on conquest. The Wrarth Warriors were summoned to stop their conquest. As they all fight to the death, only this last one remains, their leader, the worst of them all, the Meep. The Doctor asks the Meep if they have anything to say in their defense. Instead, the Meep pulls out a weapon and kills both of the Wrarth Warriors as UNIT soldiers, brainwashed by the psychedelic sun, arrive. The Doctor manages to convince the Meep that they're more useful as hostages than dead.

The Meep takes the group back to the steelworks and shows off the ship present there. The Doctor insists that the ship can't be used - it has a dagger drive, it gets its power for propulsion by stabbing downwards, it would use the whole of London as fuel. The Meep laughs and orders the group taken aboard the ship. Shirley assaults the soldiers taking them aboard and frees the Doctor and the Nobles, telling him that he needs to get aboard to stop it from taking off and pointing the family towards an exit. As he runs away, Donna decides to follow him, calling him "Doctor" for the first time. She enters the ship after him, watching him as he darts around, flipping switches and buttons to prevent the takeoff as best he can. The Meep lowers a screen from above, splitting the room in two, each caught on the other side as he still tries his best to stop it. Time runs out as the Meep activates the dagger drive.

The Doctor explains to Donna that time's run out, that there's only one chance left. Donna insists that he needs to do it - that there's no time to wait. It will kill her, she's told, and she accepts that, because it will save her daughter, and the lives of everyone else in London. The Doctor lowers the mental block she has in her head and regeneration energy spills out of her. In a flurry of technobabble the two set to work on dismantling the ship. The drive fails, and Donna collapses. Soldiers of the Meep storm in to kill the Doctor, the light drains out of their eyes, and Donna gets back up. Rose absorbed aspects of the Doctor's mind that were too much for Donna both as she was born and as the mental block fell away, allowing her to turn off the psychedelic sun emitters.

The Wrarth Warriors show up to arrest the Meep and imprison them for ten thousand years, and as they part, the Meep teases the Doctor that two hearted species are so rare - someone called "the Boss" will be told about him. The Doctor is put off by this but brushes it aside, returning to the issue of Rose and Donna having too much knowledge for any human, it was slowed down but not stopped. Rose and Donna acknowledge this, but say that there's just another way, one men would never understand. They decide to just let the power go.

The Doctor suggests to Donna that they take one last trip in the TARDIS, to see Wilf, one last time, for him to no longer have to worry about all the secrets he's kept. They enter a fully revamped TARDIS interior that the two of them spend some time goggling over, complete with a coffee machine. The Doctor offers Donna a coffee. She joyfully accepts, and not two minutes later spills it on the TARDIS console, causing it to burst into flames and the TARDIS to take off. The Doctor tells Donna they could end up anywhere in time and space...

Cast

 * The Doctor - David Tennant
 * Donna Noble - Catherine Tate
 * Rose Noble - Yasmin Finney
 * Shaun Temple - Karl Collins
 * BBC Reporter - Matt Green
 * Colonel Chan - Jamie Cho
 * Shirley Bingham - Ruth Madeley
 * Lad - Harley McEvilly
 * Lad - Max Fincham
 * Sylvia Noble - Jacqueline King
 * Fudge Merchandani - Dara Lall
 * The Meep - Cecily Fay
 * Meep Animatronics - Brian Herring, Phill Woodfine
 * Wrarth Warrior 1 - Robert Strange
 * Wrarth Warrior 2 - Stephen Love
 * Wrarth Warrior 3 - Jordan Benjamin
 * Wrarth Warrior 4 - Vassili Psaltopoulos
 * Soldier - Isabella Carey
 * Major Singh - Ronak Patani
 * Voice of Zogroth - Ned Porteous
 * Voice of Zreeg - John Hopkinson
 * Chief Technician - Anna Martine Freeman
 * Sergeant - Archie Backhouse
 * Voice of the Meep - Miriam Margolyes

Uncredited cast
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Worldbuilding

 * Rose points out that the Doctor assumes the Meep's pronouns, bringing up gender identity.

Camden Market

 * Meat Point and Cyberdog are businesses located in Camden Market.
 * As Shaun drives the Doctor out of Camden Market, they pass branches of AllSaints and Hob Salons. There is also a sign for an ATM.

The Doctor

 * The psychic paper takes time to properly reflect the Doctor's gender in titles, as the change is still recent. When the Doctor attempts the title "Master", it says "Mistress" instead.
 * When the Doctor tells the Meep he has two hearts, Sylvia tries to convince Donna that he means it metaphorically.

Noble family

 * A woman who resides in Abu Dhabi is a frequent customer to Rose's small business. As Donna rambled on about, the woman was "obsessed with gonks."
 * Wilfred Mott, due to being 94-years-old and unable to use the stairs in their home, is staying in a cottage as "sheltered accommodation". UNIT covers most of the expenses, as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart said she would look after the "old soldier".
 * Various items are seen around the Nobles' home: in their living room, there is a PlayStation 5 controller on the table and a magazine beginning with "TV & Sa-" on one of the sofas, and, in the kitchen, there is a toy spork.
 * The magazine's cover references several networks at its top: Netflix, Prime Video, Now, BBC iPlayer, and Disney+. It also features the presenters Holly Willoughby and Freddie Flintoff from The Game, and actress Claire Danes from The Essex Serpent (largely unnamed).
 * TCP is used to clean the Meep's injury.
 * Rose was born under the deadname of Jason. She named herself after Rose Tyler due to the subconscious memories that Rose got from the DoctorDonna.

The Doctor's sonic screwdriver

 * The Doctor creates a holographic screen to analyse data about the Meep's ship. He adjusts the dials at the base of the screwdriver to begin the scan.
 * The Doctor also 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 the holographic screen, and are drawn in the air in a similar fashion.
 * The Doctor "resonates concrete" (or rather mortar) to dislodge bricks and create holes in the walls between the attics of several houses.

The Meep's ship

 * Rose shuts down every psychedelic lightwave emanator and transferred any excess power to the brokendrone pre-fixilators after the Meta-Crisis awakens in her.
 * The Meep threatens to explode the engines of the Meep's ship to rupture Earth and damn everyone to Hell.

Cultural references

 * Donna snidely refers to the Meep as “Mad Paddington” and selling them for one million quid.
 * Donna also sarcastically calls Shaun Bob the Builder after he corrects the Doctor on the wall being mortar not concrete.

London

 * According to Rose, London has a population of nine million people.

UNIT

 * UNIT has a new headquarters located near the Gherkin, in the City of London. This HQ, a skyscraper, towers above the towers in the immediate area, and has a helipad.

BBC vs Disney+ comparisons

 * The Whoniverse ident is shown at the beginning of the BBC version, whereas the BBC ident is shown at the beginning of the Disney+ version.
 * The Executive Producers credits are instead shown in the end credits on the Disney+ version.
 * The Disney ident is shown at the end of the episode on the Disney+ version, and the Bad Wolf logo and BBC Studios Productions logo are switched on this version too.

Comparison with comic version
Doctor Who and the Star Beast is also a comic strip story by Pat Mills and John Wagner, which featured the Fourth Doctor meeting Sharon Davies after she had been tricked by Beep the Meep, with The Star Beast featuring the Fourteenth Doctor meeting Rose Noble during a reunion with Donna Noble that involves Rose being tricked by the Meep.
 * The story is set in London rather than Blackcastle.
 * Fudge has a much smaller role in the story than his comic counterpart Fudge Higgins, who in the comic story finds Beep along with Sharon.
 * The Meep speaks English from his initial meeting with Rose, whereas in the comic story Beep only starts speaking English once the Fourth Doctor arrives.
 * However, as the Doctor and the TARDIS are already in the general vicinity of the Meep in the TV story, the TARDIS might have started translating.
 * The Meep has an injured paw, whereas Beep is found bleeding by Sharon and Fudge in the comic story.
 * The Doctor’s initial capture by the Wrarth Warriors and them implanting a bomb in his stomach in the belief he is Beep’s accomplice is not included.
 * K-9 is not present.
 * The Doctor gets the Meep away from the Warriors in Shaun’s taxi rather than a local bus.
 * Rather than over a cup of tea at a kitchen table, the Wrarth Warriors explain the Meep's villainous nature in a mock trial in a car park.
 * The cause of the Meeps’ turn to evil is stated to be their sentient Sun turning psychedelic, whereas in the comic story it was due to the radiation of the Black Sun.
 * Zreeg and Zogroth are killed by the Meep. In the original comic, different Wrarth Warriors are killed and they survive to take Beep into custody.
 * Beep’s ship uses a dagger drive for propulsion whereas in the comic story it uses a Black Sun drive, which Beep intends to use for a star jump that would create a black hole on Earth.
 * Donna and Rose reverse the dagger drive entirely, stranding Beep on Earth, whereas in the comic story the Doctor lets Beep initiate the star jump but sabotages it so the action does not destroy Earth and only moves the ship into Earth’s orbit.
 * The Meep is sentenced to 10,000 years rather than 3,000.
 * The Meep taunts the Doctor as they are taken into custody, rather than trying to beg for mercy and promising to be good as Beep does to Sharon.
 * Additionally, the Meep cryptically tells the Doctor they will tell "The Boss" about him, as a creature with two hearts.

Myths
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Filming locations
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Ratings
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Production errors

 * In the shot of the UNIT HQ, the can be seen, despite this being the site of the UNIT HQ in . The onscreen geography also places the new UNIT HQ in the middle of Leadenhall Street.

Continuity

 * Donna is still "friends" with Nerys and Susie Mair, as seen in the episodes and . The Doctor and Shaun also seem to dislike Nerys.
 * Donna confirms it has been 15 years for her since she last saw the Doctor in.
 * Although not mentioned in the episode, the Fourteenth Doctor has a new sonic screwdriver because of the events of, in which, his old sonic got destroyed.
 * Although not explicit at the time of release, the Redacted audio drama leads directly into The Star Beast, as the characters Cleo Proctor and Apex Costa watch the Meep's star cruiser fly through the skies of Camden Town.
 * Doctor Who The Official Annual 2024 contained several works of fiction which teased some of the characters in The Star Beast:
 * The short story hinted towards the reunion of the Nobles and the Doctor, and Rose meeting the Meep.
 * The Doctor adjusts dials on the screwdriver after creating the holographic screen in the steelworks. named these the frequency and intensity dials.
 * The Doctor mentions "wearing a bowtie", being "a Scotsman", and "a woman" in his last three incarnations.
 * Rose's toy designs are based on Daleks, Cybermen, Judoon, Ood, Lupari and Adipose.
 * Bingham briefly mistakes the Fourteenth Doctor for the Tenth, referencing his involvement with UNIT in, etc. The Doctor likewise recalls that he was UNIT's first scientific advisor, as seen in.
 * The TARDIS surprises the Doctor with a new console room, which it had previously done in and.
 * The Doctor carries a Barrister's Wig and conducts a trial like his fourth incarnation in.
 * The Doctor once more shouts Allons-y when encountering Shaun in his taxi, a common catchphrase from his tenth incarnation.
 * The Doctor uses his psychic paper, as first displayed in, etc. However, it refers to him as a “Mistress”, having not updated since his preceding incarnation.
 * The Doctor also mentions the Shadow Proclamation again, this time using Protocols 15, P and 6.
 * The Doctor and Shirley mention Jammie Dodger biscuits. It was a favourite food of the Eleventh Doctor as seen in and.
 * The Doctor mentions the Sonic Screwdriver is good at resonating concrete. He mentioned this before in the episode.
 * The Sonic Screwdriver however is still useless against a Deadlock seal. This was first mentioned in.
 * The Doctor throws his coat off again when he enters the TARDIS, similar to the Tenth Doctor in and other episodes.
 * Donna continues her habit of managing to miss alien events, as noted in, when focussing on sorting her shopping rather than paying attention to the falling spaceship.
 * The last three words that The Doctor uses to reactivate the DoctorDonna are “Binary, Binary, Binary", a reference to the first word Donna fumbled over in.
 * These words are changed to non-binary for Rose Noble due to her being non-binary.
 * The Thirteenth Doctor’s TARDIS also had a coffee machine similar to the one in the Fourteenth's, as mentioned in.
 * The Thirteenth Doctor's TARDIS coffee machine was not built into the console, but her console did have a biscuit dispenser.
 * Donna spilling coffee on the TARDIS console produces a similar reaction to when Iris Wildthyme spilt gin on her TARDIS' console in.

Home media releases
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