Posted in: BBC, Doctor Who, TV | Tagged: bbc, beep the meep, catherine tate, chris chibnall, david tennant, disney, doctor who, Doctor Who: The Star Beast, Miriam Margoyles

Doctor Who: "The Star Beast": Gleeful, Crowd-Pleasing Return to Form

Doctor Who: "The Star Beast" was a winning return to form from Russell T. Davies, David Tennant, Catherine Tate, and director Rachel Talalay.

The wait is over, Doctor Who is back in all its glory, and the dream team is back – not just showrunner Russell T. Davies, David Tennant, and Catherine Tate, but also director Rachel Talalay, one of the best directors the show ever had, especially with action sequences. And it's like they never left. Or a much-needed return.

The newly-reminted Doctor lands in Camden, North London, and runs into Donna and her family just as an alien craft crashes nearby. Soon there's lots of running and shooting, and of course, an alien menace threatens to destroy the world. That's Doctor Who 101. The trick is to make it feel fresh and fun, and Davies pulls it off in spades. And this time, with Disney money, it's even bigger. Everything's bigger now.

The first episode with a new Doctor always has a lot of heavy lifting to do. It's practically a pilot for a new show designed to attract new viewers as much as returning fans. Davies balances continuity with accessibility by concentrating more on the emotions and relationships than lore. Tennant and Tate sell the story by playing the poignance and heartbreak. Tennant and Tate's chemistry is as fresh and hilarious as ever, like they never skipped a beat. The legendary Miriam Margoyles is having a ball voicing Beep the Meep, who is used gleefully and shamelessly as a foil in the story.

There's a relentless pace as if Davies knows how much is riding on this: not only to renew interest in Doctor Who but also to sell it as a global pop culture phenomenon with the reach of Disney+. It also sets up the potential for spinoffs and selling toys – kids will want to a Beep the Meep cuddly and the cool new sonic screwdriver. Davies makes it a point to make everything cool. The Doctor is cooler than ever. Donna is heroic and cool. Rose is cool.  Ruth Madeley is immediately the coolest new character as a badass science advisor for UNIT and could easily lead a spinoff if she and the idea are popular enough. Even the new behind-the-scenes show Doctor Who: Unleashed is more gleeful.

It's grounded in human moments like Rose dealing with transphobia and Sylvia trying to be loving to both Donna and Rose while worrying about misgendering her granddaughter is quietly touching and real. The main characters are all instantly likable, and so are the supporting characters like Donna's mum and husband. It's a puzzle why Hollywood seems to have forgotten how to write likable characters we would want to keep watching – I'm looking at you, Monarch, where every character other than the one played by Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell is a dislikable asshole that you wish Godzilla would show up and stomp into paste. Yet Davies seems to create a lovable, specific, non-stereotypical character as easily as drawing a breath.

The script is a good teaching tool for writers because it's a prime example of how everything fits together. Every line, every prop, and every character moment serves a purpose to the plot or the theme – or both. Yes, some of them are obvious, but it lets us in on the joke, including the line about spilled coffee that has a payoff barely minutes later.

And Davies goes all in on LGBTQ, especially trans allyship here. He's never been one to run away from a fight, especially against bigots and haters. Chris Chibnall may have said – only once – that The Doctor is nonbinary, but he always shied away from it on the show. Here Davies declares it loud and proud in the show on top of the supporting and compassionate treatment of Rose, knowing it's going to give certain idiots out there heart attacks. And he does it with glee and relish. It's not an accident that the big payoff and joke is that pronouns saved the world here. This is Davies snarkier than ever giving zero F's and making it all loads of fun. It's not only polemics as entertainment but also a trap for bigots: only joyless fools would object to any of this. And joy is what this return of Doctor Who is all about.

Doctor Who is now streaming on Disney+.

Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Episode 1: "The Star Beast"

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Review by Adi Tantimedh

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10/10

Doctor Who: The Star Beast is a welcome, gleeful and joyous return to form designed to appeal to new viewers as well as old fans. Shamelessly pulling every comedy trick in the book while also more emotional than all of the last three seasons under the previous showrunner, it's funny, big-hearted and inclusive, declaring its progressive politics and support of LGBTQ and especially trans rights on its sleeve without overselling it. Not to mention it's going to sell toys. It's a new era for the show as it attempts to conquer the world with the help of Disney.

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