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Review: The Star Beast (Doctor Who)

25.11.23

I have just finished watching this and I can already anticipate that a large chunk of the fandom will be so mad about it. Here are some thoughts I have running around in my brain at the moment:

The story

… is basically the same as the comic it's based on, or at least the audio adaptation of it I've heard. It's silly! And the whole episode has a lot of sillyness in it. I was sort of let down because no one called The Meep "Beep the Meep", and I personally think that Beep the Meep is even worse than "The Meep"; I don't know why they took its name (Beep).

I found the Meep kind of annoying while it was pretending to be cute and innocent and stupid, because other than in the comic you didn't have that glimpse into its mind about how much it hates and despises everyone. I think that the story definitely works best in comic form, but I am glad it was adapted. I must say that it's not my favourite version of the story but it was really good either way!

Beep (sorry, I mean "The Meep")'s transformation from cute to evil was done really well character-design wise; though all they did was give it sharp teeth and angry facial features.

Donna's family and conclusion of the Metacrisis plot

I said once before (in the War Games review) that I'm not a fan of the whole "fixing" Donna's ending thing nor the return of David Tennant as a Doctor. There shouldn't be this sort of going back to 2008 and picking up where we left off thing going on. The show should go on and everything.

But it is what it is now and I could sit here with my arms crossed and my teeth grinding and say "I don't like this so I can't be happy with any of the new episodes" or I could just roll with it.

It certainly is a way of concluding the metacrisis problem, though it seems way too easy I don't think it was bad necessarily. It's neat and now it's done with.

While the "splitting the burden because I gave birth and passed half of it on" thing was alright, as I said, it's a way of concluding that; the whole "we're just letting it go which you can't understand cause you're a man" thing was the only line that I actually rolled my eyes at. As if 13, as a "female presenting" Doctor let one thing go in her entire life. Needless reduction to gender.

Oh no he's Doctor Whoke now

Here are some parts of the episode that I predict will have people frothing at the mouth:

transgender? in the UK? in 2023? good luck with that one, guys
oh no, why is there a person in a wheelchair existing on my screen. and why are they actually working with her disability instead of just ignoring it so we can pretend she is normal
oh no someone asked for pronouns though it's obviously just a setup for a silly bad joke. they are indoctrinating our children!!
they said the Doctor has a complex multifaceted approach to gender! although this has been brought up countless times before — with jokes about it as early as the 70s and sort of deeper explorations of it in the 90s — I will now start to lose my entire shit about this.

The TARDIS

Looks very classical now, a sleak white roundel heavy design. In a way, yes, it just reflects the 60s futuristic well lit vibe but the reduction and minimalism also reflect the current aesthetic. Which I don't like so much, to be honest. Additionally, the room is very large and reminds me a bit of the TARDIS interior in The Scream of the Shalka:

the room has the TARDIS console at the center. a large spiral stairway is wrapping itself around the center going upwards off screen and beyond.

Donna makes a comment about how it's a bit nippy, and I think that gets to the point I'm trying to make. It seems so clean and cold and not very homely. Like, it's pretty and a nice call-back but I do hope they change it for the next Doctor.

The Screwdriver

This pretty much falls under the "I'll just have to accept it" category but why has it literally become a magic wand? It's a noisy screw driver. Fine, it can open doors but why did he draw a shield in the air with it and didn't even explain how a noisy screwdriver can suddenly do that?

Did I like the episode

Yes, it was fun. There was some awful choices but that's just what Doctor Who is like.