‘THE STAR BEAST’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Beep the Meep with the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna – Celebrating 60 Years of ‘Doctor Who’

I’m glad I wrote ‘Interdimensional Rescue’ and ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’ when I did. 😐

It’s very fascinating to reflect on how I’ve experienced ‘Doctor Who’ as a TV show and its other mediums for the past 18 years or so. I got introduced to the new TV series in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor. I went on and enjoyed more of the series with David Tennant as the Doctor.

In 2006, I started checking out the classic TV series and have enjoyed experiencing Doctors like William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Tom Baker and Peter Davison to name a few. I’ve also enjoyed checking out the Big Finish audios adventures whilst enjoying Series 4 of the new TV series in 2008. 🙂

There have been ups and downs for me in terms of checking out more ‘Doctor Who’ content over the years, particularly in the Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi eras. But I’ve enjoyed ‘Doctor Who’ more recently via Jodie Whittaker’s era. I felt I was getting back on track with what I liked about the show.

For all the trials and tribulations that the TV show has gone through for the past 60 years, it’s amazing that ‘Doctor Who’ continues to keep audiences entertained and excited, especially through the many stories it can tell from various writers, producers and showrunners who have worked on it.

It’s pretty impressive, and I applaud the efforts of all the people who have kept the TV show lasting for so long as it has done so. Yes, there was a period where the TV show was quiet in the 1990s and early 2000s, but there was still content given via the audios, comics and books for people to enjoy. 🙂

So, when the 60th anniversary celebrations of ‘Doctor Who’ came along in 2023, it was going to be a treat to check out how the TV show would be celebrating the occasion. Traditionally, it would often be a multi-Doctor story featuring past actors who’ve played the Doctor to team up with the current one.

I hoped there would be a story like that for the 60th anniversary, especially to embrace what had gone on before for the past 60 years. It’d be lovely to see old faces again. Thus, it’s sad that the people working on the TV series nowadays…don’t seem to want to do that kind of story anymore. 😦

Like, it’s something that’s gone out of fashion compared to when it was a thing in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Now, to be fair, I appreciate Russell T. Davies and his team are trying to do something different for the 60th anniversary, especially as we’ve got three specials instead of one for TV.

I’ve read somewhere that executive producer Phil Collinson had said in an interview that ‘we don’t need to do’ multi-Doctor stories anymore. “It’s been done.” This, I sort-of understand, because the multi-Doctor story genre is something that’s been done to death and it’s often a challenge to keep doing it.

But rather than having a multi-Doctor story for the 60th anniversary, why not do a series of multi-companion stories in ‘Doctor Who’. You could still have David Tennant and Catherine Tate as the main duo, but you can have them visiting past companions in some of the episodes before the finale.

That way, you can acknowledge each and every era of the TV show and have them all meet up in the final special to combat a deadly enemy. The Fourteenth Doctor and Donna could’ve met up with companions like Steven and Vicki, Jamie and Zoe, Nyssa and Tegan, and Mel and Ace in the 2023 specials.

I’m not sure if that’s what Russell T. Davies had in mind when he put together the 60th anniversary specials, since I think he tried to get David Tennant and Catherine Tate on board for more than three specials, but David and Catherine were only able to do three for the 60th year, which is a huge shame.

Speaking of which, the build-up to the release of the 60th anniversary TV specials wasn’t very exciting enough for me through the trailers. When it was announced that David Tennant and Catherine Tate were returning to play the Doctor and Donna in the 60th anniversary specials, I found this to be nice news.

It wasn’t something to get excited about, as I suspected RTD would bring back those two for the 60th year. I hoped to hear more news of past faces returning for ‘Doctor Who’s 60th year like Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton, Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant, and Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred.

Sadly, that never happened, because all I heard was that it was just David Tennant and Catherine Tate who were coming back. And look, I know that’s probably what a lot of people were hoping for in terms of celebrating the 60th anniversary. Many were thrilled over David and Catherine’s return to the TV show.

But that was all the news I kept hearing about the upcoming 60th anniversary specials. Everyone was telling me, “Isn’t it great that David Tennant and Catherine Tate are coming back?” And I was like, “Yeah, it is great they’re coming back, but who else? Who else are we going to see for the 60th anniversary?”

Even in the videos promoting David Tennant and Catherine Tate’s return, we got clips of Series 4 episodes featuring the Doctor and Donna as well as clips from ‘Doctor Who Confidential’ episodes for Series 4. 😐 There was even a ‘#DoctorDonnathon’ watchalong going on in the 2023 specials’ build-up. 😦

And look, I don’t want to give the impression that I don’t like Series 4 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. Far from it! As I’ve said in other reviews, Series 4 is my favourite season out of the David Tennant/Russell T. Davies era in 2008. I cherish very fond memories from watching that TV season. 🙂

But that’s like only a small part of the TV show’s history. I don’t want the 60th anniversary specials to just focus on Series 4 with David Tennant and Catherine Tate. I want them to acknowledge other aspects of the TV series that have gone on from William Hartnell’s era up to Jodie Whittaker’s era. 😐

It astonishes me that Russell T. Davies didn’t really go for the full-on approach to celebrate every aspect of the TV show’s history, especially since he’s a huge ‘Doctor Who’ fan himself. I hoped that my opinions on these things would change once we got to the next two 60th anniversary specials.

But judging from the first 60th anniversary special alone, it didn’t feel like that RTD was going to the trouble of acknowledging every aspect of the TV show’s history. He seemed to just focus on the David Tennant/Catherine Tate aspects of the TV show’s history, of which he was responsible for many years ago.

I know RTD was responsible for bringing back ‘Doctor Who’ in 2005 and this is probably his way of saying “Let’s celebrate the glory days of when I was in charge of the ‘Doctor Who’ TV show, particularly when it was with David Tennant and Catherine Tate.” But things have changed for me. 😐

I’m no longer the naïve ‘Doctor Who’ fan I was back in 2008. I’d like to think I’m a little wiser about how ‘Doctor Who’ stories should be told, particularly in the anniversary celebrations. I’ve experienced more Doctors and eras of the TV series and appreciate how much has gone in over its 60 years.

One of the reasons why I wrote ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’ to celebrate 60 years of ‘Doctor Who’ on ‘Bradley’s Basement’ was so that I could include every Doctor and companion as best as I could in order to acknowledge every aspect of the TV show’s history, whether in small or large contributions.

To find that the actual TV show doesn’t seem to be brave enough in celebrating everything ‘Doctor Who’-related compared to me is very saddening to think about. Then again, there may have been reasons for this. Probably the ‘Doctor Who’ production team didn’t have a massive budget for that kind of story.

And it’s likely that getting a lot of ‘Doctor Who’ people back to be in the 60th anniversary specials is expensive, especially as you have to cater for other aspects of the TV show such as visual effects, catering and such. But I would at least like an effort to be made in acknowledging the show’s history.

If RTD went out of his way to advertise that it wouldn’t just be David Tennant and Catherine Tate appearing in the 60th anniversary specials, but also people like Sarah Sutton, Nicola Bryant and Sophie Aldred appearing in them, that might have got me thrilled in wanting to check out the specials on TV.

As is, from watching the first 60th anniversary TV special on its own, it doesn’t make them seem exciting enough, even with David Tennant and Catherine Tate appearing in them. At least Chris Chibnall advertised Janet Fielding and Sophie Aldred were returning in ‘The Power of the Doctor’. 😐

The neo-RTD era of ‘Doctor Who’ isn’t exciting enough for me so far. In no way am I trying to compare RTD to Peter Jackson, but it’s like checking out ‘The Hobbit’ film trilogy with RTD’s new ‘Doctor Who’ era. Whilst I like ‘The Hobbit’ film trilogy, it’s not as good as ‘The Lord of the Rings’ film trilogy.

I fear I might be going in that direction with RTD’s neo era, in that I would prefer his original era from 2005 to 2010 more than his new era. This is especially as the 60th anniversary celebrations don’t seem to be taken full advantage of in the TV specials, even with RTD in charge of the TV show again.

But I suppose we should actually get started on talking about the 60th anniversary TV specials of ‘Doctor Who’. Now before you ask, yes, of course, I’ve seen ‘Tales of the TARDIS’, the spin-off series exclusive to BBC iPlayer. I believe ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ was made after the 60th anniversary specials.

That’s the impression I got from reading a preview of it somewhere (‘Doctor Who Magazine’, I think it was) and from chatting to Sophie Aldred at ‘Scarborough Comic Con’ in November 2023. And quite frankly, I don’t think ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ should be relegated to being a supplementary spin-off series.

I’m glad that ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ was put together to acknowledge the TV show’s past, particularly the classic TV series with actors playing Doctors and companions coming back. It just seems a pity that ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ isn’t tied into the 60th anniversary specials with David Tennant and Catherine Tate. 😦

By the way, the three 60th anniversary specials – ‘The Star Beast’, ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ and ‘The Giggle’ happen to be three standalone stories with the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna as opposed to being a three-parter. I would’ve done the latter rather than former in celebrating 60 years of the TV series.

Also, the three titles of the 60th anniversary specials aren’t very exciting enough for me. I was hoping there would be an overarching title for these specials, like I have an overarching title for my three-part 60th anniversary special in ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’. Sadly, RTD didn’t seem to consider doing that.

The 60th anniversary specials begin with ‘The Star Beast’ by Russell T. Davies, from a story by Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons. Incidentally, the director of ‘The Star Beast’ happens to be Rachel Talalay, who directed episodes of the Peter Capaldi/Twelfth Doctor era. It’s nice that she came back for this.

Rachel directed ‘Dark Water’/’Death in Heaven’, ‘Heaven Sent’, ‘Hell Bent’, ‘World Enough and Time’/’The Doctor Falls’ and ‘Twice Upon a Time’. She also directed scenes for ‘Deep Breath’ and ‘Into the Dalek’, and directed the second half of the regeneration scene in ‘The Power of the Doctor’.

‘The Star Beast’ opens with David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor narrating to us, as he recalls his adventures with Donna Noble and how he wiped her memory of them. We also get narration by Catherine Tate as Donna, who can’t shake off the bizarre feeling that something is missing in her life.

Now, I know this is a recap to remind viewers of the Tenth Doctor and Donna’s adventures in Series 4 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, but I’m wondering who they are talking to. Clearly, it’s meant to be us as the audience, but I’m wondering, are they narrating before or after the events of this story?

Presumably, it’s before, considering what happens at the end of ‘The Star Beast’, which we’ll get into more later in this review. Narratively, I’m wondering, if it’s not us they’re talking to, then who else is it? Are they talking to thin air? This might work in an audio story, but in a visual medium, it’s very odd.

And of course, we have the brand-new ‘Doctor Who’ title sequence for 2023. Thankfully, RTD didn’t revert back to the title sequence from 2005 to 2010, which was what I was afraid of from watching one of the trailers. As for the 2023 title sequence itself… Err, I found it rather busy when first viewing it.

I appreciate we’re doing the time tunnel thing again, but did we need to see the TARDIS from the bottom-up as well as the Ship going through… Are they clouds? …in space. Every time I see that, I’m expecting the starship Orville or the starship Voyager to be traversing through the clouds instead. 😐

And of course, we’ve got Murray Gold back to do the theme music as well as the incidental music for the neo-RTD era of ‘Doctor Who’. And I’m just going to be honest about this. I’m not really keen about Murray Gold returning to do ‘Doctor Who’ music again. 😦 I prefer Segun Akinola’s music more.

Look, Murray Gold was great as a music composer during the Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant eras from 2005 to 2010. But when hearing his music during the Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi’s eras from 2010 to 2017, I felt his music was getting tired, and I didn’t feel very excited by it.

If you’re a fan of Murray Gold’s ‘Doctor Who’ music, good for you! I’m pleased you enjoy listening to his music. Sometimes he can be very good, but I feel the music needs to be less intrusive, especially in the climactic moments. There’s too much orchestra going on when I’m trying to hear the dialogue.

When Segun Akinola took over during the Jodie Whittaker/Chris Chibnall era, I found it refreshing to have a different style of music to listen to in each episode. I didn’t find it intrusive and it didn’t feel like a big orchestra. It’s the opposite with Murray Gold, as I feel he does too much when composing ‘Doctor Who’ music. 😦

Say what you will about John Nathan-Turner not having Dudley Simpson compose music for his eras of ‘Doctor Who’, but at least he was able to provide different sounds and music for every story in the 1980s. Hearing Murray Gold’s music again for RTD’s neo-era doesn’t feel progressive and different. 😦

I know RTD wants to use old hands for his new era, especially in terms of the music. But there in lies the problem I have about RTD’s neo-era when he’s doing things that have been done before in his original era. There isn’t much to say that’s different in his new era so far compared to the original. 😐

And if you think I’m being unfair about Murray Gold and his music, then let me put this another way. I enjoyed the music he provided for ‘The Musketeers’ 2014-2016 BBC TV series. I didn’t realise it was him until I saw an episode’s end credits. When doing non-‘Doctor Who’ projects, he can be pretty good.

Having him come back to do ‘Doctor Who’ music feels like old territory for him and he should be providing different sounds and styles of music in every episode. I would prefer a more electronic-sounding musical score for ‘Doctor Who’ these days compared to a full-blown orchestral musical score.

Anyway, back to the special. The TARDIS lands in London in the year 2023 – November, presumably. David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor walks out and has a stroll. Incidentally, the Fourteenth Doctor has had adventures in ‘Liberation of the Daleks’ and ‘Destination: Skaro’ before this TV story.

The Doctor sees a woman struggling with a large pile of boxes and he tries to help her out. He’s shocked to discover that the woman happens to be…Donna Noble. Actually, the TARDIS arriving in London and the Doctor helping Donna before discovering it’s her would have been a terrific teaser. 🙂

Instead of having the Doctor and Donna narrate to us at the beginning of ‘The Star Beast’, we could have just gone straight into the story. Maybe have bits of narration in-between the moments of the Doctor and Donna meeting each other instead. It would have gotten us into the story immediately. 🙂

The Doctor momentarily puts the boxes back once he’s seen Donna again – A bit rude, Doctor. I would have just looked away instead of stopping to help her – before he takes them off again. It’s clear that Donna doesn’t recognise him once he’s seen his face. This shouldn’t be such a big surprise.

I mean, I know a big deal of it was made in ‘The End of Time’ that the Tenth Doctor shouldn’t see Donna again, but she didn’t recognise him at all at the end of ‘Journey’s End’ when he wiped her memory of him. So, Donna not recognising the Doctor at the beginning of ‘The Star Beast’ is feasible.

We also meet Yasmin Finney as Rose, who, believe it or not, happens to be the daughter of Donna Noble and Shaun Temple – the man that Donna married in ‘The End of Time’. I’m a little dubious about Yasmin Finney playing Donna Noble’s daughter in the ‘Doctor Who’ 60th anniversary specials.

Mainly because I wonder, when did Donna and Shaun find the time to have an offspring after they were married? I assume they had Rose sometime in 2010 or 2011. Plus, would Rose Noble be 12 or 13 in 2023, not 15? She doesn’t look like she’s a teenager, as Yasmin Finney appears to be 19 or 20 when she did these specials.

Clearly, Rose Noble is named after Rose Tyler, whom Donna met during her travels with the Tenth Doctor. As it turns out, Donna’s daughter chose the name ‘Rose’ through the meta-crisis from her mum. That seems fine enough, but it sadly doesn’t mean Billie Piper gets to appear in these specials. 😦

And it’s established that Rose Noble happens to be transgender – in that she used to be a boy and is now a girl here. This is signified when bullies on bikes called her names like ‘Jason’ when she and her mum Donna were walking home in Chiswick. It was fascinating to discover that about Rose Noble.

Yasmin Finney, who plays Rose, is transgender herself and it’s interesting how RTD had her cast to play the role of Donna’s daughter in the 60th anniversary specials. This is especially from watching the behind-the-scenes interviews with Yasmin and RTD, e.g., the ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’ featurette. 🙂

I can’t claim to be an expert on transgender, though I did write a ‘Doctor Who’ short story called ‘The Regeneration Dilemma’ for the Divergent Wordsmiths, which features a Time Lord character shifting genders – I had help from Wolfie when clarifying the pronouns for the character I’d created.

But it was intriguing to see it depicted in this ‘Doctor Who’ story through Rose Noble, and she has a supportive family in Donna and the rest when she’s bullied about her being transgender. Also, Donna isn’t quick to judge concerning Rose, just like she didn’t judge Terry and Richard as gays in ‘The Creeping Death’. 🙂

Anyway, a spaceship ‘crash-lands’ to Earth. The Doctor and Rose see it falling in the sky whilst Donna completely misses it. 😀 The Doctor sees that it hasn’t crashed far away, so he takes a taxi, driven by Karl Collins as Shaun Temple, who missed his wife Donna and daughter Rose after he called to them.

Claiming to be a friend of Nerys, who appeared in ‘The Runaway Bride’ and ‘The End of Time’, the Doctor pumps Shaun for information on how he, Donna and their family have been. Shaun claims Donna gave away a lot of the lottery money she’d won from the Doctor’s lottery ticket gift to charity.

The Doctor is very surprised by this, but once again, as the episode unveils, Donna subconsciously gave the money away to charity to be like him, since he’s saving people across Space and Time. Again, this shouldn’t be a surprise, as it’s the DoctorDonna trying to come through for Donna here. 🙂

Jacqueline King also returns to play Sylvia Noble, Donna’s mum in the 60th anniversary specials. She’s clearly trying to prevent Donna recalling anything about her time with the Doctor, especially when there’s a spaceship crash-landing to Earth and when the Doctor comes back into their lives. 😀

In the time between seeing Sylvia in ‘The End of Time’ and seeing her again in ‘The Star Beast’, it’s amazing to reflect on how I’ve met Jacqueline King twice at conventions – first in Newcastle in 2015 and then in London in 2019. To think I’ve met some of these stars who’ve been in the new TV series.

Sadly, there’s no Bernard Cribbins appearing as Wilfred Mott in this 60th anniversary special. Thankfully, we’ll be seeing him soon, as the Doctor and Donna are on their way to meet him at the end of the special. The Doctor assumed he died when Donna and Sylvia told him he wasn’t with him.

In fact, Wilf is living in a sheltered accommodation, which is being paid for by U.N.I.T. Apparently, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart is taking care of Wilfred, due to his days as a soldier and he was unable to use the stairs in the Noble’s new home. I was looking forward to seeing Wilfred and Kate again here. 🙂

Meanwhile, the spaceship has crashed inside the Millson Wagner Steelworks – I think that’s a nod to Pat Mills and John Wagner, who wrote ‘The Star Beast’ story in the comics. In which case, should this be based on a story by Pat Mills, John Wagner and Dave Gibbons. Why is John Wagner left out here?

Anyway, the Doctor gets inside the steelworks where U.N.I.T. has established a perimeter around it. He isolates himself for a bit and analyses the crash before he meets up with Ruth Madeley as Shirley Anne Bingham – U.N.I.T.’s latest scientific advisor. Ruth Madeley isn’t a stranger to ‘Doctor Who’. 🙂

In the Big Finish audios, she played Hebe Harrison with Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and Bonnie Langford as Mel. I feel like a missed opportunity is made to have Ruth Madeley play Hebe Harrison instead of Shirley Bingham, so that the gap between the TV series and the Big Finish audios can be bridged.

Mind you, I’ve not heard the Sixth Doctor, Mel and Hebe audios yet to be sure whether that’s possible, since Ruth Madeley happens to be disabled, both in real-life and as Shirley Bingham. It’s intriguing to see a disabled person play as disabled character, and she’s U.N.I.T.’s scientific advisor. 🙂

I enjoyed the scene between Shirley and the Fourteenth Doctor, since she already knows who he is and they seem to get on well with each other. The Doctor is reluctant to work for U.N.I.T., since he doesn’t know who he is yet, and it’s made clear that this isn’t the Doctor regressed to his tenth self.

This is the Doctor as David Tennant with the memories of Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi and Jodie Whittaker intact. How he happens to have his old face back as David Tennant is yet to be resolved at this point. It’s a continuing mystery, which I hoped would be resolved satisfactorily in the final special.

The Doctor also makes it clear to Shirley that he can’t keep running into Donna Noble, since he’s afraid that if she’ll ever remember him, she will die. He’s determined not to be responsible for Donna’s death, especially as she has her family in husband Shaun and daughter Rose to look after. 🙂

By the way, I’ve just noticed, David Tennant as the Doctor is wearing glasses again. I’m going to save my thoughts about David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor when we get to ‘The Giggle’, but why is it we’re repeating things with David Tennant when he’s supposed to be a new version of the Doctor?

Anyway, the Doctor leaves the steelworks when U.N.I.T. soldiers go off to find an escape pod. Meanwhile, a squad of soldiers secure what’s inside the spaceship, which has actually parked inside the steelworks rather than crashed. This is something that’s astonishing, even for Shirley Bingham. 🙂

A door opens and tendrils of lights flow out into the eyes of the soldiers, led by Jamie Cho as Colonel Chan. It leaves them aglow, as they turn and walk away, possessed. You’ve got to love ‘Doctor Who’ possessions, haven’t you? 😀 Shirley meanwhile decides to hide herself away inside the steelworks.

Back at the Nobles’, Rose discovers a creature when she’s taking out the recycling. The creature happens to be called ‘the Meep’, and insists there are others, referred to as ‘monsters’, chasing after them. Rose hides the Meep in the backyard shed. Unfortunately, Donna stumbles upon it in finding Rose. 😐

And yes! This is Beep the Meep. This is the first part of the 60th anniversary celebrations under Russell T. Davies in the TV specials. Beep the Meep is a character that appeared in the ‘Doctor Who’ comics. They were first in ‘Doctor Who and the Star Beast’ by Pat Mills, John Wagner and Dave Gibbons.

The comic story was published in 1980, and it had the Fourth Doctor joined by his companion Sharon Davies as well as K-9. There’s also been an audio adaptation of ‘Doctor Who and the Star Beast’ by Big Finish, which was released in 2019 in ‘The Comic Strip Adaptations’ box set, starring Tom Baker.

I’ve only encountered Beep the Meep once in my exploration of ‘Doctor Who’, and that was in the sequel to ‘Doctor Who and the Star Beast’ called ‘Star Beast II’. The TV version of ‘The Star Beast’ is my second encounter with Beep the Meep as a ‘Doctor Who’ character. It was intriguing to see them.

Mind you, once again, I think another lost opportunity is made here to combine the TV series, comics and Big Finish audios together, especially for the show’s 60th anniversary. This is because, it doesn’t seem like the Fourteenth Doctor remembers meeting Beep the Meep before as the Fourth Doctor.

In fact, RTD seems to have established that this is the first time the Doctor, as David Tennant, has encountered the Meep, whereas he should already know who the Meep is as Tom Baker – twice, in fact. How come RTD didn’t take the opportunity to combine the TV, comic and audio continuities in one? 😦

This has echoes of when Chris Chibnall decided to ignore the fact that the Thirteenth Doctor in ‘The Haunting of Villa Diodati’ had met Mary Shelley before when he was the Eighth Doctor in ‘The Company of Friends’. Same for Ace meeting Thirteen in ‘The Power of the Doctor’ instead of ‘At Childhood’s End’.

And look, I know RTD did something like this before in his original era, as we have now have two versions of ‘Human Nature’ – one with Sylvester McCoy and one with David Tennant. And we have two versions of ‘Shada’ – one with Tom Baker and one with Paul McGann. It’s common nowadays. 😐

But it seems such a shame when even for the 60th anniversary celebrations, the TV show not only ignores what has gone on in other mediums like audios, books and comics, but it can’t be brave enough to acknowledge there are other ‘Doctor Who’ stories in other mediums for the fans to enjoy.

I know Steven Moffat acknowledged the Big Finish audios’ existence in ‘The Night of the Doctor’ with Paul McGann, but that’s like the only time it’s ever happened in the TV series and generally it’s for the Eighth Doctor so far. The other stories for the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors aren’t acknowledged yet. 😐

I will say this. I’m glad RTD credited his TV version of ‘The Star Beast’ to be based from a story by Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons. Again, why John Wagner hasn’t been included, I don’t know. He’s still alive as far as I’m aware. Did RTD only work with Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons for this TV version of the story?

In the ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’ and other behind-the-scenes featurettes for ‘The Star Beast’, Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons are seen witnessing the realization of the Beep the Meep when they’re on-set. David Tennant even got to meet Pat and Dave, since he’s a fan of the original ‘Doctor Who and the Star Beast’ story.

The puppetry done for Beep the Meep as a character is pretty impressive. I think it’s a combination of both puppetry and CGI when bringing the Meep to life by the production team, and it’s well-put together. Very often, I would forget it’s a puppet being used and it’s not just CGI for Beep the Meep.

Beep the Meep as a character is voiced by Miriam Margolyes. If you’re ‘Harry Potter’ fans, you know who Miriam Margolyes is. 😀 I’ve also seen her as Mother Mildred in ‘Call the Midwife’, and she voiced Leef Apple Glyn Slitheen-Blathereen in ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’ TV story called ‘The Gift’.

I like how Miriam voices the Meep, especially with the high-pitched voice when being cute and cuddly. I wasn’t sure if Beep the Meep is supposed to a ‘he’, ‘it’ or ‘they’. I don’t think the Doctor got a straight-forward answer either. I initally assumed that Beep was male with a high-pitched voice.

The Doctor ends up back in Donna and her family’s lives, much to Sylvia’s irritation, as he tries to figure out who the Meep is. This is especially when the Wrarth Warriors show up (more on them in a bit) as well as the possessed U.N.I.T. soldiers. Pretty soon, a gunfight ensues between the two forces.

Using his new sonic screwdriver, the Doctor saves Donna, her family and the Meep as they escape the Nobles’ house. Okay, so, when the Fourteenth Doctor’s sonic screwdriver was announced, people were really hyped about it. Like it was the greatest thing to have happened in the new TV series.

I can’t say I’m a fan of the Fourteenth Doctor’s new sonic screwdriver. Like the new title sequence, I feel the sonic screwdriver is a bit too busy in terms of design. This is especially when the Doctor uses it to create forcefields to allow him, Donna, her family and the Meep to escape the Noble household.

The sonic screwdriver tends to be used very often in the new TV series nowadays and I prefer it when it’s a tool to scan things as well as hopefully open a locked door. To have the screwdriver be able to display screens as well as produce forcefields feels…sad, as it makes it less a screwdriver as a result.

I appreciate new things are being done with the new sonic screwdriver to make it more sophisticated, but it doesn’t need to be too stylish, and it should only be used unless absolutely necessary. The Doctor, the Nobles and the Meep could have used tables instead of forcefields to help them escape.

But hey, at least the sonic screwdriver can do bricks rather than wood when the Fourteenth Doctor uses it to break through walls in attics to escape. I had the Eighth Doctor trying to do that trick when he and Jen Ward tried to enter a pyramid made of bricks in Egypt in ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’. 🙂

Let’s talk about the Wrarth Warriors for a bit. These were in the original ‘Star Beast’ comic story too as well as the Big Finish audio adaptation. They appear to be insectoid-like creatures and they happen to be hunting meeps like Beep the Meep. They look impressive on TV compared to the comics. 🙂

Notable Wrarth individuals include Sergeant Zogroth, voiced by Ned Porteous, and Constable Zreeg, voiced by John Hopkinson. I believe they’re in the comic version and the audio adaptation of the original ‘Star Beast’ story too. At first, it seems like the Wrarth Warriors are the baddies and the Meep is a goodie.

But when the Fourteenth Doctor dons a wig – Wait, is that the wig Tom Baker’s Doctor wore during his trial in ‘The Stones of Blood’? Has he been keeping that on him this whole time? (Pause; realises) What am I saying, of course he has. 😀 – it turns out that not all is as it seems in this TV story. 😐

Beep the Meep is actually a criminal, as their kind are maniacs bent on conquest. The Wrarth Warriors were summoned to stop their conquest. Beep, who is the leader of the meeps and the worst of its kind, shows their true colours and pulls out a weapon, killing Sergeant Zogroth and Constable Zregg. 😮

It’s quite a shock to see Beep turn evil like that and not be the cute and friendly being they once were. Mind you, I knew Beep was going to turn out to be evil, according to my ‘Doctor Who’ knowledge and research. But still, it’s quite a disturbing change to see in Beep’s character via the TV medium. 🙂

The Doctor manages to convince the Meep that he, Donna and her family are more useful as hostages than dead. They return to the steelworks where Beep intends to restore their ship’s power by stabbing downwards into the planet Earth. Thus, the whole of London is going to be used as fuel.

Being taken aboard the ship, Shirley helps to free the Doctor and the Nobles from the possessed U.N.I.T. soldiers. The Doctor gets aboard Beep’s ship so that he can stop them taking off, and the Nobles are guided to an exit. Donna however decides to help and calls the Doctor ‘Doctor’ for the first time.

The Doctor isn’t pleased to see Donna, as he darts around, flipping switches and pressing buttons to prevent the takeoff of Beep’s ship as best as he can. Time soon runs out and the Doctor and Donna are separated by a split-screen in the room. The Doctor gets upset about having to use one last resort. 😐

Donna insists that he do it to save her daughter and everyone in London. Gradually, the Doctor lowers the mental block that he put on her in her head, and regeneration energy spills out of Donna. I didn’t know what the Doctor was saying at first when he said random words to remove the mental block.

I assume it’s a sequence of words that only the Doctor can use to lower the mental block when he mind-linked with Donna at the end of ‘Journey’s End’. Anyway, it works, and Donna becomes the DoctorDonna again in order to dismantle the ship with the Doctor. This does seem to work out well.

Soon, Donna collapses. Just as Beep’s possessed U.N.I.T. soldiers storm in to kill the Doctor, they become unpossessed and the light drains out of their eyes. Donna also seems to be alright. The lowering of the mental block for the meta-crisis to come through didn’t kill Donna at all. How come?

Well, it turns out Rose absorbed aspects of the Doctor’s mind from the meta-crisis, which were too much for Donna, when she was born. She also absorbed it when the mental block fell away. This allowed her to turn off the psychedelic sun emitters aboard Beep’s ship. Thus, the Meep is defeated.

It’s also established that traces of Donna’s memories of the Doctor were transferred into Rose, as the shed is Rose’s memory of the TARDIS. Rose’s toy designs in the shed are also linked to Donna’s memories of the creatures she’s met like the Daleks, the Judoon, the Ood, the Adipose and the…Cybermen(?!).

Wait, hang on. When did Donna meet Cybermen? I don’t remember a ‘Doctor Who’ story where David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and Catherine Tate as Donna met the Cybermen in Series 4 of the new TV series. Is this a Tenth Doctor/Donna story yet to happen and is being produced by Big Finish?

Apparently, there’s also a toy design that’s based on the Beast from ‘The Impossible Planet’/’The Satan Pit’ and there’s one based on the Weeping Angels. Again, when did Donna meet these creatures in Series 4? Clearly, there’s more to the Tenth Doctor and Donna’s stories than I first thought.

There was one toy design I didn’t recognise and got me baffled when rewatching the special, but it turns out it’s actually based on a Lupari. Um, what? When did the Doctor and Donna meet the Lupari? They were in Series 13 with Jodie Whittaker. And it was only one Lupari called Karvanista in ‘Flux’. 😐

Did the Tenth Doctor and Donna ever meet the Lupari in Series 4 of the new TV series? Or is this based on Rose’s memory of seeing the Lupari once? Either way, it’s not much to go on, since the Lupari were from Jodie Whittaker’s era of ‘Doctor Who’ and not from David Tennant’s original era on TV. 😐

The Wrarth Warriors soon show up to arrest Beep. The Meep is to be imprisoned for ten thousand years – third time lucky (first in comics, second in audio and third on TV 😀 ). The Meep also says something cryptic, as ‘the boss’ will be told about the Doctor, to which the Doctor seems puzzled by.

At first, I assumed it was the Toymaker that the Meep was talking about, but that’s not actually the case, according to an in-vision commentary for ‘The Star Beast’, since David Tennant didn’t know who this ‘boss’ that Beep mentioned is. I wonder. Is Josiah W. Dogbolter the ‘boss’ Beep talked about?

The issue of Donna and Rose still having too much knowledge for a human is resolved. They just let the power go. That’s it! After all these years with mother and daughter combined, they let the meta-crisis energy go from them. Huh. I assumed the meta-crisis issue was going to be stretched out a bit.

Like, Donna was going to remember the Doctor throughout the three specials, despite having the meta-crisis energy inside her, and the mystery of that was going to be resolved when the Toymaker turned up. Ah well, at least we still have ‘the Fourteenth Doctor looking like Ten’ mystery to resolve.

Originally, I had the DoctorDonna in mind when I wrote Coda III of ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’. I’ve tweaked Coda III slightly to have it be Donna as herself and not as the DoctorDonna when she’s with the Fourteenth Doctor in the TARDIS, especially in light of… No, no. Wait until we get to ‘The Giggle’. 🙂

In the end, the Doctor returns to the TARDIS where Donna and her family are seeing him off. The Doctor invites Donna for one last trip in the TARDIS where they go and see her granddad Wilf. Donna agrees. Rose tried to have a look inside the Doctor’s new TARDIS, but Donna refuses to let Rose in. 😐

By the way, Shaun seems way-too-comfortable about Donna going inside the TARDIS with the Doctor. This is especially when Shaun has only just known about Donna’s travels with the Doctor for the first time. The Doctor and Donna enter a revamped TARDIS interior. The Doctor is pretty amazed by it. 🙂

It even has a coffee machine. 😀 I’ll just say it, I love the new TARDIS interior. It harkens back to the classic TV series TARDIS interiors where it was white walls and such. There are levels in the TARDIS console room, but it’s so impressive. It also almost matches to the Fugitive Doctor’s TARDIS interior.

Mind you, I don’t know what was wrong with the Thirteenth Doctor’s TARDIS interior, since she didn’t blow it up when she regenerated into David Tennant. It was still intact last time I saw it. The Fourteenth Doctor could have kept that TARDIS interior for the entirety of his short tenure on TV. 😀

Then again, it’s good to have a TARDIS interior that almost harkens back to the classic TV series, especially since the past TARDIS interiors in the new TV series have been dimly lit. At least we can see the Doctor and Donna when the console room is in normal lighting as opposed to dark lighting. 🙂

Plus, Matt Smith decided to change his TARDIS interior in the time between ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’ and ‘The Snowmen’. Although, for this particular occasion, it was the TARDIS that changed its interior, not the Doctor. So, I’m curious why the TARDIS decided to change its interior. 😐

However, no sooner is the Doctor enjoying his new TARDIS interior that Donna accidentally spills her cup of coffee given to her by the Doctor onto the TARDIS console. Well done, Donna! We’ve had the new TARDIS console for about two minutes, and you immediately ruin it by spilling coffee on the console. 😀

The TARDIS console bursts into flames and soon the space-time ship takes off. The Doctor has no idea what will happen next, as he and Donna could end up anywhere in time and space. Where and when is yet to be determined, especially as ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ happens to be a mystery at this point. 😐

The DVD/Blu-ray special features for ‘The Star Beast’ are as follows. There’s the ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’ episode for ‘The Star Beast’, director Rachael Talalay’s scene breakdown, and a behind-the-scenes featurette on ‘The Star Beast’. There’s an in-vision commentary with David Tennant, executive producer Phil Collinson and producer Vicki Delow. There’s a behind-the-scenes trailer on ‘The Star Beast’, ‘The Fourteenth Doctor Reveal’, ‘David and Catherine’s Flashbacks’, ‘Yasmin Finney Introduces Rose Noble’, ‘Designing the Fourteenth Doctor’, a ‘Set Tour with Yasmin Finney’ and a trailer reel.

‘The Star Beast’, as an opening story to the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna adventures on TV, is fine. Not great, just fine. I know people are excited about David Tennant and Catherine Tate being in ‘Doctor Who’ again, and this story serves well in being an introduction to their return in the TV series. 🙂

But as the first 60th anniversary special of ‘Doctor Who’, it’s not really that exciting for me. The only aspects about this being a 60th anniversary special as far as I’m concerned is that this is a TV adaptation of the original comic book story featuring Beep the Meep as well as the Wrarth Warriors.

Whilst I appreciate Russell T. Davies wanting to adapt ‘Doctor Who and the Star Beast’ on TV with David Tennant, I don’t consider that as something to celebrate 60 years of ‘Doctor Who’. This is especially when we already have an audio adaptation of ‘The Star Beast’ with Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor. 😐

It’s also not a good starting point to acknowledge 60 years of the TV show. Beep the Meep was never in the TV series during the 1980s, as he only featured in the comics. Super ‘Doctor Who’ fans might get excited by it, but for casual viewers, I wonder if Beep the Meep’s TV debut will mean much.

Also, when there are callbacks to past monsters that Donna’s encountered through Rose’s toy designs like the Daleks, Judoon, Adipose and Ood, they’re very blink and you’ll miss it moments. Sometimes they can be quite baffling, especially involving the Cybermen, Weeping Angels and Lupari. 😐

I know this is the beginning of the 60th anniversary celebrations of ‘Doctor Who’ on TV and I hoped that my mind on this would change as I was about to check out ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ and ‘The Giggle’. I hoped the next two specials would change the tide of things in terms of the 60th anniversary celebrations. 😐

At this point, it didn’t seem that would be a reality, as it just seemed to be about David Tennant as the Doctor and Catherine Tate as Donna for a while. Like I said, ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ seemed to be a mystery of an anniversary special for me at this point. It could have surprised me and pleased me better than I expected.

‘The Star Beast’ rating – 7/10

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‘DOCTOR WHO – THE STAR BEAST’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Let’s Beep the Meep Again

Does the Target novelization/audiobook of ‘The Star Beast’ work better than the TV adventure? 😐

At the time of this review, it’s not that long ago since I checked out the 60th anniversary TV specials of ‘Doctor Who’ by Russell T. Davies, which were shown from November to December in 2023. I’ve expressed how much I feel about the TV stories in my reviews and whether they work for me or not.

Suffice to say, I’m not enamoured with them. They don’t really do it for me in terms of celebrating 60 years of a TV show I’ve grown to love for the past 18+ years. Now that’s not to say other people can’t enjoy them. If you love the 60th anniversary specials of ‘Doctor Who’ by RTD, then that’s okay.

There’s clearly an appeal to these anniversary specials. Whether it’s to do with the hype of RTD returning as showrunner or to do with the fact that David Tennant and Catherine Tate are in the specials, I don’t know. But they don’t scream to me in saying “We’re celebrating 60 years of the show!”

I’m pleased I wrote my stories ‘Interdimensional Rescue’ and ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’ to satisfying my fix in terms of celebrating 60 years of ‘Doctor Who’. Already, I’m having plans on putting together a 70th anniversary ‘Doctor Who’ series from 2032 to 2033, but that’s in its infancy stages. 🙂

I don’t know how ‘Once and Future’ as 60th anniversary audio series by Big Finish compares to the three TV specials shown from November to December in 2023, since I’ve yet to check out that audio series, but I imagine it has more callbacks to the TV show’s past than the actual TV specials have.

I know I said I’d probably give it five years since their transmission as to reconsider whether they’re worthy enough as anniversary specials in ‘Doctor Who’, but like with ‘The Day of the Doctor’, I don’t think my opinion would change that much. We’ll have to see how the 70th anniversary will turn out.

Despite that, I was happy to revisit the 60th anniversary TV specials in their Target novelization/audiobook forms. It helps the anniversary specials are fresh in my mind, as I’m checking them out in the middle of 2024. 🙂 I read and heard ‘The Star Beast’ novelization/audiobook in July. 🙂

I was sceptical about the release of the Target novelizations/audiobooks of the three 60th anniversary TV specials, including ‘The Star Beast’, ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ and ‘The Giggle’. The novelizations/audiobooks were released a couple of months or so after the TV stories’ transmission.

‘The Star Beast’ was published on the 30th of November in 2023 as an eBook. I purchased the paperback edition of the story following its publication in January 2024. In my opinion, the release of the Target novelizations/audiobooks of the three TV 60th anniversary stories is too soon for my liking.

Usually, it would take either half a year or a whole year for a Target novelization/audiobook of a TV story to be released after its initial TV transmission. But a month or a couple of months or so later? This is despite whether the TV versions of the three TV specials were going to be successful or not. 😐

Then again, at the time of this review, there are three new Target novelizations/audiobooks of three Fifteenth Doctor TV stories from Series 14 of the new TV show due to be released in August 2024, whereas the TV stories were shown from May to June in that year. So, make of it what you will.

I was determined not to judge the Target novelizations/audiobooks too harshly, as reasonably speaking, they should be translations of the TV stories into prose. So, I decided to find out whether the 60th anniversary TV specials work better in print than work on the TV screen for audiences. 🙂

Whilst RTD wrote the TV specials himself, there are three authors writing the Target novelizations. This is fine, as it would have been a monumental task for one writer to write all of the Target novelizations for the 60th anniversary specials. I wouldn’t have expected that to happen in this case.

It’s like when the director Peter Jackson chose three different editors to help him work on ‘The Lords of the Rings’ film trilogy. One editor on three films would have been too much. So, three writers writing a novelization each on the three 60th anniversary specials works fine, and it’s so fascinating.

After all, you’re bound to get different interpretations of how the 60th anniversary specials are novelized by three different writers. Also, a specific author would have a particular take on how to novelize a RTD script. It happened when Jenny T. Colgan novelized ‘The Christmas Invasion’ TV story.

‘The Star Beast’ is novelized by Gary Russell whilst ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ is novelized by Mark Morris and ‘The Giggle’ is novelized by James Goss. At this point, I’m looking forward to checking out Mark Morris and James Goss’ interpretations of the two remaining 60th anniversary TV specials in prose. 🙂

I enjoyed checking out ‘The Star Beast’ novelization by Gary Russell. Of course, Gary is no stranger to ‘Doctor Who’, since he was the editor of ‘Doctor Who Magazine’ in the 1990s and he wrote, produced and directed a lot of Big Finish ‘Doctor Who’ audios from the late 1990s to the early 2000s.

He was also the script editor on ‘The Waters of Mars’ and ‘The End of Time’ with David Tennant, and he was the script editor on some ‘Torchwood’ and ‘Sarah Jane Adventures’ for TV. Gary Russell has a had a varied career in ‘Doctor Who’ and I’ve even chatted to him a few times at conventions.

It would also be remiss of me to mention that Gary Russell wrote the ‘Doctor Who’ book ‘Beautiful Chaos’, which features the Tenth Doctor and Donna. This makes him an ideal writer for ‘The Star Beast’, since he’s able to get into David Tennant and Catherine Tate as the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna. 🙂

Gary Russell is also familiar with the original ‘Star Beast’ comic story featuring the Fourth Doctor, as he worked on ‘Doctor Who Magazine’ itself. He’s been able to incorporate elements of the comic story into his Target novelization for the TV tale with David Tennant. We’ll get into this more later. 🙂

The audiobook reading for ‘The Star Beast’ is read by Jacqueline King, who played Sylvia Noble, Donna’s mum in the TV series. I purchased the audiobook via Audible. I enjoyed Jacqueline’s reading of ‘The Star Beast’ on audio and have met her in real-life at a couple of conventions over the years. 🙂

It was amusing to hear her do voices for Beep the Meep as well as the Fourteenth Doctor, Donna and Sylvia whilst reading the story. Jacqueline King is a fitting choice for ‘The Star Beast’ audiobook, since she actually participated in the TV story itself compared to the readers of the next two stories.

The Target novelization is divided into 7 chapters with a number of fictional documents between the chapters, such as an exchange between Rose Noble and one of her customers as well as Wikipedia-esque article on Meepkind. The reading and listening experience is quicker than usual, but I don’t mind. 🙂

There’s a special thanks at the beginning of the book to certain people, including Russell T. Davies, by Gary Russell, as well as a dedication to every single person to write a ‘Doctor Who’ book to have passed away, which is nice. This includes people like Tommy Donbavand and Paul Spragg apparently.

There’s also an acknowledgements page by Anthony Dry, the Target cover illustrator, which I quite enjoyed reading. Surprisingly, Anthony Dry’s acknowledgements page isn’t read by Jacqueline King in the audiobook reading of the story compared to everything else, which I found particularly peculiar.

Going back to the Target novelizations/audiobooks being released sooner than later and close to the release of the TV events, I suppose this does reflect ‘The Five Doctors’ Target novelization by Terrance Dicks being published at around the same time as its TV counterpart, but with a difference.

For one thing, that Target novelization was published before the TV story was shown in November 1983. For another, I didn’t get the buzz that I imagine would have been for ‘The Five Doctors’, as that TV story had multiple Doctors whereas these stories mostly have the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna.

Let’s talk about what’s different in the Target novelization compared to the TV adventure. For one thing, the opening sequence of the Doctor and Donna narrating to us and breaking the fourth wall is omitted. And thank goodness for it. That opening sequence would not have worked in prose, frankly.

In the book, there’s the implication given that the TARDIS kicked the Doctor out instead of the Doctor exiting the TARDIS of his own free will when he arrived in London in November 2023 before meeting up with Donna. I actually prefer the TV version of the Doctor’s arrival than the Target book.

Whilst it’s peculiar the TARDIS changes its interior from the Thirteenth Doctor TARDIS interior to the Fourteenth/Fifteenth TARDIS interior, I just think it’s better that the Doctor explores London for a casual stroll rather than be ‘kicked out’, especially when he’s curious about his recent regeneration.

A character that appears in the Target novelization and not in the TV story is someone called Stew Ferguson. If you don’t know who that is, that’s the milkman who appeared in ‘The Stolen Earth’. Apparently, he’s given a central role in the Target novelization of ‘The Star Beast’, which is very nice.

The actor who played Stew Ferguson in ‘The Stolen Earth’ – Andrew Bullivant – also played P.C. Ferguson in ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’ TV story ‘The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith’. Apparently, P.C. Ferguson happens to be Stew Ferguson’s father, which I wouldn’t have known about without doing my research.

Now, some of you are likely to point out to me that this is a callback to one of the characters who has appeared in the TV series’ 60-year history. And yes, on first glance, that would be the case. Except this is a character from a Series 4 ‘Doctor Who’ story which had the Tenth Doctor and Donna.

As I’ve established in my reviews on the 60th anniversary TV specials, one of the problems I have with them is that they focus on the David Tennant/Doctor and Catherine Tate/Donna characters as opposed to have any more characters featured in the specials from the TV show’s really long history.

And this is where I think a golden opportunity could have been made here. Why not have ‘The Star Beast’ feature all the references to Series 4 of ‘Doctor Who’ and then have ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ and ‘The Giggle’ featured callbacks and characters from preceding and succeeding seasons of Series 4? 😐

Some of you might argue, “Well surely it’s the case in ‘The Giggle’ with featuring Melanie Bush, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, U.N.I.T. and such.” Except I feel the callbacks and characters in that are rather slim in that regard, especially when ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ barely has callbacks to the TV show’s past. 😐

But I digress. The state of Donna’s memories in having anything related to the Doctor being removed is expanded upon in the Target novelization. Apparently, from Donna’s perspective, Lance Bennett, whom she was going to marry in ‘The Runaway Bride’, had simply disappeared on their wedding day.

Donna’s family also removed all mention of him from her social media. Science fiction was also banned by Donna’s family to prevent her from remembering the Doctor, especially when aliens in fiction are concerned. So, I imagine Donna never went and saw the new ‘Star Wars’ films at the cinema.

I found this to be a very intriguing exploration of Donna’s history in the time between the original and neo RTD eras of ‘Doctor Who’. One of the advantages of a Target novelization is to explore more background history of a character we’ve grown to love for years compared to what’s in a TV story. 🙂

This is something that Gary Russell utilises to great effect, especially as he wrote Donna in a story like ‘Beautiful Chaos’ that featured her and her family. I appreciate it being included in the Target novelization. You can absorb the information leisurely compared to viewing the story on a TV screen.

It’s also nice Gary Russell gave some background on what Donna was like as a child, including when she was 2 years old, and she went into her parents’ bedroom every morning for a hug. When she woke up at 11pm and didn’t realise it wasn’t the morning, she sobbed thinking her parents left her.

Whereas in fact, they were downstairs and they ran upstairs upon hearing her ‘primal howling’. It’s an aspect of Donna’s character I enjoyed reading and hearing in the Target novelization, and it matches to the tale Wilf told in ‘Partners In Crime’ when Donna went missing to go to Strathclyde. 🙂

There’s a nice bit of backstory told of when Donna was 10 years old and she left her mum Sylvia to help a small boy in Tesco who had lost his own mother. Once he reunited the boy with his mum, Donna received a special award from the manager and a photo in ‘The Herald’s Little Heroes section.

This is one of the reasons I like Donna as a character, as she’s not a rough and common person who goes “Oy!” a lot. She’s someone who has a compassionate heart and to have that illustrated in one of these moments of backstory in ‘The Star Beast’ Target novelization is very refreshing to check out.

One thing I didn’t like about the Target novelization is when the Doctor helps Donna with removing the boxes she’s carrying upon first meeting her and she sarcastically says, “Thank you very much. Not helping.” I’m not really happy with this change in the Target novelization by Gary Russell here. 😐

In the TV story, Donna is genuinely grateful for the Doctor helping her out. She didn’t become sarcastic. At least I didn’t recall her being like that. Yes, he awkwardly put the boxes back afterwards which got Donna annoyed, but checking out the TV story again, Donna wasn’t sarcastic beforehand.

Why was that changed in the Target novelization? Was Donna was supposed to be sarcastic in the original script and it was changed on perhaps Catherine Tate’s insistence or something? It’s likely to be the case, since the Target novelizations are based upon the original scripts than the TV stories. 😐

In the Target novelization, the ringleader of the boys that harassed Rose by calling her ‘Jason’ is given a full name – Callum Wingate. He is Josie Wingate’s son after all. I like how in both the Target novelization and the audiobook how Donna fumes with the boys picking on her daughter like that. 🙂

This is emphasised in the reading Jacqueline King gives in the audiobook version of the novelization, as she stresses Donna’s anger over the fact that Callum and the lads are picking on Rose like that since she’s transgender. It’s something that Gary Russell does well in novelizing the TV adventure.

One of the characters featured in the TV version and Target novelization/audiobook of ‘The Star Beast’ is Fudge Merchandani, played by Dara Lall. In the original ‘Doctor Who and the Star Beast’ comic story, his name was Fudge Higgins. Apparently, Fudge had a huge role in the comic adventure.

The reason why I didn’t mention Fudge much in my review on the TV version of ‘The Star Beast’ starring David Tennant is because…well, there wasn’t really much to say about him. In the Target novelization however, he has more prominence especially when he’s excited by the story’s events. 🙂

True, he doesn’t meet the Doctor as his comic book counterpart did in ‘Doctor Who and the Star Beast’, but there’s more of Fudge appearing and saying stuff in the Target novelization/audiobook. This is especially when he’s communicating with his and Rose’s friend called Sharon Allen.

And if Sharon Allen is a name you recognise, that’s because she was the Fourth Doctor’s companion in the original ‘Doctor Who and the Star Beast’ comic story. Although in that, she was called Sharon Davies and the comic adventure happens to be her debut with the Fourth Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’. 🙂

I’m assuming the Sharon Allen character in the Target novelization – or ‘Shazza’ as I believe she’s called – is another character differently and not the same one as in the comic story. Which of course leads me to realise that Gary Russell didn’t connect the TV story to the original comic adventure. 😐

By that I mean, the Fourteenth Doctor doesn’t acknowledge that he met Beep the Meep before as the Fourth Doctor in the original comic adventure as well as the Big Finish audio adaptation. Look, I know this is a Target novelization of the TV story and maybe I shouldn’t have expected anything different.

But it’s still a shame that even in the Target novelization that the Fourth Doctor and the Fourteenth Doctor versions of ‘The Star Beast’ story don’t seem to exist in the same universe. I mean, I would have to check out the comic and audio versions of the Fourth Doctor story to be sure, but it’s still sad.

In Fudge’s communications with Sharon – or ‘Shazza’ as he calls her – he provides a running commentary on events to her over the phone. There’s even a text message document at the end of Chapter 6. At this stage, I wonder if Fudge will ever make a return ‘Doctor Who’ appearance on TV. 🙂

Apparently, in the novelization, there’s a female U.N.I.T. sergeant called Vaughan – No relation to Tobias Vaughn from ‘The Invasion’, sadly 😀 – who acts as Colonel Chan’s aide and is the one who comes to the Nobles’ front door when attempting to collect the Meep under their psychedelic influence.

The sleeping man that the Doctor, the Nobles and the Meep were passing by during their escape from the possessed U.N.I.T. soldiers and the Wrarth Warriors happens to be named Billy MacPherson. This is a friend of Stew Ferguson who tends to sleep through a lot of alien incidents. 😀

I’m not sure there’s an implication that Stew Ferguson and Billy MacPherson were a couple. It’s not clarified by Gary Russell, though I’m sure Russell T. Davies would have encouraged the notion that they are indeed a couple. It’s open to speculation, so by all means read whatever you want into this.

I’m glad the Target novelization clarified that Beep the Meep in the Fourteenth Doctor version of ‘The Star Beast’ is referred to as ‘they’ in terms of pronouns. Initially I wasn’t sure about this when checking out the TV story in 2023, but I’m glad the novelization has established the Meep is a ‘they’.

Apparently, when Rose, Sylvia and Shaun are separated from Donna once she goes to help the Doctor to stop the Meep’s ship, instead of them being cut off, Rose insists that her family go back to help and join up with Shirley Anne Bingham. It’s a subtle change in the book, but it’s very fascinating.

During the sequence where Donna has the barrier to the meta-crisis unlocked by the Doctor, we cut to a moment where Shaun, Donna’s husband and Sylvia, Donna’s mum, witness Rose becoming part of the metacrisis earlier than it’s revealed on screen. That makes sense in terms of linear storytelling.

I wish I could say the revelation of the toys that Rose made based on her and Donna’s memories of the monsters encountered in space and time like Daleks, Cybermen, Ood, Judoon, Sontarans and the Krop Tor Beast from ‘The Impossible Planet’/’The Satan Pit’ is better handled in the Target novelization. 😦

It gets even more peculiar when the Lupari one of the toys is based upon is actually called Karvanista in the book. Yet, the Tenth Doctor and Donna never encountered Karvanista in ‘Flux’. That was the Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz and Dan. How come Gary Russell screwed this up in the Target novelization?!

If it was a random Lupari that the Tenth Doctor and Donna encountered in their travels in Series 4 of the new TV series, I would have been okay with that. But to specifically say the Lupari was Karvanista this whole time is so baffling and reeks of lazy writing both in terms of the TV story and novelization.

In the Target novelization, it’s mentioned that the Wrarth Warriors are working under the authority of Judge Scraggs. Scraggs was a judge at the Galactic Court who conducted Beep the Meep’s trial in the stories ‘Beep the Meep Gets 3000 Years’ and ‘Star Beast II’ – the latter which I’ve read already. 🙂

Apparently, according to my research, Scraggs was described to have masculine pronouns in ‘Beep the Meep Gets 3000 Years’, but had a feminine appearance in ‘Star Beast II’. I’m surprised Russell T. Davies didn’t have Scraggs’ name mentioned in the TV version of the story. Or maybe it was cut in the story’s final edit. 😐

As in the TV story, the story concludes with the Doctor and Donna going off in the TARDIS to meet with Wilfred Mott, Donna’s granddad. In the Target novelization, Sylvia, Shaun and Rose’s reaction to the TARDIS going out of control is omitted. Maybe that wasn’t included in the original TV script. 😐

‘The Star Beast’ Target novelization/audiobook is…very good. Not excellent, but very good. I mean, it doesn’t change my mind about how I feel about ‘The Star Beast’ in being an underwhelming start to the 60th anniversary TV specials of ‘Doctor Who’, even with it being an adaptation of the comic story.

But Gary Russell does a good job in terms of translating the TV script by Russell T. Davies from a story by Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons into a book. He does well with balancing the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna’s journeys as characters as well as including new elements from the original comic story.

The audiobook reading by Jacqueline King is equally very good and I like how she narrates the story with tremendous enthusiasm, particularly with voicing characters like the Doctor, Donna, Sylvia and Beep the Meep. The sound effects for Beep the Meep’s character in the audiobook are very good. 🙂

This is particularly when the Meep is screaming in horror once Rose takes out the stuffing out of the toys she’s been selling. 😀 ‘The Star Beast’ Target novelization/audiobook is a good start, even if the 7 chapters go by quickly when you read and hear them. I’m looking forward to ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ next. 🙂

‘Doctor Who – The Star Beast’ rating – 8/10

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The previous story For the Fourteenth Doctor was ‘The Bedtime Story’ (TV)  For Donna was ‘Found But Forgotten’ (DVW)	The next story For the Fourteenth Doctor is ‘Wild Ride’ (Comic) For Donna is ‘Wild Ride’ (Comic)
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