The Star Beast (TV story): Difference between revisions
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== Continuity == | == Continuity == | ||
* | * The {{cs|Redacted (audio series)}} audio drama {{cs|Redemption (audio story)}} leads directly into ''The Star Beast'', as the characters [[Cleo Proctor]] and [[Apex Costa]] watch [[Beep the Meep's neutron drive star cruiser|the Meep's star cruiser]] fly through the skies of [[Camden Town]].{{Note|This was confirmed by [[Juno Dawson]] in ''[[The Star Beast (TODWP episode)|The Star Beast]]'' episode of ''[[The Official Doctor Who Podcast]]''}} | ||
* Donna continues her habit of managing to miss alien events, as noted in {{cs|The Runaway Bride}} and {{cs|The End of Time (TV story)}}, when focussing on sorting her shopping rather than paying attention to the falling spaceship. | * Donna continues her habit of managing to miss alien events, as noted in {{cs|The Runaway Bride}} and {{cs|The End of Time (TV story)}}, when focussing on sorting her shopping rather than paying attention to the falling spaceship. | ||
* | * Donna is still acquainted with [[Nerys]], who first appeared in {{cs|The Runaway Bride (TV story)}}, and [[Susie Mair]], who was mentioned in {{cs|Journey's End (TV story)}}. | ||
* | * Although not mentioned in the episode, the [[Fourteenth Doctor]] has [[Fourteenth Doctor's sonic screwdriver|a new sonic screwdriver]] because of the events of {{cs|Liberation of the Daleks (comic story)}}, in which, [[Thirteenth Doctor's sonic screwdriver|the old soni screwdriverc]] got destroyed. | ||
* The [[ | * The Doctor recalls that he was UNIT's first [[scientific advisor]], a job the [[Third Doctor]] received in {{cs|Spearhead from Space (TV story)}}. | ||
* | * The Fourteenth Doctor gets slapped by Sylvia when she tries to stop Donna seeing his face. He alludes to [[Jackie Tyler]] slapping the [[Ninth Doctor]] in {{cs|Aliens of London (TV story)}} and [[Francine Jones]] smacking the [[Tenth Doctor]] during the {{cs|The Lazarus Experiment (TV story)}}. | ||
* The Doctor says the sonic screwdriver is good at "resonating concrete", a callback to the [[Ninth Doctor]] trying to resonate a concrete wall to escape a room in {{cs|The Doctor Dances (TV story)}}. | |||
* The Doctor carries a barrister's wig and conducts a trial like the [[Fourth Doctor]] did in {{cs|The Stones of Blood (TV story)}}. | |||
* 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 {{cs|Journey's End (TV story)}} as her mind started to overload. | |||
* Donna recognises that Rose based some of her toy designs on the aliens she met when traveling with the Doctor; Donna had encountered Adipose during {{cs|Partners in Crime (TV story)}}, the Ood in {{cs|Planet of the Ood (TV story)}} and both the Daleks and Judoon during {{cs|The Stolen Earth (TV story)}}. | |||
* Donna spilling [[coffee]] on the TARDIS console produces a similar reaction to when [[Iris Wildthyme]] spilt [[gin]] on her [[Celestial Omnibus|TARDIS']] console in {{cs|Iris Wildthyme and the Panda Invasion (audio story)}}. | * Donna spilling [[coffee]] on the TARDIS console produces a similar reaction to when [[Iris Wildthyme]] spilt [[gin]] on her [[Celestial Omnibus|TARDIS']] console in {{cs|Iris Wildthyme and the Panda Invasion (audio story)}}. | ||
Revision as of 07:59, 10 January 2024
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Star Beast (disambiguation)for other, similarly-named pages.
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 in Russell T Davies's return as showrunner. It was also an adaptation of the comic story Doctor Who and the Star Beast [+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Star Beast (comic story)"], and, as such, saw the first onscreen appearance of the popular Doctor Who Magazine antagonist the Meep.
A year after his introduction in The Power of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Power of the Doctor (TV story)"], The Star Beast marked the first full onscreen adventure of David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor, after his appearance in the mini-episode Destination: Skaro [+]Loading...["Destination: Skaro (TV story)"] for Children in Need. The Doctor's doubts over his own identity, after his recent regeneration gave him the Tenth Doctor's face and body again, became the lynchpin of the trilogy of specials. The Fourteenth Doctor's sonic screwdriver is also seen for the first time onscreen, along with a new TARDIS control room.
The Star Beast also saw the return of Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, Jacqueline King as Sylvia Noble and Karl Collins as Shaun Temple, thirteen years after their last on-screen appearance in The End of Time [+]Loading...["The End of Time (TV story)"]. The special also marked 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 Meta-Crisis that had led to the creation of the DoctorDonna had transferred from her to her child. The Star Beast not only saw Donna fully regaining her memories of the Doctor, but the end of the DoctorDonna and the release of the Meta-Crisis, now shared between two brains instead of only one.
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...[1]
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, and has reoccurring dreams of events she doesn't realise are her repressed memories. 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 drops its friendly façade, 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
to be added
Crew
| Executive Producers Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter with Joel Collins and Phil Collinson |
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| Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources. |
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.
- The Doctor once found himself on Mars with a robot shark and Geoffrey Chaucer.
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."
- Sylvia is cooking a tuna madras when Shaun arrives home.
- According to Donna, Rose can’t act, as she warns the Doctor against attending her school plays, as she doesn’t know how to tell her.
- 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.
- Donna thinks, that if she hadn't given away lottery money, they could have moved to Monte Carlo or Switzerland.
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
- The Doctor names the ship 'Delusions of Grandeur', due to the fact that it supposedly cannot achieve the Meep's ambition of taking off again.
- The ship uses Dagger Drive, that gets its energy by stabbing down.
- Before launching the Dagger Drive, initialisers are activated, gravity stanchions are brandished and the flight deck is calibrated.
- As the Doctor was trying to prevent the Drive from starting, the Meep commands to maximise petrolinks and combustible hyperlines.
- After the computer estimates the star-launch time as five minutes, the Meep commands primary ignition signature to be installed and deadlock to be sealed as well the maxifold, where the Doctor and Donna are, to be bisected.
- As Donna recieves all her memories back, she tripledrives the particle manifesto, oversteps the umbilical feed, vindicates the cyberline and roasts the hyperfeeds. The Doctor then maximises the stressfold links, while Donna channels up the booster drive. After that they inculcate the plexidrones and shatterfry the positrons. By doing so, they reversed the ignition.
- 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.
- After thinking that the Meep was a toy that Rose recently made, an impressed Donna said that she could go on the Sewing Bee (known as The Great British Sewing Bee), a real-world BBC show about competitive sewing.
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.
- UNIT soldier confirmed Red Perimeter and commanded to engage Protocols 5 and 50
Notes
- The Star Beast marks the first appearance of the Fourteenth Doctor's sonic screwdriver on television.
- The circumstances surrounding why he has a new sonic are not revealed in episode, but instead in the Fourteenth Doctor comic story Liberation of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Liberation of the Daleks (comic story)"].
- The Doctor's Theme is briefly heard when the Doctor uses his screwdriver. Likewise, a variation of the Eleventh Doctor theme song "I Am The Doctor" is heard in this episode.
- The title card includes a credit for Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons as the writers of the comic story it was based on.
- The Star Beast aired one year, one month, and two days after The Power of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Power of the Doctor (TV story)"], marking the longest gap between two consecutive stories since the show's return to TV in 2005.
- It's the first time since Doctor Who that the executive producers have been credited straight after the title sequence.
- This is the first episode to air on Disney+ internationally. The Disney logo also appeared in the endboard.
- An in-vision commentary was released on BBC iPlayer immediately after the episode, which featured David Tennant, Phil Collinson, and Vicki Delow. It was recorded on 19th April 2023, according to Georgia Tennant's Instagram post, in which Tennant talks about Russell T Davies possibly not being able to do it the next day.[2]
- Though The Star Beast is not the first TV story to be adapted from other media, most other adaptations were written by the the same person as the original source material, such as Dalek [+]Loading...["Dalek (TV story)"] (adapted from Jubilee [+]Loading...["Jubilee (audio story)"]), Human Nature [+]Loading...["Human Nature (TV story)"], and The Lodger [+]Loading...["The Lodger (TV story)"].
- In his opening monologue, the Fourteenth Doctor starts off by saying "Once Upon a Time Lord". Before this episode, there has been a graphic novel and a comic story had this as their title.
- The German and Latin American Spanish dub credits of The Star Beast on Disney+ credit Gerrit Hamann and Óscar Flores respectively as "Der 10. Doktor" (the Tenth Doctor) rather than the Fourteenth Doctor.
- This episode's premiere broadcast was mentioned alongside the other 2023 specials in the non-fiction feature Back in Business published in Doctor Who The Official Annual 2024 on 7 September 2023.
- The middle 8 returned to the end credits, last heard in Survivors of the Flux [+]Loading...["Survivors of the Flux (TV story)"].
- The first draft of the script had the Meep revealed as the villain much earlier in the story.
- The Doctor running around the new TARDIS interior wasn't in the script. Rachel Talalay proposed the idea on set and David Tennant literally ran with it.
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.
Comparison between BBC and Disney+ versions
There are slight differences between the version broadcast on BBC One and the one shown on Disney+:
- The Whoniverse ident was shown at the beginning of the episode on the BBC version. However, on the Disney+ version, the BBC ident was shown.
- The Disney ident was shown at the end of the episode on the Disney+ version.
- The Executive Producers' credits were shown after the title sequence in the BBC version, however, they were shown in the end credits in the Disney+ version.
- In the end board for the BBC version, the Bad Wolf logo was shown on the left and the BBC Studios Productions logo on the right. In the Disney+ version, they were switched.
- For the DVD release of this episode, it is shown in its Disney+ form, minus the Disney ident at the end and the BBC ident at the beginning.
Myths
to be added
Filming locations
to be added
Ratings
Production errors
- Two of the Ns in David Tennant's credit in the opening titles do not appear in the first frame that they should be visible, and Catherine Tate's credit is partially visible through the TARDIS as it passes by. This error persists across all three of the 60th Anniversary Specials.
- In the shot of the UNIT HQ, the Leadenhall Building can be seen, despite this being the site of the UNIT HQ in The Power of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Power of the Doctor (TV story)"]. The onscreen geography also places the new UNIT HQ in the middle of Leadenhall Street.
Continuity
- The Redacted [+]Loading...["Redacted (audio series)"] audio drama Redemption [+]Loading...["Redemption (audio story)"] 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.[nb 1]
- Donna continues her habit of managing to miss alien events, as noted in The Runaway Bride [+]Loading...["The Runaway Bride"] and The End of Time [+]Loading...["The End of Time (TV story)"], when focussing on sorting her shopping rather than paying attention to the falling spaceship.
- Donna is still acquainted with Nerys, who first appeared in The Runaway Bride [+]Loading...["The Runaway Bride (TV story)"], and Susie Mair, who was mentioned in Journey's End [+]Loading...["Journey's End (TV story)"].
- Although not mentioned in the episode, the Fourteenth Doctor has a new sonic screwdriver because of the events of Liberation of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Liberation of the Daleks (comic story)"], in which, the old soni screwdriverc got destroyed.
- The Doctor recalls that he was UNIT's first scientific advisor, a job the Third Doctor received in Spearhead from Space [+]Loading...["Spearhead from Space (TV story)"].
- The Fourteenth Doctor gets slapped by Sylvia when she tries to stop Donna seeing his face. He alludes to Jackie Tyler slapping the Ninth Doctor in Aliens of London [+]Loading...["Aliens of London (TV story)"] and Francine Jones smacking the Tenth Doctor during the The Lazarus Experiment [+]Loading...["The Lazarus Experiment (TV story)"].
- The Doctor says the sonic screwdriver is good at "resonating concrete", a callback to the Ninth Doctor trying to resonate a concrete wall to escape a room in The Doctor Dances [+]Loading...["The Doctor Dances (TV story)"].
- The Doctor carries a barrister's wig and conducts a trial like the Fourth Doctor did in The Stones of Blood [+]Loading...["The Stones of Blood (TV story)"].
- 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 Journey's End [+]Loading...["Journey's End (TV story)"] as her mind started to overload.
- Donna recognises that Rose based some of her toy designs on the aliens she met when traveling with the Doctor; Donna had encountered Adipose during Partners in Crime [+]Loading...["Partners in Crime (TV story)"], the Ood in Planet of the Ood [+]Loading...["Planet of the Ood (TV story)"] and both the Daleks and Judoon during The Stolen Earth [+]Loading...["The Stolen Earth (TV story)"].
- Donna spilling coffee on the TARDIS console produces a similar reaction to when Iris Wildthyme spilt gin on her TARDIS' console in Iris Wildthyme and the Panda Invasion [+]Loading...["Iris Wildthyme and the Panda Invasion (audio story)"].
Home media releases
DVD and Blu-Ray
This story was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in the United Kingdom on 18 December 2023, along with Wild Blue Yonder [+]Loading...["Wild Blue Yonder (TV story)"] and The Giggle [+]Loading...["The Giggle (TV story)"]. The Bluray release is encoded to Region B, atypical of BBC releases which usually do not have any kind of region encoding on the disc.
Contents:
- Rachel Talalay's Scene Breakdown
- Chanya Button's Scene Breakdown
- Tom Kingsley's Scene Breakdown
- The Star Beast Behind The Scenes
- The Fourteenth Doctor Reveal
- Wild Blue Yonder Behind The Scenes
- The Giggle Behind The Scenes
- The Giggle In-vision Commentary
- The Star Beast In-vision Commentary
- David and Catherine's Flashbacks
- Yasmin Finney Introduces Rose Noble
- Designing the Fourteenth Doctor
- Set Tour with Yasmin Finney
- The Star Beast - Behind The Scenes Trailer
- Wild Blue Yonder - Behind The Scenes Trailer
- The Giggle - Behind The Scenes Trailer
- The Cast Introduce the Villains in 'Wild Blue Yonder'
- Behind The Scenes Fun with David and Catherine
- Video Diary with David Tennant's Stand-in
- TARDIS Set Tour with David Tennant and Phil Sims
- Ruth Madeley Introduces Shirley Bingham
- Neil Patrick Harris Introduces the Toymaker
- Becoming the Toymaker
- 60th Specials Recap with David Tennant
UK DVD cover
UK Blu-ray cover
UK steelbook cover
Digital releases
This story is available on BBC iPlayer in the United Kingdom, in Ultra High-Def (4K). It is also available on Disney+ in other territories.
Gallery
Promotional material
Promotional pictures
![Promotional image by Butcher Billy.[4]](/w/images/Tardis_Images/thumb/8/8b/Butcher_Billy_The_Star_Beast.jpg/96px-Butcher_Billy_The_Star_Beast.jpg)
Promotional image by Butcher Billy.[4]
![Promotional image by Butcher Billy.[4]](/wiki/File:Butcher_Billy_The_Star_Beast.jpg)
External links
- Official The Star Beast page on the Doctor Who website
Footnotes
Notes
- ↑ This was confirmed by Juno Dawson in The Star Beast episode of The Official Doctor Who Podcast
References
- ↑ DWM 597 - Preview of The Star Beast, Page 18
- ↑ https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0CSCPtiySD/
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Doctor Who ratings
- ↑ @bbcdoctorwho on Twitter
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