The Star Beast (TV story)

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The Star Beast
Novelised as:	The Star Beast
Adapted from:	Doctor Who and the Star Beast
Doctor:	Fourteenth Doctor
Companion(s):	Donna
Featuring:	Sylvia, Shaun, Rose, Zreeg, Zogroth
Main enemy:	The Meep
Main setting:	London, 2023
Key crew
Writer:	Russell T Davies
Director:	Rachel Talalay
Release details
Story number:	301
Number of parts:	1
Premiere broadcast:	25 November 2023
Premiere network:	BBC One
Format:	1x60 minute episode
Official trailer
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Doctor Who television stories
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You may wish to consult 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 celebrations, the story is also the first episode of Russell T Davies's second stint as showrunner.

A year after his introduction in The Power of the Doctor, and following on from his first adventure in the comic story Liberation of the Daleks and his first full onscreen appearance in Destination: Skaro, The Star Beast marked the first full onscreen adventure of David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor, with the Doctor shown beginning to have doubts over his own identity after his recent regeneration gave him the Tenth Doctor's face and body back, a phenomenon wrapped in questions and mystery that becomes a major part of the Fourteenth Doctor's character. The Fourteenth Doctor's sonic screwdriver is also seen for the first time onscreen along with the Fourteenth Doctor's TARDIS control room.

The special also acts as a sequel to Journey's End, and sees the return of Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, 15 years after her last regular appearance as a companion and 13 years after her last appearance in The End of Time, which The Star Beast also acts as a sequel to by revealing what became of Donna and her family following her wedding, with the special seeing the return of Jacqueline King as Sylvia Noble, Karl Collins as Shaun Temple and saw the introduction of Yasmin Finney as Rose Noble, the daughter of Donna and Shaun.

Acting as a sequel to Journey's End the story 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 lead to the creation of The DoctorDonna had gone into Rose following her birth, with the story not only seeing the end of the DoctorDonna but saw Donna fully regaining her memories of the Doctor and avoiding her death following the return of her memories due to her daughter possessing part of the Human-Time Lord Meta-Crisis.

Most notably this episode was an adaptation of the comic story Doctor Who and the Star Beast, and as such saw the first onscreen appearance of the popular DWM antagonist Beep the Meep, voiced in this story by Miriam Margolyes, with it being cryptically implied by Beep following their defeat that they're working for someone interested in beings with two hearts like Beep and the Doctor.

Synopsis

A spaceship crashes in North London. Not that Donna Noble (Tate) 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 (voiced by Margolyes). Another — the Doctor (Tennant) — barges into her kitchen. By the time a squadron of Wrarth Warriors shows up on her doorstep, the Noble family must face facts: Donna's past is catching up to her. And her mind is about to be blown...

Plot

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 Noble, who doesn't remember him. Her daughter, Rose Noble, 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'.

The Doctor manages to access the crash site inside the steelworks even as UNIT has established a perimeter around it. He isolates himself inside and begins to analyze 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 to 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 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, Beep. The Doctor asks the Meep if they have anything to say in their defense. Instead, the Meep pulls out a weapon and kills both of the Wrarth Warriors as UNIT soldiers, brainwashed by the psychedelic sun, arrive. The Doctor manages to convince Beep the Meep that they're more useful as hostages than dead.

Beep 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. Beep 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. Beep 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 Beep 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 Beep and imprison them for ten thousand years, and as they part, Beep 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 maker. 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 take off.

Cast

• Fourteenth Doctor - David Tennant
• Donna Noble - Catherine Tate
• Rose Noble - Yasmin Finney
• Sylvia Noble - Jacqueline King
• Shaun Temple - Karl Collins
• Shirley Anne Bingham - Ruth Madeley
• The Meep - Cecily Fay
  • Voice of the Meep - Miriam Margolyes
• Wrarth Warriors
  • Constable Zreeg - Stephen Love
    • Voice of Zreeg - John Hopkinson
  • Sergeant Zogroth
    • Voice of Zogroth - Ned Porteous
• Major Singh - Ronak Patani
• Colonel Chan - Jamie Hayden
• Fudge Merchandani - Dara Lall
• BBC reporter - Matt Green
• Chief technician - Anna Martine Freeman
• Sergeant - Archie Backhouse
• Soldier - Isabella Carey
• Lad - Harley McEvilly
• Lad - Max Fincham

Uncredited cast

to be added

Crew

Executive Producers   Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter with Phil Collinson and Joel Collins

Written by Russell T Davies story by Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons	Produced by Vicki Delow	Directed by Rachel Talalay	Director of Photography Matt Gray BSC	Production Designer Phil Sims	Visual Effects Untold Studios
Make-up Designer Claire Williams	Casting Director Andy Pryor CDG	Music Murray Gold	Costume Designer Pam Downe	Edited by Will Oswald	Special Effects Real SFX
Original theme music by Ron Grainer  •  Title sequence by Painting Practice & Realtime Visulisation  Music orchestrated & conducted by Alastair King  •  Music mixed by Jake Jackson  •  Music performed by BBC National Orchestra of Wales  The Meep & Wrarth Warriors created by Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons

General production staff Executive Producer for the BBC - Rebecca Ferguson Production Executive - Steffan Morris Co-producer - Ellen Marsh Line Producer - Mark Devlin Production Manager - Delmi Thomas Supervising Location Manager - Iwan Roberts Location Managers - Daniel Wellstead, Hollie Voice Assistant Location Manager - Alex Moore Location Assistant - Shuaib Said Unit Managers - Kyle Yates, Paul Milligan Assistant Unit Manager - Tom Chalkley Production Co-ordinator - Sandra Cosfield Assistant Production Co-ordinator - Liam Hobbs Production Secretaries - Florence Trott, Chris Harkus Executive Assistant - Dee Brooker Script department Script Editor - Scott Handcock Camera and lighting department 1st Assistant Director - Scott Bates 2nd Assistant Director - Lauren Pate 3rd Assistant Director - Jennifer Day Floor Runners - Jac Lewis, George Cheetham, Helen Langford Gaffer - Mark Hutchings Best Boy - Andy Gardiner	Art department Rigging - Shadow Scaffolding Costume department	Make-up and prosthetics Prosthetics - Millenium FX Movement Stunt Co-ordinator - Derek Lea Stunt Performers - Ben Ashley, Jake Osborn, Renato Gjini, Elizabeth Donker Curtius, James Grogan, Rob Jarman, Gary Grundy, Joel Conlan, Ross Upton, Gary Hoptrow, Kim McGarrity, Sarah Lochlan, George Harris, Marlow Warrington-Mattei, Steve Whitley, George Surrey Casting Casting Associate - Ri McDaid-Wren Casting Assistant - Ray Böhm General post-production staff Special and visual effects Special Effects Co-ordinator - Danny Hargreaves Sound Sound Recordist - Alex Thompson Foley - Bang Post Production

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 Noble's toy designs appear to be based on a Dalek, a Cyberman of the Cyberiad, a Judoon, an Ood, an Adipose, and a Lupari.
• The psychic paper takes time to properly reflect the Doctor's gender in titles; especially if the change was recent. When the Doctor attempts the title "Master", it says "Mistress" instead.
• Wilfred Mott, due to being ninety-four years old and is unable to use the stairs in their home, has to stay in a cottage as "sheltered accommodation".
  • While the Nobles couldn't afford it, UNIT made an offer to cover most of the expenses, as Kate said she'd look after him as he was an "old soldier".
• Rose Noble was born under the dead name of Jason. She also named herself after Rose Tyler due to the subconscious memories that Rose got from the DoctorDonna.
• Rose points out the Doctor assumes Meep's pronouns, bringing up gender identity. This makes sense as Rose is a transgender woman.

more to be added

Notes

• This story's upcoming debut 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 preview of the episode released in DWM 597 revealed the casting of Jamie Hayden and Dara Lall, a short teaser of the plot, and a snippet of dialogue between the Fourteenth Doctor and Shirley Anne Bingham.
• This marks the first appearance of the Fourteenth Doctor's sonic screwdriver on television.
• The episode's title card includes a credit for Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons as the writers of the comic story it was based on.
• This story aired one year, one month, and two days after The Power of the Doctor ^[+]Loading...["The Power of the Doctor"], marking the longest gap between two consecutive stories since the show's return to TV in 2005.
• This marks the first time that the TARDIS changed the desktop theme on its own in the Revived Series without the Doctor's regeneration having damaged the previous one. The Thirteenth Doctor was more considerate to the TARDIS than the Tenth and Twelfth Doctors; having regenerated outside.

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 a Meep.

Myths

to be added

Filming locations

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Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

to be added

Influences

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Continuity

• Although not explicit at the time of release, the Redacted 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.
• Doctor Who The Official Annual 2024 contained several works of fiction which teased some of the characters in The Star Beast:
  • The short story We Are Family ^[+]Loading...["We Are Family (short story)"] hinted towards the reunion of the Nobles and the Doctor, and Rose meeting the Meep.
• The Doctor mentions "wearing a bowtie", being "a Scotsman". and "a woman" in his last three incarnations.
• Bingham briefly mistakes the Fourteenth Doctor for the Tenth, referencing his involvement with UNIT in The Sontaran Stratagem ^[+]Loading...["The Sontaran Stratagem (TV story)"], etc.
• The TARDIS surprises the Doctor with a new console room, which it had previously done in The Eleventh Hour ^[+]Loading...["The Eleventh Hour"] and The Ghost Monument ^[+]Loading...["The Ghost Monument"].
• The Doctor carries a Barrister's Wig and conducts a trial like his fourth incarnation in The Stones of Blood ^[+]Loading...["The Stones of Blood (TV story)"].

Home media releases

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Gallery

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External links

• Official The Star Beast page on the Doctor Who website