14.1 The Star Beast

[Melinda Halliwell]

For you Tim. 



Hopefully you can see it.

If next week's episode is uploaded, I will share that here as well.

[Tim]

Katherine, I could kiss you

Thanks for helping me circumvent the Mouse and letting me see the episode.  I really enjoyed it (even if I knew how things were gonna turn out, since I've read the original comic story this was based on).

Hopefully, you can get me more episodes this way.  

[Melinda Halliwell]

Will do Tim. Or even better the episode was uploaded onto Dailymotion so check there this Sunday and someone will probably have uploaded the next one of course.

Regarding 'Star Beast' I saw that and I enjoyed seeing the 10th/14th doctor and Donna interacting again. It was also nice seeing Sylvia and the mention of Kate Stewart looking after Wilf as well.

Of course, I knew some things were gonna happen and the reveal of Meep being evil who I thought cute was kind of surprising itself.

Some people were on the fence about the new functions the sonic screwdriver could do like the wall shield and makeshift computer touchscreen the Doctor used and how they didn't like that it became a get-out-of-jail-free card-making stuff too easy even though we're meant to move with the times and everything.

The other thing was how Donna and Rose were able to just let the meta-crisis leave them which felt like a knock-off when the danger to Donna having had it was so prevalent before.

[Tim]

I liked it.  Granted I pretty much knew how it would play out, since I've read the original comic story that this episode is based on (I own the issues that include it).  However, it was not a straight adaptation, of course.

So, Donna is back.  And they found a way for her to regain her memories of the Doctor without her dying in the process.  Yes, it was a typical RTD deus ex machina, but at least it cannot be used again.

Donna now as a transgender daughter called Rose (originally named Jason).  I didn't mind her, although RTD's whacking us over the head about binary stuff, that I could have done without.

Ah, David Tennant chewing up the scenery.  How I missed that.

In the original comic story, the controlled UNIT solders had black eye.  Here they have glowing eyes which reminded me of Gary Mitchell.

The Meep's engines are shut down, and the damage they caused just repairs itself.  Somehow.

A super new TARDIS interior, and Donna spilling coffee on it causes it to go kerflooey!?

Hopefully, I'll get to see more episodes.  If I do, I'll post about them here.

[Melinda Halliwell]

The coffee spilling was to set up the next episode no doubt.

I also teared up slightly when the Doctor got emotional.

David's good at acting out like that. Made me think of his final outing in his original tenure.

Yasmin Finney is Transgender in real life apparently and had starred on Netflix's Sex Education with Ncuti Gatwa so that would be interesting if her character and Ncuti's Doctor meet of course.

Having a big LBGTQ fanbase Russell wanted to appeal to that which he did with Rose's character although at first when I heard the name I thought Donna was talking about Rose Tyler.

I wonder if Rose was named after her perhaps?

[Tim]

As I said, this episode is an adaption of a 1980 comic story.

In 1984, Marvel Comics launched a Doctor Who monthly comic here in North America (I have all 24 issues).  Star Beast was in the first and second issues.  Here is the cover of the first issue:

At the end of the story, the Doctor picks up a new Companion named Sharon.  She's the young black woman you see on the cover, at the right.  Yep, the comics got there first with providing the Doctor a non-white Companion.