It’s FINALLY time for another Doctor Who episode! After a long wait, The Star Beast brings Doctor Who back with a bang, but what did I think about it?
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I think that the Star Beast wasn't the greatest episode, but I'm just going to be optimistic for the next episodes
“You would understand if you were still a woman” and “male presenting Time Lord” is probably are the silliest things RTD has written for Doctor Who back to back. These lines directly contradict each other but whatever. Jack for instance was bisexual, but not every scene was about how amazingly bisexual he is, have some subtlety. Good grief
I am seriously devastated by how bad this episode was on most fronts. The dialogue was bad, every single new character was bland, it was embarrassingly woke, and the metacrisis was practically swept under the rug. The visuals looked great though! I hope it improves, I really do
You guys are making me STILL not want to pay for Disney 😐
I felt it could've been more. the episode kept jumping around never addressing each character's story like what has the nobles been up to since "end of time" i also didn't like how and maybe it's the change but i felt like the camera wasn't in single shots like it was over looking detail for instance – look how they shot scenes in 2005 to how they started shooting scene from series 11 onwards idk i just don't like it i'd rather have focused scenes like real cinemagraphric shots close up without jumping around all the time. the costumes are a bit of an improvement from the previous series with Jodie Whittakers run but it still looks… fake. you can tell when something is too try hard that it looks fake and that is what i see in this episode, sorry. the writing felt bland like something out of bbc programme – ghosts. i was hoping for thrill and more depth but felt like the story was pulling us into this long antics with this meep thing. I wish they did more with Donna and i think everyone else would agree that they thought there would be more considering how big this was supposed to be with David Tennant reprising his role as the doctor again with the nobles. how can something so creative and entertaining like journey's end compare to this episode. i'm giving it my honest rate 5/10
Things need to be simplified in terms of story here; technically we have a new doctor and an old companion which in itself could satisfy 60 minutes of runtime but we also have a “new” enemy and other “new” aliens (I’m not an expanded media person but I know Beep the Meep is not technically new, just for TV), we also are resolving plot lines from 2008 and also simultaneously trying to solve problems introduced in this episode. There’s too much and the episode suffers for it; felt like narrative whiplash at times and I expected a little more patience if I’m honest.
Plus I was watching the Doctor/Donna scene in the ship when they’re divided and I said, out loud, “I hope this doesn’t turn into some RTD deus ex machina situation” and then Donna blasted time lord energy out of her hands as if I was being mocked.
As far as the ending, I’m not mad or annoyed about how they went about hand-waving everything, with the not so subtle dialogue, the Disney ending, etc., I’m mad that they went the hand-waving route in the first place. Like all resurrections and the like it takes the sting out of Series 4 because now we know Donna can just get out of it with a few lines of corny dialogue and some magic space dust 5/10 😅
It was a great opening episode to this new era of DW.
People gonna act like they watch DW for the plot and complain about Donna and Rose's time energy shenanigans, and true that was weird, but DW has always been weird and fun.
Rose and Donna: "You wouldn't get it, you're not a woman."
Doctor: "I LITERALLY was one less than twenty four hours ago!"
My one major critique is Rose Noble should not have been written as a fifteen year old. I know sometimes older actresses are hired to play teenagers, but she does not look like a teenager at all. Rose Tyler looked younger than Rose Noble and Rose Tyler was meant to be early twenties at the start of the series.
And yes I get it they wanted to align the timelines to the show, but you could have made the Doctor land in 2028.
Incredibly lazy writing and the male bashing was so unnecessary. With how tone deaf davis was with davros and now this. Im sorry but jesus that writing
Donna saying the doctor wouldn't understand because he's a man made no sense. Did the writer's forget the doctor was a woman twice?
I really adored this episode, but I gotta say it is pure thriller. Like, I loved it, but there is quite a lot of nostalgia bait.
On the topic of queer representation, it was certainly an attempt.
I hated the line about “men will never understand” or smth like that. Why would you propagate those men stereotypes instead of working against them??
As a nonbinary doctor who fan i loved it, sure the nonbinary part is ridiculous but I quite like doctor who being more comedic and whimsical
I'm hoping with the tardis it's going to be similar to the 11th second tardis where the next doctor will fill it out with furniture.
Theres no chairs in the TARDIS 🙁
Perfectly said, it’s a nice way to get the ball rolling. The show’s never looked better or sounded better. There was stuff that rubbed me the wrong way again due to my values but it’s a great return to form and these actors slip right back into their roles so well. I’d say a 7/10
For me I'd say-
Ups-
Seeing the characters again
Beep the meep
The story as a whole
The comedy
The tardis interior
David tennant and catherine tate
Downs-
The over wokeness
Hammered in message
Felt very rushed
Too much action
Not enough explanation
The acting felt a little off
No tease for other specials
Kinda underwhelming (for me)
I definitely enjoyed even if without these problems and I'm still not losing help, better then anything from the last 5 years!
I am queer and I love the fact that rose is trans. but the ending just didn't sit well with me. it didn't feel like good writing and I just cringed a bit
the sonic i felt was just too powerful. i kept on thinking the sonic was going to be destroyed because i felt like it was getting so powerful it had to go. but it just didn't and i think its just a bit much. it would be cool to see less of the sonic in the future and really allow the doctor to use their brain more and be creative
Later seasons of doctor who confidential we’re about the same length as an episode so unleashed is slower, but the earlier seasons of confidential were the same length.
I'm perfectly fine with this episode. Yes, it was very heavy handed, but I'm pretty sure that was to draw out the "I'll watch DW again now that it's a man again" folks and make it clear it's not for them, that they're not welcome back. This was a good episode to start my kid on, and a partner who's never really watched DW before, and that's really what i was hoping for. That and nothing blatantly transphobic, honestly, given how poorly trans ish is handled in so much of mass media.
I'm non-binary and the ending was contrived af, but it's hand wavy silliness to wrap up the metacrisis issue without getting too into the weeds. I do wish they'd left it as "the energy was passed down to Donna's daughter, who is time lord-ish now, which influenced her personality a bit."
I love the Meep so much 😂
When Donna was talking about how the doctor can have friends now and you could see the sadness in the doctors face, I’d like to believe this was deliberate to acknowledge Clara, who was his best friend, as well as bill and rose and Amy and Rory and the fam, and all his friends that he lost the last 3 regenerations. Because he did have proper friends after Donna and would go and have tea and dinner etc..
I fully didn't realise rose was trans, her arc of not fitting in makes a lot more sense to me now
Over all I enjoyed the episode, was great seeing the old cast together, I didn't expect the Meep reveal, and I liked to see enby representation, although I wish it wasn't as ham-fisted into the plot as it was, it definitely felt forced, and the whole "women can just let it go" thing was pretty embarrassing. Still looking forward to the next ones.
The new Sonic is a great example of show-dont-tell. The doctor could have just scanned the ship for 20 seconds and them verbalises "this is what i found." But now we get a display showing info graphics about the ship, from which we are shown ideas of interest. The screen is a natural and mordern upgrade and does a lot for delivering info in a new aand frrsh way.
The shields are also a natural extension. Finally we have a new way the heros can interact win combat, except for "run away." They have a non-combat alternative, and thats exciting to me
Sure, these ould be a different device. But honestly, why kot the screwdriver? Its already suitably advance and high sci-fi, so it fits. Its abilities have always reflected the modern day's technology, and this felt perfectly in place
"cant a shed just be a shed?" — but that same argument, why couldn't the memories be passed down? Is it seriously, genuinely an issue that? Like, is it something that needed to be complained about? So what if the memories were passed down? We have fucking spaceships and time travel, so biology magic fits right in. Plus it really fits that this mega powerful energy of the metacrisis, when shared down biologically to lessen the burden, will carry memories. It was literally memories that were locked away! Its all about memories! What else is the doctordonna if not memories! So Rose gaining residual memories is her taking on part of the power
I didn't like the opening, they should've subtely revealed the history between donna and the doctor throughout the episode. I absolutely loved the scene of the tardis landing and the doctor walking in that alley and I think that should've been the opener. The Doctor saying what a bunch when donna was shouting rose was a bit too dramatic and a lot more of those moments were scattered across the episode. I think the payoff for the whole donna situation was lackluster and the build up for the meep reveal was lacking as well. Overall it had some decent comedy but it seems most people enjoyed this episode a lot more than I did