Doctor Who: The Star Beast review – David Tennant is back and gloriously eccentric

The first of three anniversary specials is an unabashed homage to heartwarming 1980s escapism

Warning: this review is also a recap, meaning it contains spoilers for the episode

The Doctor has always had a complicated relationship with time and space, and never has that been truer than in the case of “The Star Beast”, the first of three episodes marking Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary.

It’s a new show starring an old Doctor – David Tennant, who becomes the Tardis’s 10th AND 14th custodian. Meanwhile, as the franchise recovers from the disastrous tenure of Chris Chibnall and forges a new future, it is turning to a past showrunner, Russell T Davies. As if that wasn’t enough to put fans in a spin, “The Star Beast” is an unabashed homage to heartwarming 1980s escapism such as ET – with a thoroughly modern twist on gender identity.

Confused? Tennant seems to be. He emerges boggle-eyed from the Tardis in present-day London at the start of this enjoyably light-weight and wholesomely hokey helping of Who.

Davies would never say so out loud. But he’s clearly trying to undo the damage of the Chibnall era. During that time, Who got caught up in convoluted storylines and viewers fled for the cyber-hills. That back-to-basics strategy comes as a relief after the episode is preceded by a Marvel-type intro. It features Doctors past and present and the word “Whoniverse”. The glitzy flourish is presumably aimed at international fans tuning in via Disney + under a new deal between Broadcasting House and the Mouse House.

As he zigs and zags between the need to rewind from Chibnall and appeal to Disney + subscribers, the obvious temptation for Davies is to mess with the magic of Who. But no. Aside from a slightly tweaked theme tune, his new Who could not be more old school. The storyline is so straightforward that an eight-year-old could grasp it; which is precisely the audience Davies had in mind, as he explained to journalists this week.

The Doctor is also reunited with his beloved sidekick Donna Noble, played by Catherine Tate (BBC)

Yet if uncomplicated, “The Star Beast” never talks down to the viewer. It has lots of action and lashings of intergalactic banter. Plus, there’s a genuine twist halfway through when a key protagonist is revealed to be the opposite of who we thought they were. Shocks are turning into Davies’s forte. When Jodie Whittaker’s 13th Doctor regenerated in January 2022, the expectation was the character would return as the already announced 15th Doctor Ncuti Gatwa. That will happen a little later. The Sex Education actor will make his bows in a Christmas Day special. But until then, the Doctor is back in the capable clutches of the excellent Tennant, who returns to the frontline of time-hopping tea-time telly with a visible spring in his stride.

He’s materialised in Camden just as an alien spaceship whooshes over London. Mysterious forces have summoned the Doctor and reunited him with beloved side-kick Donna Noble (a fantastically caustic Catherine Tate). Whovians will know the Doctor previously wiped Noble’s memory of him. That was to prevent her mind from shattering after she plugged into his brain to defeat baddie Davros. With that part of her consciousness still sealed off, she is puzzled to meet this jittery stick-insect with quizzical eyebrows.

She is accompanied by her daughter Rose (Yasmin Finney), revealed later to be transgender. It isn’t simply a character detail. Rose’s non-binary identity plays a crucial part in an exciting denouement. It involves her mother coming to terms with the Time Lord data dump she downloaded during her earlier adventures (it’s complex – but what do you expect of Doctor Who?)

Rose is a budding artist who specialises in fluffy toys. She is soon playing hostess to an unexpected new furry creature, “the Meep”, who has turned up at her house. Voiced by Miriam Margolyes, the Meep is adorable with tassels on – and it looks like the episode is going to turn into Davies’s love letter to ET.

Davies would never say so out loud. But he’s clearly trying to undo the damage of the Chibnall era. During that time, Who got caught up in convoluted storylines and viewers fled for the cyber-hills

There is some of that. As the Doctor tracks down Noble and the Meep, a duo of insect-like Wrarth Warriors have landed and are apparently using brainwashed soldiers to hunt Rose’s furry chum (Ruth Madeley cameos as a scientist with paranormal military corp, Unit). Then comes that bombshell. The true villain is actually the Meep, whose adorableness is a ruse.

The Doctor uncovers this truth in a fake courtroom sequence, for which he dons a barrister’s wig. Whittaker’s Doctor had many winning attributes: she was funny, gutsy, compassionate and ill-served by some atrocious storylines. But she could not have carried off the zany humour with which Tennant delivers in this scene. He’s hilarious throughout – while also coming to terms with weird new feelings of human warmth (presumably a hangover from Whittaker’s 13th Doctor).

It’s great fun, and you have to feel for Gatwa, who will have his work cut out when he takes over the Tardis. It will be like going on after Freddie Mercury at Glastonbury. Tennant captures the essence of the Doctor. He really does feel like a time-traversing alien trying to pass for a human, and it will be a daunting act to follow. Still, that’s a worry for another day. For now, Who-heads will be relieved and delighted to know that, after the lows of the Chibnall years, the Doctor is back to his eccentric best.

‘The Star Beast’ is out at 6.30pm tonight on BBC One and BBC iPlayer