I was in two minds when Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor regenerated into David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor. On the one hand I, like many, adored Tennant’s tenure as the Tenth Doctor between 2005 and 2008 with him potentially being my favourite actor who’s ever had the role. But on the flipside it highlighted just how desperate the BBC were to get Doctor Who back in audience favour following Whittaker’s woeful run. As I state time and time again just to put the Whittaker haters in their place, it wasn’t her fault, and the show’s problems between 2018 and 2022 fell entirely on the shoulders of showrunner Chris Chibnall’s awful writing. But along with the return of Tennant, Russell T. Davies also stepped back into the role of showrunner following his departure from the show in 2009. So, could the man who revived Doctor Who in 2005 and the nations favourite modern Doctor form the epic team-up that the show needed for three sixtieth anniversary episodes? The answer is a most definite yes.
When the TARDIS finds itself drawn back to Earth, The Doctor (David Tennant) runs into his former companion, Donna Noble (Catherine Tate). As the pair reunite, they must reconcile their past and fight for the future of humanity.
When the TARDIS finds itself drawn back to Earth, The Doctor (David Tennant) runs into his former companion, Donna Noble (Catherine Tate). As the pair reunite, they must reconcile their past and fight for the future of humanity.
As there are only three episodes in the Fourteenth Doctor’s series, I’m going to cover each one a bit more specifically than I would in a normal Doctor Who review.
Starting off with ‘The Star Beast’, there’s a lot to love about this reuniting of two fan favourite characters. Personally, I was never much of a Donna fan. I find Tate insufferably annoying, and the Donna character just plays into the comedian’s worst traits of just being loud and obnoxious…however, I have to say that time has aged Donna Noble like a fine wine and perhaps she’s just calmed down a bit in her more mature years, but Tate was able to flex her dramatic muscles much more in these three episodes as she’s given some really decent dramatic material to work with and never falls back into that trap of being the loud and obnoxious sidekick.
The last time we saw Donna was in the 2010 New Years Day Special, ‘The End of Time’, where in order to save her life The Doctor erased her memory of everything he had shown her, and the possibility of her unlocking those memories might be enough to kill her. So, setting the stage with a Donna who doesn’t know The Doctor, and him terrified that he’s going to kill her if he gives anything away is a great setup for the episode. The story concerns itself with a creature called The Meep (Cecily Fay) that’s being hunted by a race called the Wrarth’s, who the Meep claims are trying to steal its fur.
The episode focuses a lot on perception. Most obviously with the Meep which is most excellently transformed into the episode’s villain, but also with Donna’s daughter, Rose (Yasmin Finney). Finney has made a name for herself in recent years in the LGBTQ+ sphere for her openness about her tansexuality. This subject matter permeates quite heavily into this episode and I’m not the biggest fan of how Davies approached it. It’s great to see a show as big as Doctor Who tackling these current social stigmas, but the way in which the episode handled it was not the most discrete, and following Davies’ work on some of the biggest and most beloved LGBTQ+ shows of the last decade I had hoped for more than what we got. It really does just amount to a lecture on pronouns for the most part, and I say lecture, because it comes across as that. It’s not organic, and the dialogue itself is very clunky. It reads like a series of cue cards made by a trans rights activist, rather than conversations between real people.
Then comes the ending which is quite literally resolved by Donna and Rose because they’re women, and it’s explained that only women are capable of solving the problem because men can’t possibly think like a woman does. At the fear of sounding like an incel, I did genuinely fear that Doctor Who had gone ‘woke’. I love that for sixty years Doctor Who has been pushing boundaries about sexuality, gender, and diversity in its storylines, but this felt like a handful of Chibnall’s rejected scenes got put into the episode because they needed to fill the runtime. It was nothing more than lip service to the trans community and feminists, and I expect better. That being said, the episode as a whole was enjoyable, and those moments didn’t ruin the whole thing.
Starting off with ‘The Star Beast’, there’s a lot to love about this reuniting of two fan favourite characters. Personally, I was never much of a Donna fan. I find Tate insufferably annoying, and the Donna character just plays into the comedian’s worst traits of just being loud and obnoxious…however, I have to say that time has aged Donna Noble like a fine wine and perhaps she’s just calmed down a bit in her more mature years, but Tate was able to flex her dramatic muscles much more in these three episodes as she’s given some really decent dramatic material to work with and never falls back into that trap of being the loud and obnoxious sidekick.
The last time we saw Donna was in the 2010 New Years Day Special, ‘The End of Time’, where in order to save her life The Doctor erased her memory of everything he had shown her, and the possibility of her unlocking those memories might be enough to kill her. So, setting the stage with a Donna who doesn’t know The Doctor, and him terrified that he’s going to kill her if he gives anything away is a great setup for the episode. The story concerns itself with a creature called The Meep (Cecily Fay) that’s being hunted by a race called the Wrarth’s, who the Meep claims are trying to steal its fur.
The episode focuses a lot on perception. Most obviously with the Meep which is most excellently transformed into the episode’s villain, but also with Donna’s daughter, Rose (Yasmin Finney). Finney has made a name for herself in recent years in the LGBTQ+ sphere for her openness about her tansexuality. This subject matter permeates quite heavily into this episode and I’m not the biggest fan of how Davies approached it. It’s great to see a show as big as Doctor Who tackling these current social stigmas, but the way in which the episode handled it was not the most discrete, and following Davies’ work on some of the biggest and most beloved LGBTQ+ shows of the last decade I had hoped for more than what we got. It really does just amount to a lecture on pronouns for the most part, and I say lecture, because it comes across as that. It’s not organic, and the dialogue itself is very clunky. It reads like a series of cue cards made by a trans rights activist, rather than conversations between real people.
Then comes the ending which is quite literally resolved by Donna and Rose because they’re women, and it’s explained that only women are capable of solving the problem because men can’t possibly think like a woman does. At the fear of sounding like an incel, I did genuinely fear that Doctor Who had gone ‘woke’. I love that for sixty years Doctor Who has been pushing boundaries about sexuality, gender, and diversity in its storylines, but this felt like a handful of Chibnall’s rejected scenes got put into the episode because they needed to fill the runtime. It was nothing more than lip service to the trans community and feminists, and I expect better. That being said, the episode as a whole was enjoyable, and those moments didn’t ruin the whole thing.
‘Wild Blue Yonder’ might just be one of my favourite episodes of Doctor Who of all time. After Donna remembers The Doctor and saves Earth from the Meep they go on their first new adventure, accidentally ending up at the edge of the universe. When the TARDIS detects a severe threat aboard the abandoned spaceship it takes off and strands The Doctor and Donna aboard. With their only company being a robot slowly moving down a hallway, and the computer’s last record being an airlock opening and closing three years prior, The Doctor and Donna find themselves fighting against…well, themselves.
This episode felt like a cross between Event Horizon and The Thing. Being stuck on an abandoned spaceship at the edge of known space and the only other thing on the spaceship is another version of yourself. Honestly, this is peak Doctor Who, and some of the best writing the show has had since it was brought back on the air in 2005.
This episode spends so much time dissecting the relationship between Donna and The Doctor, overcoming the trauma they share from having to part ways all those years ago. Meanwhile they need to understand what’s happening with the ship as it seems to transform around them, as well as escape their doppelgangers that grow smarter the more they talk to them.
I always remember my mum telling me about how she’d hide behind the sofa when Doctor Who came on when she was a little girl because it was scary, and for the first time in the show’s history I had moments where I didn’t feel entirely safe watching the episode on my own. Obviously, I knew that this was a family show on Saturday night primetime, so nothing was going to get too crazy. But it definitely creeped me out a hell of a lot.
There was also a touching farewell to Doctor Who veteran Bernard Cribbins who showed up for a brief appearance at the end of the episode. I was surprised to see him because I didn’t realise the episode was filmed before his death earlier this year, but he gets a decent send-off here and it poignantly wrapped up a practically perfect episode.
The final episode, ‘The Giggle’ was also generally strong, and saw the return of one of The Doctor’s most fearsome villains for the first time since the 2005 revival, The Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris). Following their return to an Earth that seems to have gone crazy, The Doctor and Donna must find the source of a transmission that has humanity quite literally killing itself. Having crossed into our reality from beyond the edge of the universe, The Toymaker seeks a rematch with The Doctor who beat him at a game years ago.
I’d argue this was the weakest of the three episodes, but it was still generally pretty good on the whole. It felt like typical Doctor Who fare of a crazy alien that was to destroy the world, but the hook here was Harris’ eccentric performance. I really do love the range this guy has and here he gets to explore both comedic and dramatic sides to a character whilst also being incredibly playful and campy. They Toymaker’s lair was my favourite part of the episode, a series of corridors that lead nowhere whilst he can manipulate them like a God.
Audiences are also introduced to the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatawa) in the episode’s climactic finale, and he shows us what he has in store for his take on the character which I enjoyed for the limited time he was on screen for.
This episode felt like a cross between Event Horizon and The Thing. Being stuck on an abandoned spaceship at the edge of known space and the only other thing on the spaceship is another version of yourself. Honestly, this is peak Doctor Who, and some of the best writing the show has had since it was brought back on the air in 2005.
This episode spends so much time dissecting the relationship between Donna and The Doctor, overcoming the trauma they share from having to part ways all those years ago. Meanwhile they need to understand what’s happening with the ship as it seems to transform around them, as well as escape their doppelgangers that grow smarter the more they talk to them.
I always remember my mum telling me about how she’d hide behind the sofa when Doctor Who came on when she was a little girl because it was scary, and for the first time in the show’s history I had moments where I didn’t feel entirely safe watching the episode on my own. Obviously, I knew that this was a family show on Saturday night primetime, so nothing was going to get too crazy. But it definitely creeped me out a hell of a lot.
There was also a touching farewell to Doctor Who veteran Bernard Cribbins who showed up for a brief appearance at the end of the episode. I was surprised to see him because I didn’t realise the episode was filmed before his death earlier this year, but he gets a decent send-off here and it poignantly wrapped up a practically perfect episode.
The final episode, ‘The Giggle’ was also generally strong, and saw the return of one of The Doctor’s most fearsome villains for the first time since the 2005 revival, The Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris). Following their return to an Earth that seems to have gone crazy, The Doctor and Donna must find the source of a transmission that has humanity quite literally killing itself. Having crossed into our reality from beyond the edge of the universe, The Toymaker seeks a rematch with The Doctor who beat him at a game years ago.
I’d argue this was the weakest of the three episodes, but it was still generally pretty good on the whole. It felt like typical Doctor Who fare of a crazy alien that was to destroy the world, but the hook here was Harris’ eccentric performance. I really do love the range this guy has and here he gets to explore both comedic and dramatic sides to a character whilst also being incredibly playful and campy. They Toymaker’s lair was my favourite part of the episode, a series of corridors that lead nowhere whilst he can manipulate them like a God.
Audiences are also introduced to the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatawa) in the episode’s climactic finale, and he shows us what he has in store for his take on the character which I enjoyed for the limited time he was on screen for.
I think the biggest issue I have with these sixtieth anniversary specials is that Fourteen and Ten are the same Doctor, and there seemed to be a big question as to how and why. I don’t expect Doctor Who to ever answer all my questions, but to answer the why would have been nice. The way that Fourteen and Donna open up to each other and discuss the traumatic experiences they’ve both endured made it seem like Fourteen’s purpose was to finish something Ten started. The Star Beast and Wild Blue Yonder seem to hit towards this quite a lot, but it’s dropped entirely for The Giggle and so when Fourteen leaves us once again it feels like Davies dangled a carrot in front of audiences only to pull it away the moment we went to bite it.
I won’t deny that these three specials are among the best episodes Doctor Who has had in a decade, and in the case of Wild Blue Yonder since the show was revived almost twenty years ago. It’s brilliant seeing Tennant back as The Doctor and he always has so much fun with it. I also appreciated the way that Tate grew the character of Donna and how her acting has improved drastically since her debut in the mid 00’s. I’m also feeling hopeful about the future of the show with Davies back in the showrunner seat, and Gatawa’s brief stint in the end of The Giggle was definitely enjoyable so it seems like the show is in good hands going forward. Here’s hoping that the next few years of adventures in time and space are as high quality as these anniversary specials.
I won’t deny that these three specials are among the best episodes Doctor Who has had in a decade, and in the case of Wild Blue Yonder since the show was revived almost twenty years ago. It’s brilliant seeing Tennant back as The Doctor and he always has so much fun with it. I also appreciated the way that Tate grew the character of Donna and how her acting has improved drastically since her debut in the mid 00’s. I’m also feeling hopeful about the future of the show with Davies back in the showrunner seat, and Gatawa’s brief stint in the end of The Giggle was definitely enjoyable so it seems like the show is in good hands going forward. Here’s hoping that the next few years of adventures in time and space are as high quality as these anniversary specials.