Dr Who: The Star Beast

[Jim_Campbell]

An anniversary Dr Who special? Based on comic by Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons...? And there's no thread for it? Jeez... they'll come round and take your geek cards away, folks!

Anyway... I enjoyed that. A whisker short of an hour, and zips along at a decent pace. Meep, the spaceship, the Wrarth, are rendered with remarkable fidelity to Gibbons' original designs and the plot maintains the broad strokes of Mills' story.

I suspect a big part of the success (or not) for the viewer will be how one takes (or not) to Catherine Tate. I've never particularly cared for her, but I always liked Donna as a companion, not least because it finally took out the unwelcome romance aspect between the Doctor and his companion, so I really enjoyed seeing Tennant and Tate back.

I'm sure there are gammon all over the internet losing their shit about the non-binary/transgender representation in the story but, hey, I'm OK with that. 

It was great fun, and I'm very much looking forward to next week's special.

[Radbacker]

Just watched it on Disney+
Weird use to watching on ABC.  I enjoyed it, good to see Tenant and Tate back.  Looked like it had some decent $ spent on it, putting that Disney money to good use.  Not read the original Mills story which Doctor was it.  Looking forward to story 2 now we got the reintroduction out of the way.

CU Radbacker

[Le Fink]

It's good! Nice to see Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons in the follow-up Unleashed program. I liked the Tennant-Tate pair up in the first place, they do seem to be enjoying themselves if the behind-the-scenes stuff is to be believed. I stopped watching during the Matt Smith era, which got too convoluted for me, and didn't manage to catch any of Jodie Whittaker's. They keep asking during the show why the Doctor's come back with his old face... well it got me watching again!

[Richard]

I stopped watching during the Matt Smith era

You should watch Peter Capaldi's final year, it got much better then.

[nxylas]

I'm sure there are gammon all over the internet losing their shit about the non-binary/transgender representation in the story but, hey, I'm OK with that. 

DOctor Who has been committed to diversity since at least 2005, when it first returned, but I thought it felt less forced and more true-to-life than it often did in the Chibnall era, apart from that slightly weird line about the "male-presenting Doctor". Did Donna even know about his regeneration into Jodie at that point?

[Richard]

Not read the original Mills story which Doctor was it.

It was around 1982 according to Mills (in one of the emails he sent to his subscribers recently, an excerpt from his forthcoming Pageturners book), when Peter Davison was the Doctor.

This was just a tv script, not a published story.

[Le Fink]

I stopped watching during the Matt Smith era

You should watch Peter Capaldi's final year, it got much better then.

Ack, completely forgot about his stint. Thanks! Just shows how little attention I've been paying.

[Jim_Campbell]

It was around 1982 according to Mills (in one of the emails he sent to his subscribers recently, an excerpt from his forthcoming Pageturners book), when Peter Davison was the Doctor.

This was just a tv script, not a published story.

Star Beast...? That's definitely not correct — the story was published in Marvel UK's Dr Who Weekly in 1980, featuring Tom Baker as the Doctor, with Dave Gibbons providing the art. Script is credited to Mills & Wagner, but John and Pat wrote all their stories separately for those early Dr Who issues. (John has said he was contacted by the BBC about this specific episode but declined the credit (and money) because he wasn't involved with the story at all.)

There might be some confusion because a quick google suggests that the story was originally a Mills/Wagner pitch for the actual TV series, but it didn't go anywhere.

But, regardless, it was definitely a published fourth Doctor story in the weekly comic.

[Jim_Campbell]

You should watch Peter Capaldi's final year, it got much better then.

I quite liked Capaldi's first season — his spiky and decidely alien Doctor was a pleasant departure from the cuddliness of Tennant and Smith. I loathed the 'cool uncle' iteration of Capaldi's second season, but his professorial turn in his third, coupled with the surprisingly effective dynamic with Bill and Nardole, was genuinely great. I would happily have watched a couple more seasons of that, TBH.

[nxylas]

Not read the original Mills story which Doctor was it.

It was around 1982 according to Mills (in one of the emails he sent to his subscribers recently, an excerpt from his forthcoming Pageturners book), when Peter Davison was the Doctor.

This was just a tv script, not a published story.

I suspect you may be thinking of Song of the Space Whale, which started life as a Tom Baker story, later becoming a Peter Davison story, then a Colin Baker one before finally being recorded by Big Finish starring Colin.

[Richard]

Thank you both for the correction!

[Leigh S]

My understanding from memory is that Wagner and Mills had worked up a pitch to the Beeb with those Early WDr Who Weekly stories in the late 70s, which were rejected (as too unfilmable?), but there was enough interest for them to ask Mills for more pitches, hence the Space Whale? 

Dez Skinn, upon hearing that Mills and Wagner had some unused Who stuff approached them to do the comic strip for the Weekly

[IndigoPrime]

Enjoyed it. The thing zipped along. Didn't lag. Didn't feel full of logic holes. But that the hell was going on in the credits music? Sounds like a choking raspy frog throughout. Oh well. I liked the rest of it.

[broodblik]

Not a good start for me I found the story quite dull but the biggest problem with the overall story was that their was no tension. The other problem is that I just do not like the companions/side characters which form an important part of the Doctor. This problem for me was running back to Capaldi's Doctor. Apparently Catherine Tate played one of the doctor's companions we could  not remember her at all and I think the problem here was that from Tenants days are that after Rose I just didn't find here compelling or interesting enough. I will see the last two specials but not sure if I want to continue with the Doctor.

[Colin YNWA]

It was pretty good and used Mills + Gibbons story to support the theme of the episode really well. Better than a lot of recent Who, but not as good as I hoped. Though fair to say I was pretty hyped for this one so it had a lot of work to do.

But again with the annoying sweeping score!