'The Star Beast' (Story Code 13.10) by Russell T Davies

“No such things as spaceships? We’ve got a bloody Martian in the shed!” – Donna Noble

The TARDIS takes the Doctor to Camden Lock, where to his astonishment - and consternation - he bumps into his former companion, Donna Noble, who is out shopping with her daughter, Rose. The reunion is interrupted by the arrival of a spaceship, which blazes a fiery trail across the sky before crashing to earth. The coincidences continue as the Doctor grabs a lift from a nearby cab, which is driven by Donna’s husband, Sean Temple; enroute to the spaceship’s crash site, the Doctor learns that the lottery win he arranged for Donna was only used to buy a new house, as Donna insisted on giving £166 million to charity. The Doctor and Sean arrive at a steelworks, where UNIT forces are already in attendance. The Doctor easily sneaks in with the aid of his sonic screwdriver, and notes how the ship didn’t actually crash, it was parked… Arriving at home, Rose ignores the taunts from cruel local boys, who call her by her former name of Jason. While Rose takes her handicraft stuff to her shed, Donna talks to her mother, Sylvia, about the gap in her memory from fifteen years ago; fearful that if her daughter ever remembered the Doctor she would literally die, Sylvia changes the subject. Rose is visited by her friend Fudge, who tells of an escape pod that landed on the common; they go to investigate, but the area is attended by the police, and the pod is empty. Returning home through an alleyway, Rose meets the escape pod’s occupant hiding behind some rubbish sacks: a small, cute, fluffy alien that calls itself ‘The Meep’, who is on the run from monsters… Elsewhere, Fudge flees from two tall, insectoid creatures who are hunting the Meep… While pondering the puzzle of the parked spaceship, which has damage that could only have been inflicted by another vessel, the Doctor meets UNIT’s latest Scientific Advisor, Shirley Anne Bingham. After explaining how his latest incarnation is wearing an old face, the Doctor ruminates on how the universe is once again turning around Donna, and worries that his return may kill her. After the Doctor sneaks a lift in the back of a UNIT truck, Shirley sends a team of soldiers to investigate a new signal emanating from the spaceship. The troops use a key-pulse gadget to gain access to the ship’s nosecone, but a strange energy emerges from within, which takes over the solders’ minds… Rose takes the Meep to her garden shed, hiding the creature amongst her handmade fluffy toys when Donna barges in; Donna is impressed by Rose’s handiwork - until she realises the alien is alive. The Doctor’s truck draws up in the street outside, and the UNIT troops begin searching houses. Heading straight for Donna’s, the Doctor receives a cold welcome from Sylvia, then comes face-to-face with the Meep, who is now in the Nobles’ kitchen. On the common, the possessed UNIT troops seize the escape pod from the UNIT team stationed there. Examining the Meep, the Doctor evades Donna’s awkward questions, and learns how her grandfather, Wilf, is being looked after by UNIT in sheltered accommodation. As the Meep warns that he is being hunted by more aliens called Wrarth Warriors, the possessed UNIT troops break down the front door, just as Wrath Warriors blow up the back wall of the house. A battle quickly ensues in the Nobles’ hallway. Using his sonic screwdriver the Doctor creates two force walls, which he uses to block the gunfire so that everyone can escape upstairs. Unfortunately, the Wrarth Warriors start flying, and they blow a hole in the first-floor wall. Outside, the battle escalates as more UNIT troops and Wrath Warriors converge on the Nobles’ home, and come under attack from the possessed troops. Reaching the loft, the Doctor uses his sonic to resonate the mortar holding the wall together, allowing them to cross into next door; they work their way along the terrace, finally emerging from the end house, behind the battle. As they bundle into Sean’s cab, the gang are spotted by Wrarth Warriors, who open fire on the car as it speeds away… Hiding in a car park, the Doctor considers how their escape may not have been as simple as it appeared; donning a judge’s wig, he intercepts the Wrarth Warriors’ teleport and then invokes the Shadow Proclamation to hold an inquiry. When the Doctor points out that no soldiers were killed and the cab is undamaged, the warriors explain that their weapons are stun guns – they are police officers charged with bringing in the Meep. It transpires that the planet of the Meeps had a living sun, which went mad; the resulting psychedelic radiation turned the cute aliens into homicidal maniacs, and in the ensuing war with the Wrath Warriors, Meepkind chose to die rather than surrender; only their leader remains at large: the Meep. Its cover blown, the Meep pulls a gun and kills the Wrath Warriors, just as its mind-controlled UNIT troops arrive on the scene. The Doctor manages to convince the Meep into taking him and his friends hostage, then gets knocked out by a soldier… The Doctor awakes in the back of a UNIT truck, where he faces a very angry Donna, suspicious of how her mum and husband know more that they are letting on. They arrive at the steelworks, where the possessed soldiers and workers are busy fixing the Meep’s ship. The fluffy maniac arrives, sitting on a metal throne carried by his minions; the Meep is looking forward to continuing its reign of terror, and doesn’t care that the launch of its ship will destroy London. As the Doctor and his friends are taken up to the Meep’s ship, their guards are subdued by Shirley, whose wheelchair fires tranquiliser darts. While Shirley helps deal with the invaders, Donna bustles Rose, Sean, and Sylvia to safety, then follows the Doctor to help him save the city. It’s clear that Donna is starting to remember her hidden past… Inside the spaceship, the Doctor works frantically to deactivate the Dagger Drive; but from his place in the ship’s nosecone, the Meep deadlocks the controls, forcing the Doctor to abandon his sonic and work by hand. This works until a transparent panel falls, separating the Doctor from half the instruments. Then the Dagger Drive activates, sending huge lava-filled cracks snaking through the ground around the steelworks, and then the surrounding streets. The Doctor realises he only has one course of action to save Earth - and despite hearing that it will kill her, Donna bravely steps up. The Doctor repeats a code phrase that restores Donna’s memory; this then triggers a blast of golden artron energy from Donna’s body. Back to her old self, Donna immediately starts sabotaging her half of the controls, while the Doctor works on his. They are just in time: by reversing the ignition the drive deactivates; the cracks in the earth seal up, saving London. As Donna collapses in the Doctor’s arms, the Meep’s troops surround them at gunpoint; but before they can carry out the Meep’s kill order, the troops’ minds are freed - and then Donna recovers. The Doctor deduces that Donna’s metacrisis energy passed to Rose earlier, and her daughter used the ‘DoctorDonna’s knowledge to reprogramme the Meep’s ship! Donna realises that her memories were passed down to Rose too: the shed is her daughter’s ‘TARDIS’, her toys versions of the aliens Donna met, and the ‘DoctorDonna’ was reflected in Rose’s choice to be non-binary. Joining Rose at the control bank, the Doctor ejects the Meep from the nosecone, leaving it to parachute into the hands of the UNIT soldiers… A while later, the Wrath Warriors teleport away with the Meep, who faces ten-thousand years imprisonment. Donna and Rose decide to let go of their artron energy, which disperses into the air around them. Sean drives everyone back to the TARDIS, where the Doctor offers Donna one last trip, suggesting they go see Wilf again. Against Sylvia’s wishes, Donna agrees, and together she and the Doctor step inside the Police Box - only to gaze in awe at the ship’s massive new interior, created by the extra arton energy. As they marvel at their gorgeous surroundings, the Doctor makes Donna a coffee - which she promptly spills. As the console explodes, the ship goes wildly out of control…


David Tennant (The Doctor), Catherine Tate (Donna Noble), Yasmin Finney (Rose Noble), Karl Collins (Shaun Temple), Matt Green (BBC Reporter), Jamie Cho (Colonel Chan), Ruth Madeley (Shirley Anne Bingham), Harley McEvilly (Lad 1), Max Fincham (Lad 2), Jacqueline King (Sylvia Noble), Dara Lall (Fudge Merchandani), Cecily Fay (The Meep), Brian Herring (Meep Animatronics), Phil Woodfine (Meep Animatronics), Robert Strange (Wrarth Warrior 1), Stephen Love (Wrarth Warrior 2), Jordan Benjamin (Wrarth Warrior 3), Vassili Psaltopoulos (Wrarth Warrior 4), Isabella Carey (Soldier), Ronak Patani (Major Singh), Ned Porteous (Voice of Zogroth), John Hopkinson (Voice of Zreeg), Anna Martine Freeman (Chief Technician), Archie Backhouse (Sergeant), Miriam Margolyes (Voice of the Meep)

Directed by Rachel Talalay

Produced by Vicki Delow
Executive Producers Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins and Phil Collinson
A Bad Wolf / BBC Studios production

TX (BBC 1 & BBC 1 HD):
25th November 2023 @ 6.30 pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna, and introducing Shirley Bingham

*This is the first of the 60th anniversary specials, and is sixty minutes long

*It was also made available in Ultra-High Definition (UHD) on the BBC's iPlayer, and streamed on Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland on the same day

*This episode introduced a new arrangement of the 'Doctor Who' theme tune, new opening titles and a new end credit sequence

*The story is based on a classic comic strip from 'Doctor Who Weekly' issues 19-26, published 14th February to 3rd April 1980, written by Pat Mills and John Wagner, and illustrated by Dave Gibbons