“Doctor Who: The Star Beast” Review
Vintage stuff, with a little twist or two!
Warning! Spoilers ahead!
It is very fair to say that the Chibnall era of Doctor Who was a dead loss. He had the first female Doctor, portrayed by one of the best actors around, then he buried her in a heap of one-dimensional companions and tedious, clunkingly didactic scripts. Having done that, he proceeded to explode over 50 years of lore and then demolish most of the Galaxy in a fit of pique! As you do.
With the franchise hanging by a thread, two things happened which might just save it yet. One is the BBCs’ deal with Disney+, giving the latter full international distribution rights via its streaming service and adding a susbstantial increase to the programmes’ budgets. The second, and arguably the most important, is the return of Russell T Davies as showrunner.
Davies, of course, masterminded Doctor Whos’ return to the screen in 2005 and was responsible, along with two Doctors, Christopher Ecclestone and David Tennant, for transforming this Saturday tea-time British National Treasure into an international hit (not quite on the level of The Great British Bake-Off/Baking Show, but without the soggy bottoms). Davies had been an estabished writer and producer of both childrens’ and adult drama when he took on Doctor Who, and he continued…
