With less than two months to go before the first 60th anniversary special for Doctor Who, the BBC is beginning to ramp up its promo. The three-part event is bringing back David Tennant as the 14th incarnation of the Doctor, with Catherine Tate once again playing his companion Donna Noble, and it all begins with “The Star Beast.”
Borrowing its title from a 1980 comic strip of the same name, Star Beast sees the Doctor and Donna reunite after he previously wiped her memory so she could live a normal. Circumstances force them back together as the Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris)—who BBC notes last faced the Doctor all the way back in 1966—has shown up to wreak havoc on Earth. A number of aliens from the franchise’s past will show up, with the most important of the bunch being the Meeps. The furry creatures are led by their ruler Beep (voiced by Miriam Margolyes), and have a love for conquest that’s hidden by just how gosh darn cute they look.
Unlike earlier previews, Star Beast’s newest trailer lays down pretty much all its cards on the table. Along with highlighting Donna and Meep, there’s appearances from Donna’s daughter Rose Noble (Yasmin Finney) and Jemma Redgrave’s Kate Lethbrige-Stewart, who runs the anti-alien invasion group UNIT. It also ends on a shot of Ncuti Gatwa’s incoming Fifteenth Doctor, though whether this specific special will find a way to incorporate him (or BBC’s continuing to promise that he’s on the way, eventually) is presently uncertain. On the show’s website, showrunner Russell T. Davies teased that November would be “full of Doctor Who surprises, for fans and new viewers alike. Stay alert! This is just the start, as the fever starts to burn.”
Doctor Who: The Star Beast will premiere this November on BBC in the UK and Ireland and Disney+ everywhere else. It’ll later be followed by Wild Blue Yonder (part two) and The Giggle (part three) sometime in the near future.
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