The Star Beast

There is no middle ground in this one - it's either wonderful and inspired, or cheap nostalgia bait and pandering. Sometimes I found myself taken aback from the action, and sometimes I felt like I was watching a kid's show. Sometimes I thought, thank god it's back, and then, only minutes later: Be careful what you wish for.

The new theme song is like someone runs three songs at once and completely forgot that he still wanted to mix the whole thing. Then again, the sound effects are great, a clear improvement even though they were never bad.

The acting of the old guard was great, while the new faces... well, they knew their lines.

And we have a new expert for everything time lord right next to the doctor, River Song and the Master - a teenager who knew of her heritage for all of 30 seconds . And one day writers will remember ways to empower their characters without turning them into single-issue space Jesus , but today was not that day.

Just rewatched a bunch of Doctor Who, including last Donna Noble episodes, so I could have better context

I'm mostly sad. The story is practically non-existent, can be summarised in one paragraph. The monster designs could have been cool and nostalgic and endearing but fell flat in the overall childish simplistic vibe. I know it's a children show, but it always seemed to urge children to aspire to be smarter, rather than served everything on a silver platter.

Ridiculous, lowest grade deus-ex-machina explanations and conclusions. I'll even go as far to say -forced cringe-

The nostalgia served though. Love the comeback of the characters and got too little of the chemistry I was craving and expecting to see again. Can't wait for the next episode with amazing David and Catherine.

While it is good seeing David Tennant's Doctor and my personal favorite companion back together, hearing Murray Gold's beautiful score, and enjoying some wonderfully composed shots from director Rachel Talalay, the episode unfortunately commits many of the missteps I was hoping they would avoid, but suspected they wouldn't. Despite still having a talent for writing excellent prose, and being able to write characters who (mostly) talk like normal people, the writer of this episode was saddled with having to establish a great deal in fifty odd minutes, leading to a quite clunky opener to this anniversary three-parter. This is, of course, excusable. What is less excusable is the treatment of the main character by the other characters. The Doctor, fresh from regenerating from his previous, female self, is openly mocked by several of the supporting characters for no other reason than his gender. While I have no issue with the Doctor having been a woman, and I have no problem with Donna insulting the Doctor to a degree (her argumentative nature being a core part of their prior relationship), the Doctor is made to feel degraded and humiliated for not understanding the frankly unintelligible ending of the story, which is, of course, put down to him being a man instead of a woman.

While the Doctor should never be portrayed as perfect, something most incarnations have no issue with achieving, he should also not be told to his face that he is stupid and it is because of his physical makeup, for the sake of a cheap laugh. The Doctor, after all he has done for the universe, deserves a lot more respect. Apart from that, the general messaging throughout the episode still evokes much of the eye rolling moral-lessons-without-substance-to-cushion-it that pushed many fans away from the franchise during Capaldi's era. While it is not wrong to have messaging, indeed, morals and messages have always been an important part of Doctor Who, the story should never work it so hard as to be inescapable, or integral to the plot. Doctor Who has always been at it's best when the message is secondary to the main story.

To that point, I have hopes that the second episode, without the baggage of reintroductions and establishing, very clearly, it's virtues, will be a better experience. We''ll see if that instinct is correct. Doctor Who has a lot of bad will to overcome from the fanbase, here's hoping there is more to it's supposed "return to form" than some familiar faces and unearned lectures.

I am very so slightly torn on this one and it is that nature of torn that ups this to three star from zero.

On the plus side, I suppose, RTD is back and even at his worst he is a better scriptwriter than Chibnall was. Tennant is nice to see back in the suit, although it is almost remorseful in the way having Indy back in Crystal Skull was.

Yes this is RTD, at his worst. Yes this is Tennant back, for a time, having to star in something that is RTD at his worst.

This is chaotic and stupid and some familiar old faces doesn't make it not be these things.

I was hoping I could start taking pride in being a Whovian again. I can't yet.

Doctor Who has always been a big part of my life, ever since it returned to screens when I was a wee nipper. I've since watched the original show and delved into the world of the novels and audio dramas and despite loving (almost) every second of it, I've always held Russell's era very closely to my hearts. I was both extremely excited and extremely worried about this fresh run of things: would it be able to capture the charm and atmosphere that made the Davies' era so wonderful? Would it feel like a soulless nostalgia grab? So many questions! But I'm glad to report that I LOVED this first episode. It was everything I had hoped for and more! Brilliant effects, wonderful performances, a tight script, music that hits all the right notes... I could go on. I'm not going to spoil it because it's got more twists and turns than a twisty turny thing but you should go and watch it right now! I imagine that I'll be seeing you back here this time next week, so until then, allons-y!