David Tennant’s Doctor Who Return Is Messy, Dumb, And Beautiful
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I’ll be honest, it’s been a hot minute since I last watched Doctor Who. I was a pretty avid watcher from its reboot in 2005 all the way up to the end of Jodie Whittaker’s first season. The show certainly had its ups and downs, but at its core it was dumb, messy fun that knew not to take itself seriously. And then it changed, just a bit.
I fell out of watching during Whittaker’s era not because I had an issue with her – she was absolutely incredible in the role – but because the writing was just Not It. It was strange, honestly, because I typically quite like then-showrunner Chris Chibnall’s writing on Broadchurch. But somewhere along the way Chibnall broke the cardinal rule of Doctor Who: he started taking it too seriously.
When it was announced that Russell T Davies – the showrunner of the first five seasons of the rebooted Doctor Who – was returning, I had mixed feelings. Davies is a good writer for Doctor Who, but he leans a bit more into the silly side of things and was responsible for the Doctor/Rose relationship, which frankly did not interest me in the slightest.
When I heard that David Tennant was returning as the Doctor, I wasn’t much happier. And Donna too? That’s alarm bells. The two had such a fantastic, fitting ending, such a legacy to uphold, that revisiting the characters and having them interact again was not something I wanted at all. What if it screwed everything up? Ruined the legacy of two incredible characters? It seemed all but certain.
So imagine my surprise when I sat down to watch The Star Beast, the first of three Doctor and Donna specials in 2023, and it was actually good. And not only good, but so good that I actually started crying at one point. Seeing these two titans on my screen, as if no time had passed, as if the Doctor and Donna had always been together, as if it was always meant to be this way, it made me a little bit emotional after a decade of Doctor Who with neither involved.
Donna’s return is probably the most incredible part of this story. Catherine Tate is a remarkable actor, capable of pivoting from almost slapstick-style comedy to the most gut-wrenching emotional beat at the drop of a hat. And she has the most extraordinary chemistry with David Tennant, who plays an older, wiser, and more mature version of his Doctor. The two feel like they’ve been best friends for centuries, and hearing the crack in Tennant’s voice when he says that Donna is his best friend, that he loves her, it absolutely broke me.
The Star Beast treads new ground socially as well, with the introduction of Rose, Donna’s daughter. Donna’s trans daughter, mind you. Being queer myself, I was very worried that this might be done in an awful way, and that the representation would be either far too on-the-nose or barely there. Thankfully, it’s mostly handled gracefully, tenderly, and carefully, in a way I never thought I’d see in any sci-fi series, let alone Doctor Who.
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The episode comes to a climax at the 45-minute mark, when the Doctor is faced with an impossible choice. He could condemn the city of London to fall, killing millions, or he could kill his best friend in the whole universe. Nobody else in the universe would make the Doctor hesitate, he would pick the many over the few every time. But not Donna. He loves her, and he would let millions die to save her.
“You and I can stop this ship,” the Doctor says, “but it will kill you.”
“Okay,” Donna responds, without skipping a beat.
It’s the result of the journeys they had together, of the legacy he left behind in her head and in her heart.
“It’s nine million people,” Donna says, “Who cares about me?”
“I do,” the Doctor responds.
“Why does it have to be this?” he yells at the gods above, heartbroken. And with that, my heart broke too.
If the episode had ended there, I’d have been content. The Doctor saved London, Donna managed to survive against all odds, and everything, every moment, had been perfect. And then Russell T Davies happened, and absolutely crashed the landing in the most bizarre way.
I won’t spoil it, exactly, but Rose’s trans identity being the crux of the solution here is utterly bizarre in just about every imaginable way. There’s some logic to the finer details, but the execution is beyond nonsense. Thinking back on it, I still can’t believe it happened. I have to have dreamed it, I have to have imagined it.
But I didn’t. It’s there, and it’s dumb, and it’s messy as heck. And that’s why I can’t wait to see more of Russell T Davies’ second run of Doctor Who. Because at its core, Doctor Who is dumb, messy fun that knows not to take itself too seriously. And nobody, not Davies, Tennant, Tate, or anyone watching along could ever take that ending seriously.
Good art is supposed to make you feel something. Great art is supposed to make you feel a lot of things. And the range of emotions I felt while watching Doctor Who: The Star Beast – from love and heartbreak to joy and triumph, ending in utter bewilderment – are unlike anything I’ve felt from any show before.
David Tennant is back. Catherine Tate is back. Russell T Davies is back, too. But most importantly, Doctor Who is really freaking back, folks. Warts and all.
