Doctor Who 2023 Special 1: “The Star Beast” FULL REACTION
Added 2023-11-26 15:05:50 +0000 UTC
Oh boy…I mean girl…I mean…🤪
Streamable LINK:https://streamable.com/9nhlql
Google Drive LINK: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ikOUYa4wYe_HIBAQF0zsQYJuf9osAlVv/view?usp=drivesdk
Comments
Awesome reaction! Can’t wait to see the next special, love Donna and the doctor so much. Will you be continuing Sarah Jane Adventures? 💖
turtle turtle
2023-12-01 16:40:49 +0000 UTCThis story was fun for the most part. But now let's delve into some negatives as there are some issues. Regarding Yaz Finney's acting, I completely agree with you lmao. Unfortunately, she was the weakest actress in this story. I feel like she was too wooden for the most part. There are some small parts where she's actually okay but even in moments where she's supposed to be afraid or scream, she's just too wooden and stilted. It was very noticeable when you put her alongside Tennant and Tate. I've not seen her work on Heartstopper as I haven't watched that show so I can't comment on that myself. But I still can take your word for it based on what we've seen here. From what I understand, she's still quite new to acting and unfortunately it really shows in this episode lol. Bless her though. Hopefully she'll get better in time. She's still lovely. I watched Doctor Who Unleashed (behind the scenes) after this episode and it was nice to see her talk about the trans rep in this episode. When Donna mentioned Rose being a bad actress in her school play, it was kinda funny because at the back of my mind, I was being critical of Yaz's acting in this episode and when Donna said that about Rose, I couldn't help but laugh too. I don't think it was intentional. But I laughed when you thought the same thing that I did lmaoo. Now let's address the non-binary and male presenting thing because oh boy. When I watched that part, I just knew certain people were going to go crazy over those moments, specifically the individuals who complain about everything being "woke" and right wingers on YouTube who declare that Doctor Who is dead every time a showrunner or doctor changes and demand they'll stop watching even though they never did to begin with. It's the same song and dance with every era so far and I'm expecting even more of these reactions when Ncuti Gatwa eventually becomes The Doctor. Boy that's gonna be fun. But regarding the non-binary moment, I actually think it kinda works as connective thread to the past and present of Donna and her family. Like you said, I genuinely like that Donna passed on the metacrisis energy to Rose which allowed them to share it thus preventing her death. I think the intentions are good here even though its a bit messy with the binary thing. I think its nice for Rose to feel fulfilled but there was definitely a bit of missed potential in exploring that further beforehand. It would probably feel more satisfying if Rose got more of a key role in this story. But it just feels like it happened too instantly. Like this episode definitely needed an extension to breathe certain scenes and aspects out and that definitely includes the ending. As for Rose and Donna telling 14 that he wouldn't understand letting go as a male leading timelord, I didn't really understand that either. That comment didn't really make sense to me because the regeneration from 13 to 14 is still relatively recent and given that his last regeneration was being a woman, he clearly would be able to understand "letting go" so the messaging is kind of lost for me in that regard and could have benefit with some rephrasing or clarity. Weirdly, it felt very Moffaty with the way RTD presented it. Like it kinda gave Doctor, Widow and Wardrobe vibes in a weird way. And I can confirm, I'm already seeing some debates on these moments lmao. I also think the pacing could have been a bit better as it felt a bit too fast in some places. Like there was a bit of missed potential in developing Rose more given that she plays a big role in the resolution of this episode but it was very last minute save. It would have been nice to learn more about her beyond the bullying and how she makes toys in the hope of growing better finance to help her parents. It was a nice foundation but it basically stops after she meets the Meep. I think building a longer relationship with the Meep would have also helped flesh her out more to the point where she opens up to the Meep and she could have also had a better reaction to the reveal of the Meep being evil too. I feel like this would allow her to feel all sorts of emotions like feeling hurt by the Meep's betrayal and fuelling that anger to fighting back but she was mostly reserved and bland unfortunately. She had little to no reaction to the Meep being evil or even Sylvia wanting to hide everything from Donna. Even a rapport with the kid that she was talking to would have been nice just to get a bit of new dynamic outside of the Noble family household. It would have even been interesting if the episode had started from her perspective until meeting The Doctor just like the old episodes used to do so. I'm also surprised at how relaxed Shaun was to these shenanigans but given the lack of reaction that Rose and him had to the alien, I can assume they're probably used to alien life and invasions? Although I don't think Sylvia ever filled him in with the Doctor- Donna situation. I don't think they even clarified it here. His interactions with The Doctor and Donna were still fun though. Makes you wonder how Donna missed the Flux events from the last series. Aside from these issues, I still had fun with it. I'd give it a 7/10. Given the times we live in now, I'm not really bothered by them not being subtle especially after the last era. But an improvement in delivery and expression of these topics is something that RTD could consider working on. But Doctor Who has always been progressive for the most part so hopefully it's just a growing lesson from here. But we'll see what the next two specials bring us. I'm excited to have 14 and Donna back for a bit longer. I've missed them so much. Also this Tardis is definitely a huge improvement over 13's one. This one is more wider and 14 felt like a kid when he was running through the Tardis, it was fun to see him and Donna geeking out over it. I always found 13's tardis to be too cramped and dark even though they improved it slightly in Series 12 and 13 but I still think this new one is much better. This new Tardis has a nice clinical feel to it. As Donna said, it's very clean looking and spacey. That ending with Donna literally spilling the tea was funny too. I'm still excited for next week as we know barely anything about it with the teaser on YouTube being very short. Also the Meep is really adorable looking despite it being evil. Funnily enough, I feel like the Meep would also work perfectly in some of the Doctor Who spin offs too. Like it would work equally well as a Sarah Jane or Torchwood villain because of how sneaky it is. Lmao!
JY
2023-11-27 06:28:44 +0000 UTCGlad to see your reaction to this special. Your thoughts are mostly what I expected to be honest. To me, this was simply a fun episode of Doctor Who. I thought it was good for the most part. While I won't pretend that it was all perfect, I still enjoyed it. It had a few issues but honestly after going through the pure mediocrity and the boring and mundane nature of the Chibnall era, I'll take this over Chibnall any day. It just feels so refreshing to get this kind of fun chaotic vibe from Doctor Who again after a long time when it was such a rarity in the Jodie era. I was really begging for this energy to come back to the show and I'm glad it's here. I think I've expressed enough dislike of the last era mainly for the shit writing and lack of energy with the companions, scripts and direction and music and everything. I feel like I'm back in my hype Who era with RTD's return, Murray Gold coming back and almost the whole team. And yeah, I'm already seeing a bit of mixed responses to the whole stuff with the non-binary and male stuff online but I'll talk about that in a bit. Although I was definitely expecting this when Yaz was confirmed to be in this special as Donna's daughter. I'm already seeing the YouTube thumbnails of "Doctor Who has become too woke" on my YouTube page lmao. Same thing happened during the Jodie Whittaker era too and it even happened with Capaldi's era too lol. Avoiding that shit like the plague. Like WhoviVortex said, they've definitely become less subtle with rep but it's so refreshing compared to the vagueness and ambiguity of the Chibnall era where they don't give us anything so I'll gladly take this. Safe to say that David Tennant and Catherine Tate are definitely back in their game for this episode. Their chemistry is still brilliant and they still have that fun dynamic together along with the levity of seriousness between them. It's almost like they never left. Definitely the highlight. I also like the re-introduction to the Noble family. Seeing Sylvia and Shaun again was really nice. The Doctor's reaction to Donna's daughter's name being Rose was also funny. I think it was realistic that they showed Rose still experiencing abuse with people still referring to her as "Jason". I also agree with you about Donna and Sylvia still getting used to referring to Rose as a she. It felt realistic and genuine with them trying to tread over the eggshells of that situation and admitting that they're still getting used to it. I enjoyed those scenes alongside Donna telling Sylvia that she's missing something in her life for the last 15 years. Even Donna being very protective of Rose is genuinely lovely to see. And on the flip side, it's great to see Sylvia being protective towards Donna when she tries to prevent The Doctor from coming in. She's come a long way since which is nice. The chaotic scenes in the house were also funny with how they were escaping from UNIT and The Doctor playing judge in the carpark was a nice callback to a certain Classic who moment from the Fourth Doctor's era. I also agree with you about the sonic screwdriver. I really like how they've adapted it to create barriers and visual displays that project what The Doctor is doing. It feels like a neat new addition that we haven't seen before as The Doctor usually reads that info on his sonic, so to see it as a interactive interface display for this situation looked cool. The Meep was fun too along with the twist of it being villainous. I was unfortunately spoiled on that as Doctor Who fans who read the comics would have known about the Meep being evil as this story is based on The Doctor Who and the Star Beast comic which features The Fourth Doctor and the Meep. The writers for that comic were credited at the start of this episode which was nice so no copyright worries I believe. I like that Donna was subconsciously afraid of it. I kinda wanna read that comic now. Miriam is the perfect voice for the Meep.
JY
2023-11-27 06:08:05 +0000 UTC
