Caution: potential spoilers.
The Star Beast, on BBC One (UK) / Disney+ (USA)
BBC; Council of Geeks; IMDb; TV Tropes; Wikia; Wikipedia
streaming sites: Disney+
This is the first of three specials airing after the 2022 specials, which feature the Fourteenth Doctor (David Tennant, who previously played the Tenth Doctor). They celebrate the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who. They are the first installments of Doctor Who to be released on Disney+ in the US (replacing BBC America as the US distributor of the series). Fifteen years ago, in series 4, the Tenth Doctor's companion was Donna Noble, and at the end of that series he had to erase her memory of him to save her life. Now he finds himself mixed up in her life again, while trying to prevent her from remembering him. Two spaceships have landed on Earth, and one of them contained a cute little creature called the Meep, which is soon discovered by Donna's teenage transgender daughter, Rose. The Meep is being pursued by other aliens, and the Doctor, along with Donna's family, try to protect it. UNIT also gets involved, under the direction of Shirley Anne Bingham. There is eventually a plot twist that I totally saw coming, but I still liked it. I don't want to say too much more about the plot, but the Doctor is eventually forced to reawaken Donna's memories of him, so that together they can save London. For reasons I won't spoil, this doesn't end up resulting in Donna's death, as the Doctor had assumed it would. One of those reasons I liked, and one I didn't, or at least I had mixed feelings about it. It involved Donna and Rose just deciding to do something that I absolutely cannot imagine the Doctor wouldn't have known was a possibility, and it gets played off as if it wouldn't have occurred to him simply because he's male (at least at the moment). I'm sure there are things in life that could be true of, but I don't buy it in this instance. Despite that, I thoroughly enjoyed the special, for the most part. It was great to see the Doctor and Donna together again. Then at the end of the episode, the Doctor and Donna decide to go visit her grandfather, Wilf, who is now living in an assisted living home, paid for by Kate Stewart of UNIT. I have no idea why they felt the need to take the TARDIS to do this instead of taking a car, but it does give us our first chance to see the redesigned interior of the TARDIS, which is pretty cool. Then something happens that apparently makes the TARDIS go haywire, which I can't buy such a small thing would have had such a large effect, so I'm hoping it gets explained away in the next special, instead of standing as the real cause of the damage, just for the sake of a joke.
Wild Blue Yonder
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streaming sites: Disney+
So, apparently Donna's coffee is responsible for what happened to the TARDIS. At the start of this episode, the TARDIS materializes atop a tree under which was sitting Isaac Newton, who had just come up with his theory of mavity. Then the Doctor and Donna take off again, and this time find themselves on an abandoned spaceship at the very edge of the universe. The Doctor sets the TARDIS to repair itself, with the sonic screwdriver in the keyhole, and the two of them begin exploring the ship. Then the TARDIS disappears, because there is some terrible danger close at hand, which I find pretty unbelievable. I mean, when isn't there some terrible danger at hand? I don't feel like this one was significantly more terrible than all the dangers that the TARDIS doesn't run away from, but whatever. The story needed it to happen. Anyway... I don't want to spoil what the danger actually is, but it was a very clever and interesting concept. Of course, in the end the Doctor and Donna put a stop to it, and the TARDIS returns. So they go back to Earth, and meet up with Wilf, who informs them the Doctor's help is needed yet again. All in all, I'd say the special was pretty good. (After writing my review, I watched Council of Geeks' review of the special, which made me raise my rating from three smileys to four. It kind of made me want to comment on so many aspects of the special that I didn't originally, but... I'm not doing that. I still want to avoid spoiling anything.) I should mention that this is the last appearance of Wilfred Mott, as his actor, Bernard Cribbins, died, which is very sad. But I'm glad we got at least one more scene with him in this.
The Giggle
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streaming sites: Disney+
This is the final of the 60th anniversary specials. It picks up right where the last one left off, with the Doctor and Donna trying to figure out what's going on. It turns out that something is causing everyone to believe they're right, all the time, which leads them to follow their worst impulses, often with deadly results. Before long, the two of them get taken to UNIT headquarters, where the personnel are wearing armbands that prevent the signal from affecting them (which made me think of the Z-bands from Disney's Z-O-M-B-I-E-S franchise). The Doctor is also reunited with a former companion from the 6th and 7th Doctors' time, Mel Bush, who now works for UNIT. The Doctor eventually discovers that the signal has been buried in every video screen since the invention of television in 1925, so he and Donna go to Soho in that year to find the source. There they encounter a onetime adversary of the first Doctor's, the Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris), who can manipulate reality as he is not bound by the scientific laws of the universe. (Which kind of reminds me of Discord from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, except that he is a creature of chaos, and in this special the Doctor says the Toymaker is beyond chaos and order.) However, the Toymaker is bound by the rules of gaming. So the Doctor challenges him to a game, which the Doctor loses. But he invokes the rule "best out of three", so the two of them will have to play another game, in 2023. The Doctor and Donna get there before the Toymaker and try to make plans to stop him, but he soon shows up, dancing around to a song which I won't spoil here, but it was familiar to me and I enjoyed it. (It kind of reminded me of the Master dancing to a different song in the finale of series 3, which I also enjoyed.) After awhile, the Toymaker decides that since their first two games had been played by different versions of the Doctor (the first and the fourteenth), their third should also be played by a different Doctor, so he shoots Fourteen with UNIT's laser cannon, forcing him to regenerate into the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa). However, something surprising happens that I am torn about whether or not to spoil. I guess I won't (for now), but I will say that fans are torn about whether it was a good or bad thing. Personally, I liked it, because it led to a very happy ending that wouldn't have been possible otherwise. And... more stuff happens that I also won't spoil. Of course the Toymaker is defeated and humanity goes back to normal. Other than that... I don't know what to say. It's just a really fun story with some interesting ideas.
Followed by the Christmas special The Church on Ruby Road
