Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials
Available on BBC iPlayer
When Chris Chibnall took over Doctor Who in 2018, he ushered in one of the show’s most mind-numbingly boring runs, wasting the talents of Jodie Whittaker while driving the show into the ground. So, when Russell T. Davies’ return was announced, fans such as myself were ecstatic, as there was no doubt that he would deliver something capable of drawing in the casual fans that had lost interest in recent years.
These 60th anniversary specials open with The Star Beast, a story adapted from a 1970s comic strip that serves as a simple and fun tale that I personally found to be the most enjoyable of these three specials, in which the Meep (Miriam Margolyes) steals every scene. Margolyes is clearly having immense fun chewing up the scenery, and the Disney budget allows the production team to bring her character to life via a range of incredibly impressive practical effects and CGI.
David Tennant and Catherine Tate immediately slip back into their respective roles, despite having been gone from the franchise for over a decade. Their chemistry is palpable and they completely sell each moment of intense drama over these three episodes. I was especially impressed by how well Tennant and Davies managed to address the changes the Doctor has gone through since 2010. It’s a really nice way to respect what Steven Moffat and Chris Chibnall brought to the show, while making the 14th Doctor slightly more likeable than the 10th.
After The Star Beast, we transition into Wild Blue Yonder, a story I’ve seen other fans describe as the best since 2015’s Heaven Sent. Davies immediately puts us right in the middle of a psychological horror, with doubles of the Doctor and Donna serving as the villains of the episode. There is a wide range of effective scares on display, with the body horror scenes being the most prevalent. Although the episode is bloodless and perhaps a little too goofy for most adult tastes, it definitely stretches the boundaries of what should be considered child-friendly (a seven-year-old me would definitely have had nightmares about this one).
To round things off, we get The Giggle, guest starring Neil Patrick Harris as the dastardly Toymaker. This is the episode that slightly drops the ball, chiefly due to Davies leaving himself with too many plates to spin. Toymaker? Anti-climatic. Bigeneration? Minimal foreshadowing and barely any explanation. Stooky Bill and the creation of the TV? Wouldn’t that be a great opportunity for thematic subtext about the nature of modern entertainment and Doctor Who’s role in that? Nope. It ultimately comes down to a pithy epitaph of ‘screens are bad’.
The climax of The Giggle is ultimately dropped in favour of new Doctor Ncuti Gatwa’s arrival, which mostly consists of him running around in his underwear and the most intense game of catch the universe has ever seen. Don’t get me wrong, it’s enjoyable enough, but I can’t shake the feeling that the BBC should’ve allowed for the episode to run slightly longer. That being said, Ncuti Gatwa is an absolute joy to behold and I can’t wait to see his fully-fledged interpretation of the Doctor this Christmas. I also thought that the splitting of the Doctors was pretty perfectly executed, offering us both an end to a 13-season character arch and a fresh new beginning for this beloved sci-fi show.
