TV Review: Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials (2023)

Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials (2023) written by Russell T. Davis and directed by Rachel Talalay, Tom Kingsley, and Chanya Button

The Fourteenth incarnation of the Doctor has the same face as the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)! A series of specials for the sixtieth anniversary of the show features Tennant and Catherine Tate returning as Donna Noble. Three fun episodes?

The Star Beast--The Doctor lands on present day Earth where he nearly runs into Donna. He does not want to do that because if she remembers him, she will die (because of entirely fabricated complications, the usual Doctor Who blather). He tries to avoid her as everyone except Donna sees an alien spaceship crash in London's outskirts. Donna has a daughter named Rose (Yasmin Finney) and a husband and a supposedly happy life. Rose winds up finding a cute alien creature, The Meep, which she tries to protect from the hostile aliens that have also landed on Earth and want to capture The Meep. The show has the usual dramatics and action of a Doctor Who episode with a very cinematic visual flare. There's a nice twist for the third act and a great deal of fun leading to the Doctor and Donna going for one last adventure in the TARDIS. There are some clumsy woke moments in the show, e.g. it is hard to tell whether they are mocking or affirming a character choosing a pronoun.

Wild Blue Yonder--Of course the TARDIS goes off course, landing the Doctor and Donna at the edge of the known universe in a seemingly empty, gigantic ship. The TARDIS suddenly transports out, leaving them stranded. Donna panics and the Doctor realizes the TARDIS only leaves when extreme danger is nearby. They investigate the ship, hoping to stop the danger and thereby let the TARDIS return. The adventure is fun, along with a little bit of character development and revelation. Not the best Doctor story, but good enough.

The Giggle--Neil Patrick Harris guest stars as The Toymaker, a villain who wants to play games and win. He's used a puppet to drive human beings crazy, forcing the Doctor and Donna to team up with UNIT to stop him. The mechanics of the plot are very nonsensical which could have been okay if the cast was up for a bit of whimsy. For me, they played it a little too straight to make the fun outweigh the logical inconsistencies and incoherences. The new Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) has a nice introduction, though I hope he gets a pair of pants in the Christmas special. Tennant's Doctor gets a nice coda and a huge opening to come back at any time. Donna gets the ending that she deserves, which made me very happy.

Overall, these are okay. I didn't see anything really great here but I was entertained. I want to go back and watch the Donna Noble episodes. She is the best of the modern companions, maybe the best one from the whole sixty year history.

As I write (December 2023), the episodes are available streaming on Disney+ in America and other countries outside of the UK (where it is available from BBC).