Specials, Episode 1 | 1 part | First broadcast: 25 November 2023 | Writer: Russell T Davies | Director: Rachel Talalay
Cast
- David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor
- Catherine Tate as Donna Noble
- Yasmin Finney as Rose Noble
- Jacqueline King as Sylvia Noble
- Karl Collins as Shaun Temple
- Neil Patrick Harris as the voice of the Meep
Summary
The Doctor, freshly and inexplicably regenerated into a form identical to his tenth incarnation, finds himself drawn back into Donna Noble’s life against all the established rules of time and memory, discovering that a small, adorable-seeming crash-landed alien called the Meep is secretly a ruthless warlord hunting for a stolen doomsday weapon, forcing the Doctor to protect Donna’s family while confronting the terrifying possibility that Donna could die if she ever remembers her lost cosmic knowledge.
Interesting Facts
- This special marked the shock return of David Tennant to the role, this time as a wholly new Fourteenth incarnation rather than a reprise of the Tenth Doctor, following the surprise regeneration reveal at the end of “The Power of the Doctor.”
- It adapts the classic Doctor Who Weekly comic strip “The Star Beast” by Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons, one of the earliest Fourth Doctor comic stories.
- Yasmin Finney’s Rose Noble, Donna’s transgender daughter, marked a significant and widely discussed inclusive casting choice for the franchise.
- The episode resolves the dormant “meta-crisis” threat that had endangered Donna’s life since her memory-wipe departure in “Journey’s End.”
- This was the first of three 60th Anniversary Specials broadcast across November and December 2023 to celebrate the show’s diamond jubilee.
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