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The Star Beast Review (Spoilers) || Chatsu Shorts
178 Plays1 year ago
After a year of Doctor Who being gone from our tellies, join Satsunami for his unscripted thoughts on the first of three 60th anniversary episodes for Doctor Who!
Was Tennant's return everything we hoped for and more? How cute was the Meep? And are UNIT REALLY that incompetent? All this and more in this latest episode of Chatsu Shorts!
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Transcript
Introduction and Context Setting
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to Chatsunami.
00:00:17
Speaker
Hello everybody, and welcome to this very impromptu episode of Chatsunami. My name's Chatsunami, and I'm just unwatching Doctor Who, would you believe? So tonight, as you know, Doctor Who came back with the 60th anniversary episode, The Star Beast, which is one of three episodes I'm told. As you may hear with this episode, this is going to be an unscripted reaction to the episode. Usually I write these episodes out, I plan them while I head in time when I do solo episodes.
00:00:46
Speaker
But you know what, see this time I thought I'd be a little bit loosey-goosey, timey-wimey and yeah, I'm gonna talk about this episode because let's face it Whovians, there has been a severe drought in Doctor Who content recently. I thought, you know what, why don't I throw my own hat into the ring and tell you what I think about it.
00:01:06
Speaker
Now before I do, this episode is gonna contain spoilers for this episode, so if you wanna watch this star beast completely blind and unaware to the spoilerific review that's about to follow, please feel free to pause this episode, go make yourself a cup of tea, watch the episode and then come back.
00:01:30
Speaker
that you sorted? Okay, let's get into
Nostalgia and Character Dynamics
00:01:32
Speaker
it. So after watching this episode, I really think it is probably going to be a divisive episode, but overall I liked it I have to say, and I think probably that's because of the nostalgia berries that were planted throughout the episode. Of course, the episode does play
00:01:49
Speaker
heavily on that with the relationship between The Doctor and Donna Noble, which I've got to say, they are one of my favourite Doctor Who duels of Doctor Companion. I absolutely love them. I think they're absolutely fantastic. I have to admit, I did find it strange when I saw the new opening and it was really just advertising the universe, I think you're calling it. I don't know if this is like their kind of branding or umbrella term. Movies, please let me know, because I would love to hear what you think.
00:02:19
Speaker
but yeah it felt very marvelly and I hate saying ooh it felt marvelly because they probably aren't the first ones to do this but hey
00:02:29
Speaker
so gay, y'know. Pretty cool to see them do it. Maybe it's that Disney money, I dunno. I have to admit, I'm not really too sure how I felt about the opening. I feel as if the opening wasn't the best on the one hand I thought. Yeah, people need to know the backstory as it were, but I don't know at the same time them talking to the camera and everything, saying oh I'm back and this is what happened to Donna, this is what happened to the Doctor.
Branding and Performances
00:02:57
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not really sure if I like that but good lord, the CGI opening, the CGI opening was absolutely fantastic. I was just so shocked at how good it looked and I just loved the introduction of the 14th Doctor. I thought that David Tennant was just absolutely fantastic. I loved the comfy vibes. Honestly, the first 5-10 minutes when Donna and the Doctor are interacting, I just found absolutely fantastic and I would
00:03:25
Speaker
probably just watch a sitcom with them talking to one another. I just thought they bounced off each other so, so well. And considering their last episode together was… I wanna say 2008 I think? 2008? 2009? It's amazing how they've still got chemistry after all this time and I absolutely love it. I thought it was very funny and they definitely hasn't lost it. David Tennant's still charismatic. Catherine T is still hilarious.
00:03:51
Speaker
And I have to say as well, I thought Yasmin Finney did a fantastic job as well as Rose who, I have to say, in the one hand I kind of thought that the whole David Tennant and people going, oh what was initially like, oh right, fun, they come back but then they kept using it over and over again and I was like, this is getting a bit annoying.
00:04:13
Speaker
I also love how they characterised Donna's character post-Season 4. I absolutely loved to see how supportive she was as a mother, but at the same time, although she was fiercely supportive of her daughter Rose, I thought that their relationship together was really cute, and what I also loved was just the fact that she was basically the same character but none of the charm was lost there, so absolutely fantastic.
00:04:38
Speaker
As for the aliens in this, because some people might be wondering, how do the aliens fare in this? And honestly, before I go into this, this section is probably going to contain heavy, heavy spoilers, so if you haven't watched this, this is your last chance to put the kettle on. Please go put the kettle on, watch the episode, come back and yeah, let's get into it. Yeah, honestly, I love the designs of these creatures. I love the bug mods that suggest the meat,
00:05:04
Speaker
I thought that they were quite cheesy looking, but I loved the fact that they still had that kind of modern twist to them, even though they looked like completely evil. I still just absolutely adored how they just blended into the Doctor Who universe. I could easily believe that they would be antagonists in this, although then again it goes into the don't judge an alien by its cover.
Character Development and Critiques
00:05:28
Speaker
So yeah, absolutely fantastic.
00:05:31
Speaker
I hated UNIT and this but then again, I'm starting to really hate UNIT in general because I feel as if UNIT are and any trickies will know what I mean by this but UNIT are like the wharf of Doctor Who and what I mean by that is they are characterised as being a very powerful organisation and we're told as an audience, you know, oh these are the counter alien people, these are the guys that are gonna protect the Earth when the Doctor's not here.
00:05:58
Speaker
And every single time they get stomped on, they get hypnotised. This isn't the first time I think they get hypnotised. And it honestly makes me think back to Remembrance of the Daleks where, granted, this could be the military. I can't remember for a fact but, you know, I missed the days when they were blowing up Daleks and things and they were really badass, really cool, very competent but, I mean, don't get me wrong, they are competent unit people but, ironically enough, it seems as if for a...
00:06:26
Speaker
It's like an organisation that's called Una. It's usually the individuals within Una that seem to do well. Like, Cakes, Stewart, like Osgood, you know, those kind of characters as opposed to the overall organisations. I was kind of like,
00:06:42
Speaker
So in summary, what I would say is Unit R pretty much more useless than a fart in a hurricane, but you're not here to listen to me rant about Unit R, the bug monsters. You're probably here to hear my thoughts on the enigmatic meep, the draw of this episode, the star beast as it were. After that I did suspect something was wrong when I saw that the taxi ran away unscathed and granted they didn't bring up later, but when I saw that I was like Jesus what are London taxis made of?
00:07:12
Speaker
But yeah, I thought the meep, you know, was very cute and initially I thought we were gonna have a baby odour situation and maybe we still will.
Plot Twists and Emotional Impact
00:07:21
Speaker
Maybe lots of kids will be asking for a meep under the tree. Kids who are listening, please don't ask for a meep under the tree. Yeah, the twist I have to say, I was half expecting something to be off. I thought there's something, there's definitely something not right here but when we actually got the reveal it was done absolutely fantastically. I loved it.
00:07:40
Speaker
What I will say is, and this is something that I don't think enough people are talking about, but I really didn't like the fingers of this creature. It's something I never noticed in the promotional material because the meep assumes a very timid stance, it's got its arms tucked in, you know, it's quite scared, it's hiding.
00:07:57
Speaker
I have to say, those sausage fingers would make King Charles blush. I mean, those things are horrifying. They're like the kind of gangly ET elongated kind of fingers. I have decided that was the only bit of the meat that was like, yeah, I don't like this. And then of course you realise because it is packing heat out of its pouch, I wanna say. So I've heard from external media, look from their nostalgic, thank you for sending me that screenshot of that meat carrying a gun.
00:08:24
Speaker
It's just the weirdest shout out ever. But yeah, I have done that. I thought that the meat reveal and everything, it was ridiculous. It was silly. It was over the top. But honestly, I loved it because it was just so, so cheesy. I had a blast with it. You know, having all of these hypnotised soldiers heal the meat, heal.
00:08:44
Speaker
This fuzzy Gremlins, Fur Bay looking thing was just silly, but it was honestly just amazing. But there was a couple of maybe slight negatives I want to bring to the table here. So there's a particular scene where they're having a shootout between the unit soldiers and the aliens trying to capture the meat.
00:09:03
Speaker
And that's just like the really weird scene where the Doctor just out of thin air does like an air picture and creates a shield. And don't get me wrong, I love the idea of the Doctor having something like this, you know, like a very defensive weapon if that makes sense. Or not a weapon but this tool that he's able to defend people with rather than hurt them.
00:09:26
Speaker
On the other hand, I don't know how I like him using the Sonic Screwdriver just to either picture something and then slide it over. Even for the Sonic Screwdriver, like the Sonic Screwdriver is the McGuffin that usually fixes anything unless it's deadlocked or this or that.
00:09:43
Speaker
don't know. I don't know if I really liked that. The only other thing I thought was bad was I thought the ending was a little bit rushed and I got a little annoyed by it. I'm not gonna lie, and not because of certain things that were said or such, but more for the fact that this maybe may draw the higher of Hoovian, so I apologise in advance, but I really did not like The Doctor and Honor even before season 4. I didn't really like the idea. I liked
00:10:10
Speaker
the fallout of it. I liked the idea that there was this force out with the Doctor's control that he could never see Donna again, and that led to a very somber and emotional ending. I thought that was quite sad. And then, of course, they had to bring her back for this, and they had to make an excuse. And on the one hand, don't get me wrong, I'm really happy that they've got Donna back, and they used the idea of the meta-crisis being
00:10:35
Speaker
imparted into her child. I thought that was quite interesting but at the same time what really annoyed me was there was a very significant parallel to the end of time and something out there might know what I'm talking about but of course when the doctor saves the wolf and he's behind the sheet of glass
00:10:54
Speaker
gave me flashbacks to that and I thought oh god I'm gonna have to prepare the tears you know very emotional and again I'm glad that it was more of a quote-unquote happy ending rather than a sad one but I don't know I just didn't feel as if it was fair to really tug at the heartstrings of people
00:11:11
Speaker
Also what I found quite funny I have to say is the fact that did anyone else feel like this was a fracking spaceship? You know the idea that it was tunneling into the ground and it was going to destroy London and I did love how when they reversed it all I could keep thinking was I believe that's what the council wished they could do. You know just press the button and then it just reverses all the bottles and fills them out.
00:11:33
Speaker
Yeah, again, that was quite rushed and everything. And probably my main gripe with this episode is we didn't get to see Wolf, and I know they're probably saving that for the emotional ending. He's gonna see him one last time though, before he changes into the next Doctor, which I'm really interested to see but I don't know. I just wanted to see him. As for the TARDIS and the new interior, I absolutely love it.
00:11:58
Speaker
I wasn't sure initially when I saw it was like a light and had the circles or this tenant's doctor once said the round things. I loved the round things. I really liked it. It kind of reminds me of either a kaleidoscope or what I imagine people's nightmares are if you're trapped inside a Twitch streamer's PC. I absolutely loved the design. So overall, what do I think of The Star Beast? Well, I think it's a pretty good start to this trilogy of specials. Do I think it's the best Who episode ever?
00:12:28
Speaker
probably not. It certainly looks pretty, it looks absolutely fantastic. The visuals since the reboot in 2005 have come a long, long way, and I have to say I am glad that a new generation of Doctor Who fans are
00:12:44
Speaker
probably going to enjoy this show through this episode so I'm really happy to see that. And I know that some people have also criticized some of the dialogue choices and the choices of direction in this episode and as a variety podcaster it is by far not my job to dictate how you enjoy Doctor Who. So whether you love the star beasts
00:13:06
Speaker
or maybe it's just not for you. That is entirely your decision. And honestly, in my personal opinion, while I didn't think it was the strongest entry, I still think this was a pretty good episode to start off with. But what did you think? Did you enjoy The Star Beast? Was it maybe not your cup of tea over the TARDIS? Please feel free to reach out and let me know. Also, if you want more impromptu episodes like this where I review just
00:13:30
Speaker
random things where I get my first impression on things, unscripted then by all means, please let me know, I would love to hear what you think. But until then, stay safe, stay awesome and most importantly, stay hydrated.