u/Prize_Bug3453

Okay context: I watched Doctor Who when I was younger, I stopped roughly when Twice Upon a Time aired. I mainly watched on DVDs cause it was hard to find a streaming site for Doctor Who where I lived, and then it got harder to keep track of and it sort of fizzled. Found a site to watch Doctor Who, but before I catch up everything I missed (13th doctor, roughly half of the 11th and 12th doctor episodes), I thought I'd watch The Star Beast first cause I heard it brings back Tennant's doctor and Donna Noble.

My opinion: It's not great.

What I enjoyed:

I really enjoyed the actors and their chemistry, the mini plot twist, as well as the overall story concept.

What I found lacking:

It completely fizzles the tragedy and stakes of the Meta Crisis. Sure Donna Noble didn't die immediately when she remembered cause part of the Meta Crisis got put into her daughter. But then the resolution was just "let it go"? That just undermines what made it dangerous. Like if the resolution to the Infinity Stones overloading you being "let it go" NOBODY would like that. And that's one thing, why did they tie it into "I found out because I'm a woman"? Don't get me wrong: I applaud the messaging. But it's just as stupid if it was resolved cause she understood "cancer is tragic" or "genocide is wrong", both correct and applaudable messages but completely overlooks what made the Meta Crisis so tragic and unique. In Journey's End the Doctor specifically said such a thing never existed cause there can't be, and it's not like there's no female timelords or Donna wasn't a woman during that event so it just further undercuts when the Doctor said "There can't be a meta crisis, that's why it never happened before".

I also wished they spent longer addressing Tennant's face returning. Each character spends maybe 3 minutes on it. And they had such an opportunity too cause every freshly regenerated doctor spends an episode in a somewhat identity crisis cause they're still "cooking", and it's a perfect opportunity to do it with an old face returning, like a more personal version of the 12th doctor having the face of a person the Doctor saved in Pompeii.

I don't love Donna giving away the lotto money. Cause it was a final gift from both the Doctor and her father, so again: It feels like a slap in the face to the beautiful goodbye 10 left for Donna. But that's one thing, then it's just played off for an admittedly funny scene of Donna ranting about giving away money, but never address the emotional value of what was given up.

David Tennant's acting is amazing as usual, but I felt that they were too quick to show off the emotional beats. The most intense Tennant moments I can think of (they all died speech from Waters of Mars, the "I can do so much more" speech from the finale), they all built up in emotion. Such as if 0 was completely calm and 10 was complete crash out, in these scenes, within a few minutes the Doctor slowly built up the emotions one step at a time, one digit at a time (5, 6, 7, 8) until it finally hit 10 at the climax and delivered an emotionally engaging performance. But here that beat is missing, it goes from 6 straight to 10, and thus the crashout is understandable but doesn't hold the same as the other scenes I mentioned. And considering how personal this scene was I felt it should have held it's own like the two speeches I cited, but doesn't (still holds well don't get me wrong, I just felt it could have been better)

They also don't address why events began bending around Donna and her family again (at least I don't remember). In Journey's End it was Dalek Caan bending the timeline as well as the Meta Crisis Doctor creating a timeline to converge. Another explanation for Donna's Grandfather being tied cause of the timelords in the Doctor's regeneration story.

By itself it'd just be a generic Doctor Who episode, but the amount of great storylines and finality it undoes for an unsatisfying reason and conclusion just brings it down for me. That and the potential storylines that got overlooked. I'd really just rather they didn't bring back Donna considering how great and personal the goodbye and her storyline was. And if they NEEDED to bring back an old companion, Martha and Micky would be my pick. Rose and Donna had their stories shut, but Micky and Martha went off to work in the military and fight aliens, so that's a lot more of an open ended finale. The Doctor did just give them a nod goodbye. So if they HAD to bring back an old companion I think this would be a good way to not ruin the finality of the companions. But even then, I'd just rather the old companions get a cameo at most and he gets a different companion.

But that's just my opinion. Thoughts?