'Doctor Who' Day Brings New Clips Of 'The Star Beast' And Christmas Special
It was a very happy anniversary indeed. Meep in the excitement
Doctor Who may have chosen to forego airing at least one of its specials on its exact anniversary Thursday, but there was still plenty of new content released for the occasion. They served all sorts of purposes, for the history, the future, and even some catch-up. But there were also two major clips released, and not in the “one new shot buried amongst a bunch of already-seen footage” way. At least not in the same way.
First up, the BBC YouTube got the 60 Years in 60 Seconds video that is on Doctor Who’s own socials elsewhere. Showing the Doctors through the years, it strangely skips over “Dimensions in Time” in 1993 and Eighth Doctor Paul McGann’s 1996 TV movie. Most interestingly, the representation for 2023 doesn’t include any of the anniversary specials. Instead, we have Ruby Sunday, played by Millie Gibson running (as is typical for the show), or being run to the TARDIS by Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor. Seeing that the only 2023 episode they both will appear in is next month’s Christmas special “The Church On Ruby Road”, it’s the first clip that can definitively be said to be from it. Even a clip of a distressed Fifteen on a light snowy night in the franchise trailer “The Adventure of a Lifetime” comes close too but not close enough. The Ruby clip in it has the coat from filming photos but on its own doesn’t come close.
Then, there’s our “The Star Beast” clip, which on Twitter was called a treat for the occasion. Rose, played by Yasmin Finney, arrives in the room she’s been keeping the Meep, voiced by Miriam Margolyes. Seems the Meep has made friends with the toys, and while they desperately hope for reciprocation, Rose teaches them the full rundown to help them understand. Viewers finally get to hear a full scene of Margolyes’s performance as the character as opposed to a single foreboding line in a trailer. Rose pulls the stuffing out, startling the Meep, and they ask to go home because they’re lonely. Rose can relate because she’s different. As Donna comes in, because no secrets, the Meep hides in the plushes, but is quickly noticed. One poke and it ends on the “What the hell?” that’s been seen in the trailers. It’s cute! Good to see the leadup. Check out the clip below.
The 60th anniversary of Doctor Who is special for a lot of reasons, but it also led to something unexpected. The Twitter account for the show on BBC America tweeted for the first time since its farewell post on the announcement of the Disney+ deal. They tweeted the show’s main account “@bbcdoctorwho Happy #DoctorWhoDay! We can't wait to see what 'The Star Beast' has in store for us 💙”. People were gobsmacked, as it was believed it would ever tweet again. It hasn’t tweeted since, but to see the possible act of rebellion was a great addition to the festivities. As one can probably tell, Disney+ never made its own account for the show nor had the BBC America account transferred, and so it's all been streamlined to the BBC's account for the series. “The Star Beast” premieres tomorrow at 6:30 PM GMT, which is 1:30 PM Eastern/10:30 AM Pacific on Disney+.
