“The Star Beast” is episode one of the 2023 specials of the new Doctor Who.
The Tenth Doctor – except he isn’t; he’s the Fourteenth – and Donna are narrating in different places. He is saying how she saved the universe, but had to forget everything she knew to save her life. If she even remembers him, she will die. She is saying how she has a nice life, a husband and daughter, but she dreams of impossible things and thinks something is getting closer. The Doctor wonders why this face came back.
The Tardis lands in London and the Doctor heads to help someone with parcels. It’s Donna. She doesn’t remember him. She’s looking for Rose. Her daughter. A spaceship is crashing down out of the sky and Donna manages to miss it all again. The Doctor heads for a taxi – owned by Donna’s husband, Shaun; his psychic paper hasn’t caught up yet – and heads to the crash site. It seems Donna gave all her money away.
UNIT are at the steelworks where the ship came down and the Doctor gets inside. A woman comments to a UNIT soldier that the ship landed; it didn’t crash.
Donna arrives home and her mother is worried and says there’s no such thing as spaceships. Donna remembers her grandad used to talk about them. Then stopped. When Donna forgot everything. he sometimes thinks something is missing.
Rose is told by a friend that an escape pod fell nearby. There are aliens inside. Except it’s now empty. Rose heads to get her phone. And finds the occupant. The Meep. The Meep says that there are monsters coming to kill it. And Rose’s friend has just run into them. They aren’t interested in him.
The Doctor is looking at a plan of the spaceship he’s created when the UNIT woman comes over. Shirley Bingham, UNIT scientific advisor number 56. She wonders why the Doctor is hiding. The Doctor explains that that he’s wearing an old face again and doesn’t know why. He’s worried. And talks about Donna. If she remembers the Doctor, she will die, and when he got this face back, he landed right next to her then a spaceship crashed. The Doctor ends up hitching a ride on a truck going to the escape pod.
Shirley is told by a solider that there’s a signal coming from inside the ship. They open the hatch and energy comes out, making the soldiers’ eyes glow. That can’t be a good sign.
Rose is trying to hide the Meep from her mother; it doesn’t work. Sylvia is really not happy to have the Doctor turn up again. But things are focusing around Donna, despite the Doctor’s best attempts to stop it. And the whole place is turning into a warzone. Donna’s past looks to be about to catch up with her, no matter what.