Full spoilers observe for Physician Who: “The Star Beast.”
One thing humorous occurred on the best way to the Physician Who sixtieth anniversary particular. For, as celebratory because the event is, it’s additionally proved to be a reminder of how intrinsically tragic the Physician’s life might be.
First, the celebratory half: Not solely is David Tennant – certainly one of the crucial beloved of the Docs – again for 3 specials, the primary of which debuted on Saturday on Disney+ within the U.S. and BBC One within the U.Ok., however so is writer-producer Russell T Davies, who re-launched Physician Who again in 2005 after a 16-year absence (not together with the American TV film). Davies gave us most of the hallmarks of contemporary Physician Who, together with casting Tennant and creating Donna Noble, the Catherine Tate companion who can also be again for these specials.
However Donna is the place a few of that tragedy is available in. As “The Star Beast” kicks off, the Physician provides a fast “beforehand on” direct-to-camera, reminding us that, with the intention to save her life, he needed to erase his former companion’s reminiscence after we final noticed her (long story). Which means Donna has no reminiscence of the Physician, their time-and-space-faring adventures collectively, or the entire good they did for the universe (together with saving it from annihilation!).
And but, after we choose again up along with her in her home London life in “The Star Beast,” one thing is gnawing at Donna.
“Typically, I feel there’s one thing lacking,” she says. “Like I had one thing beautiful, and it’s gone. And I type of look to the aspect, like one thing must be there, and it’s not.” Donna acknowledges that she has a household who loves her and that she must be comfortable. “However some nights,” she says, “I lie in mattress considering, what have I misplaced?”
She’s misplaced the identical factor that any companion of the Physician ultimately does: a lifetime of unrealized desires that have been, in opposition to all odds, extremely realized, the prospect to journey to the furthest reaches of time and house, and again once more, and see untold wonders. Who can say if she’s higher off or not than another former companion, since she will’t even keep in mind what she’s misplaced since leaving the Physician’s aspect, solely to return to the humdrum actuality of life on Earth. Maybe her reminiscence wipe was a blessing.
I’m reminded of one of many nice tales from Davies’ unique tenure on the present, again within the first David Tennant season. Within the 2006 episode “College Reunion,” former companion Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) returned to Physician Who, having initially appeared within the Seventies alongside the Third and Fourth Docs. Right here, the Tenth Physician is overjoyed to come across his outdated pal, however the perspective on the matter for the time-hopping alien super-genius is kind of completely different from that of Sarah Jane, who feels as if she was basically deserted by the Physician years earlier.
“I waited for you. I missed you,” Sarah Jane tells the Physician.
“Oh, you didn’t want me. You have been getting on along with your life,” the Physician cluelessly responds.
“You have been my life,” she says.
It’s a heartbreaking second, and that is in an episode that’s additionally about faculty academics who’re secretly large, flying vampires rendered in unhealthy CGI, in order that’s saying one thing. However identical to Donna, who can’t fairly keep in mind why she has an aching gap in her soul, Sarah Jane spent years pining for, as she places it, “the splendor” of her days with the Physician.
Maybe, although, the much more tragic determine is the Physician himself. In “College Reunion,” Sarah Jane presses the Physician on why he by no means got here again for her. He flatly states that he couldn’t. And on the finish of “The Star Beast,” Donna – now along with her recollections restored and the day saved, after all – declines travelling with the Physician once more, however she does counsel that he may pop by once in a while for a go to and a cup of tea. “Why is it such an enormous goodbye with you?” she asks. The Physician, nonetheless, is oddly non-committal in regards to the prospect.
All of it comes all the way down to the immortality of the Physician, doesn’t it? At one time he was thought to have a cap of 12 regenerations, however has since exceeded that (gotta maintain the franchise going). That signifies that our favourite Time Lord may very effectively dwell perpetually, however on the very least he’s acquired to be hundreds of years outdated by now. (It’s onerous to calculate exactly.) Think about the colossal loneliness of that existence, even whether it is peppered with companions right here or there for what have to be, from the Physician’s perspective, transient moments in time. Moments that he apparently absolutely remembers and by no means forgets. “I actually do keep in mind, although. Each second with you,” he tells Donna.
It’s not a brand new idea – that the immortal determine should watch all that he loves get outdated and die, again and again. Whereas Donna being freed of her reminiscence wipe and having adventures with the Fourteenth Physician once more by the tip of “The Star Beast” is definitely a cheerful ending, she should, inevitably, say goodbye to him once more in only a few weeks. And because the Tenth Physician advised Rose (one other companion he has lengthy since left behind) in “College Reunion,” he’s finally alone: “That’s the curse of the Time Lords.”
Discuss to Govt Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottCollura, or take heed to his Star Trek podcast, Transporter Room 3. Or do each!
