The Doctor-Donna is back, and this time Russell T. Davies is doing it right.

The popular British Sci-Fi series Doctor Who has just celebrated its 60th Anniversary with the first of three TV specials. As a short recap and intro, Doctor Who is a series that follows The Doctor, an alien who travels through time and space with a number of human companions fighting aliens and saving lives. 

We last left David Tennant’s Doctor in his return in the 50th anniversary special, where he partnered up with the 11th incarnation of The Doctor, then portrayed by Matt Smith. But now he’s the only Doctor again, following Jodie Whittaker’s era (and much to the character’s surprise- usually The Doctor reincarnates as an entirely new actor.)

The first special, The Star Beast, follows The Doctor as he finds himself back in present day London, just in time for a spaceship to crash land in the city. In pursuit of this event he stumbles upon a surprising face, that of his former companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate), who left the show in its 4th series and is also returning for these specials.

 
After the events of the 4th series finale, Donna is at risk of her mind burning up if she is exposed to the Doctor or any sci-fi related happenings for too long. So The Doctor makes a quick exit after meeting her husband Shaun (Karl Collins) and daughter Rose Noble (Yasmin Finney). He learns from Shaun that despite The Doctor giving her a winning lottery ticket in the 10th Doctor’s final episode, Donna elected to give almost all the money away to charity, much to everyone’s surprise. 

At the site of the spaceship crash the government agency UNIT (Unified Intelligence Taskforce) is on the scene. They occasionally work alongside The Doctor protecting Earth from alien threats. Within the spaceship a strange energy overtakes a number of UNIT soldiers placing them under a hypnotic control. Both the hypnotized soldiers and The Doctor begin tracking down an alien that escaped from an escape pod on the ship, which The Doctor learned from speaking with the new Science Director of UNIT, Shirley Anne Bingham (Ruth Madeley).

The alien, known as The Meep (Cecily Fay), is tracked down to Donna’s home where she lives with her husband, daughter and mother, Sylvia Noble (Jacqueline King). Rose finds The Meep, a small gremlin-like creature with white fur and big orange eyes in their garbage and she takes it to her shed where she spends time alone. After a short conversation with The Meep where she finds its struggles are similar to her own struggles about her identity and not fitting in, Rose learns it is being pursued by aliens known as The Wrath Warriors. 

The Doctor arrives at the home hoping to peacefully take The Meep back to its home world when both the Hypnotized Soldiers and The Wrath Warriors attack the home in search of the Meep. Chaos ensues as UNIT arrives and the three factions enter a shootout as The Doctor and the Noble family attempt to escape with The Meep. 

A couple nonstory-related returns also occur in the way of the show’s previous writer Russell T. Davies and composer Murray Gold, both who left the show a few seasons ago at the beginning of the 13th Doctor’s era and have now returned. Gold’s return is especially welcome, as the composer resumes his position providing more amazing songs like he was never gone to begin with. 

This first special has The Doctor thrust into adventure with two familiar faces, one his own and one an old friend, and it feels like no time has passed since Tennant and Tate’s last adventure. There are many twists and turns as The Doctor tries to learn why this face has returned and why Donna is back in his life, and Davies uses this special to right a great wrong committed at the end of his first run.

There will be two more specials, with a new foe played by a popular American actor, that will be released on consecutive Saturdays on Disney+. After these specials air, the 15th Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa, will be introduced.