Warning: this review is also a recap, meaning it contains spoilers for the episode
David Tennant’s comeback tour as the Doctor began with the glorified greatest hits set that was “The Star Beast”– a sweet, funny slab of kid-friendly telly that lovingly scratched its audience under the chin. But returning showrunner Russell T Davies had promised that “Wild Blue Yonder”, the second of Tennant’s three 60th anniversary instalments, would be “darker… not scary… just genuinely weird”. He wasn’t joking.
There have always been many sides to the BBC’s most beloved sci-fi franchise. One of its more distinctive flavours is “Weird Who” (remember those killer wheelie bins from Davies’s first season in 2005?).
It is a tradition that the enjoyably bonkers “Wild Blue Yonder” follows with a spring in its stride. Set aboard a haunted starship, this second adventure featuring the reunited Doctor and Donna (Catherine Tate) tips its hat to Ridley Scott’s original Alien. Meanwhile, its plunge into claustrophobic body horror suggests a familiarity with the Dead Space video games.
It’s a hoot seeing the real Doctor and Donna chased by amorphous ETs, who briefly grow so large that they wedge the corridor like exiles from a Lovecraftian clown show
Whatever the inspiration, it’s great fun – illuminated by the livewire enthusiasm of the two leads. And that’s despite a worrying moment when the Doctor references the dreadful and completely baffling Chris Chibnall’s “Flux” story arc from 2021, which made even hardcore Whovians feel adrift in time and space.
Never mind, the script pushes swiftly on, and we can again forget Flux ever happened. Nevertheless, some fans may be slightly underwhelmed. The BBC hasn’t done itself any favours by keeping the plot of “Wild Blue Yonder” under wraps. In so doing, it has fuelled wild speculation among Whovians – to the point where director Tom Kingsley had to take to Twitter to dampen the hype. “The story of ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ isn’t a secret because there are any surprise returning actors or villains,” he wrote. “It’s just because we thought you might find it fun to watch it without knowing what’s going to happen next.”
“The Star Beast” ended with Donna spilling coffee on the Tardis control panel and sending the machine into the temporal vortex. Taking up the story, “Wild Blue Yonder” has the pair initially materialise atop a tree in England in 1666 – watched on by an astonished Isaac Newton. “Was it me or was Isaac Newton hot?” Donna later wonders. The Doctor nods: “He was so hot.” Then, a pause. “Oh, is that who I am now?”
It is the latest indication that his sexuality may be more fluid than historically believed (as already broadly hinted during the Jodie Whittaker years). Donna shrugs: “It was never that far from the surface, mate.”
His orientation is the least of their concerns. The Tardis has beamed aboard a spaceship while its speakers blast “Wild Blue Yonder” – the anthem of the US Air Force. Why a war song? And why vanish suddenly – stranding the Doctor and Donna?
The Doctor has a theory about the latter. The Tardis has a “Hostile Action Displacement System”, which kicks in when danger is near. It’s taken itself off somewhere safe – presumably to return when the coast is clear.
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In the meantime, the duo have a vast spaceship to explore. A sad robot shuffles down a corridor, and a command bridge looks out at sheer emptiness. They’re at the very edge of the universe – gazing into a terrifying void where only madness lurks. Viewers can replicate the experience at home by tuning into the next episode of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!
But they’re not as alone as they think. The ship is also home to a pair of shape-shifting aliens, who turn into carnival mirror approximations of the Doctor and Donna. Comedy and horror bump against each other as the doppelgängers struggle to keep it together. “My arms are too long,” says the fake Doctor, dragging two massive rubberised hands like an oversized bendy toy.
Davies is correct to describe “Wild Blue Yonder” as more weird than scary. It’s a hoot seeing the real Doctor and Donna chased by the amorphous ETs, who briefly grow so large that they wedge the corridor like exiles from a Lovecraftian clown show.
There is further fun along the way as Davies replays the old TV trope of two lookalikes, each pretending to be the “real” version of someone. He also comes up with the clever idea of the aliens feeding on the anger and fear of the Doctor and Donna. It reads like a commentary on how social media monetises our darkest emotions (the monsters are temporarily powerless when Doctor and Donna clear their minds).
One of the most impressive aspects of these new Tennant adventures is their determination to play it straight
This is the point at which Chibnall-era Who would try to be clever by chucking in extra story elements and confusing everyone. Davies plays it straight, keeps it simple, and allows the Doctor and Donna to outsmart the shape-shifters, whose ultimate plan is to mimic the newcomers so perfectly that they can take control of the Tardis.
They are defeated, of course, and it’s back to London. There, we are treated to a moving cameo by Donna’s grandfather, Wilfred Mott, played by the late Bernard Cribbins in one of his final screen appearances (which sets up next week’s adventure when a passenger jet screams overhead and crashes).
One of the most impressive aspects of these new Tennant adventures is their determination to play it straight. Davies’s big return could easily have tripped up on its self-importance. The 60th anniversary is on the way, and Tennant is making history as the first Doctor to return for an entire arc.
But all of that is left unstated. Davies, Tennant and Tate are here because they love the Doctor. That uncomplicated enthusiasm ripples through an episode that is ultimately just another great helping of Who.
