Don’t think.

The newly-minted 14th Doctor arrives in London just in time for an alien invasion and to meet an old friend.

It’s the first of the three 60th Anniversary Doctor Who specials, The Star Beast.

Episode Synopsis

The newly-regenerated Doctor, suffering no obvious post-regenerative effects, arrives in London, where he almost immediately encounters Donna Noble, followed by her daughter Rose, and a crashing alien spacecraft. The Doctor also meets Donna’s husband, Sean, a taxi driver, and heads off to intercept the spacecraft.

UNIT has descended on a steelworks where the craft has made a controlled landing. The Doctor chooses to keep out of sight of the UNIT troops, but he’s soon spotted by Shirley Bingham, UNIT’s current Scientific Advisor. The Doctor explains his dilemma.  For some reason, he’s got an old face back, and he’s been plunked down right next to Donna Noble, and there’s an alien invasion.  Something is up.  But if Donna ever remembers him, she will die.

He also points out that the ship was damaged by weapons fire, which means there are two alien invaders.

Rose has gone to see the escape pod, which landed near her house, and then, upon return to her shed, has found The Meep, a creature so cute you could sell them by the millions if you had a little shop.  (I love a little shop.) The Meep is afraid, for there are monsters pursuing the.

UNIT has located the escape pod, and the Doctor hitches a lift to see it and realizes it is right near Donna’s house. (At least, I think that’s why he goes straight to Donna’s house.)

At the spaceship, a squad of UNIT soldiers are taken over by the craft and proceed to search for the Meep.

In Rose’s shed, Donna discovers the Meep, and a flap ensues.  Sylvia — Donna’s mother pretends like there’s nothing there because she knows if Donna remembers about her journeys through space and time, she’ll die.  The Doctor arrives and starts to try to deal with the Meep.

The explain that the Wrath Warriors have hunted Meepkind to extinction, and the is the only one left.

The possessed UNIT soldiers arrive at the front door, the Wrath Warriors arrive at the back door, and the shooting begins.  The Doctor gets them out of the house and into Sean’s taxi.  Along the way, the Doctor notices something curious.  They escape, but not before the Wrath Warriors notice them and open fire.

In an empty car park, the Doctor stops and holds court, conveniently summoning two Wrath Warriors out of thin air.  The Doctor, as judge, presents the evidence that he has amassed. The Wrath Warriors are firing non-lethal weapons and are not killing the UNIT soldiers but instead stunning them.  (He fails to mention that they blew two walls out of Donna’s house with explosions that could have easily killed someone.) He also posits that the mind-controlled UNIT soldiers are actually under the Meep’s control and trying to rescue the.

The Wrath Warriors explain the Meep is the last of the kind, a race of beings mutated into cruel, evil killers by their sun when it went mad.  The Meep responds by killing the Wrath Warriors with a concealed weapon, just as the possessed UNIT soldiers arrive.  The Doctor bluffs his way into getting himself and Donna’s family taken prisoner rather than killed outright.

They are taken back to the Meep’s starship, which has been repaired by a team of more possessed workers. The starship uses a Dagger Drive, which will destroy and consume London upon takeoff.

The Doctor and the gang are rescued by Shirley, and while Donna’s family tries to escape, the Doctor heads to disable the ship.

Donna has been increasingly remembering the Doctor in an oblique way and, almost instinctively, follows him onto the starship.  They get sealed in before the Doctor can send her away.

The engine compartment is split in two by the biggest plot contrivance in the history of television, and, with Donna’s consent, the Doctor must perform an undelete on the files in Donna’s head, even knowing that it is a certain death for Donna.  They stop the ship and — bonus — undo all the physical damage to London.

Donna dies in the Doctor’s arms.  But the Meep is still at large and plans to destroy the ship.  This is where Rose comes to save the day, for she, too, has the mind of a Time Lord, passed down by Donna, which has split the meta-crisis between them, which also means Donna isn’t actually dead.  The Doctor then causes the Meep’s escape pod to eject, allowing the Wrath Warriors to apprehend the.

The split meta-crisis only delays the inevitable, and now Donna and Rose are on a countdown to die.  Fear not; they’re women, and they can just let it go, thus ending the meta-crisis. (“Just let it go?” Clearly, Donna has never met Donna.)

Later, Donna goes with the Doctor for one last trip — just to go see Wilf and let him know that everything has been resolved and Donna is safe; however, Donna spills coffee on the new TARDIS console, and they are off on an uncontrolled journey into time and space.