Second special is what the Doctor - and fans - ordered

Classic space antics abound in the latest 'Doctor Who', which features a moving cameo, as David Tennant and Catherine Tate face a pair of eerily familiar foe

- Ed Power

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.

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.