10 Doctor Who Episodes You MUST Watch Before The 60th Anniversary

The Star Beast will be the latest in a long line of Earth invasion stories, with Beep the Meep and the Wrarth Warriors using contemporary London as their battleground.

2005's Rose was technically the first Earth invasion of revived Who, but the whole thing was remarkably low-key, with shop dummies in place of traditional aliens, and a threat that literally operated underground.

Aliens of London delivered more on this front, with a spaceship crashing into Big Ben, and the story being picked up by international news outlets. However, the true aliens stayed largely out of the public eye, and the whole thing was quickly branded a hoax.

Proper first contact didn’t come until The Christmas Invasion, when the Guinevere One space probe was intercepted by the Sycorax. With footage of the creatures broadcast on live television and their spaceship parked right on top of London, this time there was no denying that aliens were real.

This story is also notable for being David Tennant’s first full outing as the Doctor (even if he isn’t in it much until the third act), and as the origin story for the Doctor’s "handy spare hand", it inadvertently plants the seeds for Donna’s exit. But more on that later.