By Rob McCow

The Star Beast (or: Stan Lee Presents Doctor Who and The Star Beast)

First published in Doctor Who Weekly 19-26, March to April 1980. This was reprinted in ‘Color’ in the first two issues of the American Doctor Who comic and then again in issue 25 of Doctor Who: Classic Comics. The strip is currently available in Doctor Who: The Iron Legion graphic novel, published in 2005 by Panini Books.

Writers – Mills + Wagner

Artist – Dave Gibbons

Editor – Dez Skinn

This story features K-9 and introduces the Doctor’s new companion, Sharon, who is a dark-skinned and Afro-sporting schoolgirl from Blackcastle. Sharon is headstrong and smart, even if she is slightly bland. Not that there’s anything wrong with being bland. A companion that’s more ordinary can add a vital human element to these sorts of fantasy stories. She’s rather like that ‘Rose’ character from the new series. She even tells the Doctor that she ‘couldn’t imagine you with a mortgage!’ It was true in 1980 and its still true today. The Doctor replies that it’s an awful thought and that he’d rather face the Black Guardian!

Poor K-9! In this story his laser beam proves ineffective against the Wrarth Warriors and he gets decapitated for his troubles, which would never have happened if they’d have got to Benidorm. When the Doctor fixes him, K-9 is confused. He initially mixes his memory and identity so that he becomes Leela, shouting, "I will slit your miserable throat from ear to ear!" After an adjustment he starts thinking that he is a cat, so the Doctor threatens to re-name him ‘Mog-E’. K-9 is later seen perched on the TARDIS time rotor, hissing at people.

Also on board for the ride are Sergeant Zogroth and Constable Zreeg, Wrarth Warriors who form part of a G.L.E.P (Galactic Law Enforcement Posse) and are on the trail of the Meep. There’s also Fudge, the selfish, comic book obsessed schoolboy and his mother, the wonderful Mrs Higgins. She’s a brilliant counterpoint to the sci-fi elements of the story, a traditional washerwoman with her hair up in a towel and a permanent supply of cigarettes. Whether shouting at the Doctor to get off her roof or offering tea to Constable Zreeg, Mrs Higgins is adorable.

A spaceship crashes into a steel mill in Blackcastle. Disbelieving the TV reports that deny UFO activity, two schoolchildren, Sharon and Fudge, examine the site. In a nearby garden shed they find the injured Meep, a cute furry alien with big, sad eyes. They take him home to recover.

The Doctor meanwhile, lands on a Wrarth star ship orbiting Earth. The Wrarth are sworn enemies of the Meep and they assume that the Doctor is the Meep’s spy. They plant a bomb in the Doctor’s stomach while he is unconscious and let him escape to the TARDIS. Fortunately for the plot, the Doctor sees a TV report on the scanner about the crashed spaceship and investigates.

With the Meep tucked up at home, Sharon and Fudge return to the Mill and find the cute furry creatures’ star ship. The Doctor arrives and helps Sharon and Fudge to evade some Wrarth Warriors who are trailing the Meep. They return to Mrs Higgins’ home where the Doctor meets the Meep. Realising that their escape from the Wrarth was too easy and noting that he has an unusual stomach ache, the Doctor realises that the Wrarth have planted a bomb inside him, so he wraps lead piping around his waist to stop them detonating it.

The Wrarth attack Mrs. Higgins’ house and after holding them off with a Fizgig, the Doctor escapes with Sharon and the Meep on the No.5A bus. The Meep uses a ray gun to blast the Wrarth, but claims he only did it in self defence because he was frightened.

The Doctor leaves Sharon to take care of the Meep and returns to Mrs. Higgins’ house. Befriending the Wrarth by showing them his badge for defeating the Cybermen, he discovers that the Meep is actually an insane, psychotic, evil tyrant! The Doctor accompanies the Wrarth to the Steel Mill, where the Meep is using mind-controlled workers and UNIT operatives to repair his ship. The Meep is planning to make a star-jump that will destroy Earth and catapult him into space. The Doctor rescues Sharon from the Meep’s mind control and reduces the power of its ship so it only makes a small star-jump into Earth’s orbit, where the Wrarth pick him up. Sharon realises that the Meep is evil and angrily chastises the furry beast before accompanying the Doctor onto his next adventure.

Some Doctor Who strips are perfectly suited to the comic format and you couldn’t imagine them translated to TV. Others are more grounded in what the TV show was doing at the time. Then there’s The Star Beast, a story that the small screen was aching for, but is perfectly realised as a comic strip. In essence, it’s a slice of Season 17 action, with novelty monsters, buckets of humour and crazy sci-fi ideas.

The Meep and the Wrarth themselves are great designs, but I can only think that they’d have been made into something cheaper and nastier on the screen. I’m imagining the Meep as a mini-Mandrel and the Wrarth as Kraags with claws, or more likely relatives of Costa and Fisk from The Nightmare of Eden.

Before you ask, I’m not the only person obsessed with The Nightmare of Eden. In fact, I’m barely an initiate in the subject! The Meep’s spaceship would have been particularly difficult to achieve, occupying half a demolished steel mill. Though a landing hatch and a cockpit might have been enough to cover a multitude of CSO sins.

Bringing the story back to Earth gives it a more coherent style, art-wise, than the excesses of City of The Damned or Iron Legion. Seeing Doctor Who action on the streets of Blackcastle is a real joy. There’s three awesome full-page spreads, one featuring Meep’s spaceship hurtling towards the steel mill; the Doctor, Meep and Sharon escaping the Wrarth on the No.5A bus; and Blackcastle being sucked into a black hole with the Doctor right at the centre of it!

The absolute star of the show however, is Beep The Meep. He starts off as the cutest little alien critter you’ve ever seen, until the subtle tweaks of narrower eyes and rows of sharp teeth are added, when he turns into a vicious and scheming monster. The flashbacks to the history of the Meep world and the Black Sun are fantastically drawn as well.

The likenesses of Tom and K-9 are generally superb, apart from the odd frame where Tom looks like a Motown diva with a curly Afro. (This is particularly noticeable during the ‘Prophetic soul’ line.) Sharon herself has a very large forehead, which sometimes makes her look very old. In every frame, her hair seems to start behind her head, so when she leans forward her forehead space becomes enormous. It’s as though she’s shaved the front half of her hair off. I think it looks weird and freaky.

Frequently with these fourth Doctor stories, at least one part will end with a close up on the Doctor’s face while he says something portentous in capitals. This time, not only does he bellow in wide-eyed horror: "Get away from me everyone! I’ve just realised… I’M A LIVING BOMB!" but we also get: "My prophetic soul! So the Meep is as GENTLE as a BOA-CONSTRICTOR and he’s got SHARON IN HIS GRASP!"

Iconic. It’s an easy word to bandy about, but the fact that the Meep has turned up more than once since his debut shows that there’s something about the malevolent fur-ball that is irresistible! This is another good spin on an old idea, that the cute looking friendly alien is the villain and the hideous monsters are actually quite friendly. Though the Wrarth are pretty ruthless with their human bomb scheme and they nearly kill Sharon and Fudge. Meanwhile the Meep is just so cute that you don’t want to believe he’s evil. When he finally throws his cover he’s a deliciously violent character, delighting in the thought of giving Sharon "A Grundian Blood-Nog" for petting him throughout the story. His sweet side is delightfully juxtaposed with his violence.

"Hoppity-hop! Boppity-bop! Who’s next for the chop?!"

"It’s just a teensy-weensy stun beam, Sharon! It makes them sleep…. (aside) FOR EVER!"

You can even feel sorry for him as he’s dragged away in chains at the end, protesting to Sharon that other Meeps were a bad influence on him!

Having him pretend to be cute is a trick you can only play on the reader once. It limits the use of his character for future stories, because it’s his cuddly side that makes him memorable.

This story has possibly the most consistent plot of the Doctor Who Weekly strips, focusing entirely on the Meep’s flight through Blackcastle and his sinister plans. The Doctor’s arrival on the Wrarth war-ship is a bit of a detour, but it does serve as a fun way of introducing the Wrarth and reinforcing the impression that they are the villains of the piece. The build up to the activation of the Meep’s star drive is excellent, with little indication that the Doctor has done anything that will save the Earth. The cliff hanger where the Doctor is at the centre of a black hole is marvellous. The resolution is a little disappointing though, because suddenly everything is alright and only the steel mill is going to be destroyed. The final capture of the Meep more than makes up for this though.

It’s not quite my favourite of the Tom Baker comic strips, but The Star Beast is a real treat. In my opinion, the Meep is one of the most entertaining characters of Doctor Who as a whole. He’s not really evil, you know. How could they tell such wicked lies? He’s only a little Meep. He knows he’s been bad, he’ll be good in future!

The ‘Most-High’ will have ATONEMENT in BLOOD for this!

Sharon becomes Doctor Who Weekly’s first original companion. She’s possibly the first regular comic strip only companion since the days of John and Gillian.

The dreaded Meep returns in several comic strips, usually as a comedy aside, but sometimes as a real threat. He gets his own audio play too, that was given away free with DWM, called The Ratings War.

UNIT soldiers guard the Steel Mill.

The Doctor is still trying to get to Benidorm and first emerges from the TARDIS wearing a sombrero and brandishing maracas.

The Doctor’s key ring holds a Galactic Express card, a small Ankh, a Rolykin-sized Dalek and a badge for defeating the Cybermen.

As mentioned before, K-9 briefly becomes Leela.

The Randomizer and the Black Guardian both warrant a mention.

To attract Sharon’s attention at the steel mill, the Doctor makes a rather neat-looking paper airplane called a Galifreyan Interceptor.

Fudge returns in Star Beast II, presented in the 1996 Marvel Yearbook. He is older and has become manager of The Mill Centre 10 Screen Cinema, built on the site of the old steel mill. There is a curious space rocket-like structure poking out of the top of the cinema.