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 By Rob McCow |
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What’s the story called? Nature of the Beast
Nature of the Beast was a three-parter, appearing in DWM #111 to #113 from April to June of 1986. It’s never been reprinted, not even by Panini Books. Unlike some of the previous comic strips, it only has one title for its three parts.
Script – Simon Furman Art – John Ridgeway Letters – Annie Halfacree Editor – Shelia Cranna
With two companions now established in the TARDIS, the battle for things to do has begun in earnest. Peri makes an early stab by dominating the first page of the comic strip, while Frobisher sticks in humorous asides throughout and getting himself hung upside-down. Peri has a good comeback, barking at the Doctor for getting them captured by soldiers during their picnic and wanting to know if everything really has turned out for the best in the epilogue. This leaves Frobisher with lines such as ‘The sooner we’re back at the TARDIS…’ Unfortunately for the regulars, the end game goes to the medic, Genesil Lupe. He’s a traitor to his people, but seeing as those people are the belligerent Yl-Caan that’s no bad thing. The story is essentially about his love for a lady slightly beyond his reach. In the end, he makes an enormous sacrifice for his love.
Peri is delighted. The Doctor has finally found a nice planet for a picnic! They settle down to enjoy themselves but are interrupted when a wolf-like creature leaps across their meal, being pursued by knights on flying sleds armed with ray guns. They prepare to execute the beast in the name of High Lord Mackal, but the Doctor throws a rock, knocking the Commander’s gun off target. The beast escapes, but is cornered by one of the knights, who seems to deliberately miss and let the beast escape. Commander Hon orders his men after the Doctor and his companions, who are running away.
Huffing and puffing The Doctor, Frobisher and Peri hide in a cave, where they discover the beast has also taken refuge. The Doctor approaches the beast, realising that it is an intelligent creature. As he gets close though, the beast growls ‘RAAAR!’ and leaps into the air! It leaps straight over the Doctor to attack Commander Hon who was preparing to fire. The Beast gets away, but the Doctor’s party is taken prisoner. At Commander Hon’s futuristic base, Hon accuses the Doctor of controlling the beast that killed Lady Irna. The Doctor tells Hon that his hypothesis is a fantasy. Hon explains that him and his men are Yl-Caan, a warrior race bred for combat. The War Lord Mackal married Lady Irna to form an alliance between the Yl-Caan and the Caynon. The Caynon had mastered warp travel and the Yl-Caan were able to spread their empire through the galaxy. However, Lady Irna was struck with a deadly disease, throwing the alliance into disagreement. In order to cure Irna, she was brought to this world which was discovered to have healing properties. Her medical officer, Lupe, made sure she was well cared for. She started to recover, but disappeared one day while out walking. The beast must have killed her. Hon hopes to gain retribution by bringing the head of the beast to Mackal. The Doctor and his companions await execution in their cell but are let out by Lupe, who takes them into the forest. Lupe explains that the planets atmosphere affected Lady Irna in an unexpected way – Lady Irna turned into the beast! Lupe made it look as though the beast had killed Lady Irna so that she could escape into the forest. The two had fallen in love.
The howling Commander Hon, meanwhile, is preparing to detonate an apocalyptic bomb to hide his mistakes and prevent their allies going to war. The Doctor and his party try to sneak back into the base, but are captured. Commander Hon tells them that the bomb will detonate in 15 minutes and makes his escape in a rocket ship.
Beastly behaviour The Doctor, Lupe, Peri and Frobisher are rescued by the beast / Lady Irna. The Doctor rushes to find the bomb, but Irna has beaten him to it and placed the bomb on Commander Hon’s ship. The ship explodes above the atmosphere. The Doctor, Peri and Frobisher leave. The Yl-Caan and the Caynon are at war with each other, rather than attacking harmless planets. With the Doctor’s help, Lupe was able to find a way to advance the physiological change and Lupe becomes a beast like Irna.
The metamorphosis of a woman into a beast was something that the TV show attempted in Vengeance on Varos, but in that story it was a more unnatural change. The story itself is much more gentle than the TV version, although the Doctor is just as brusque and self-absorbed. During the picnic he bores Peri and Frobisher with tales of UNIT and Cybermen.
The artwork is serviceable but uninspiring in this one. There’s some nifty space-battles in the back story, but most of the action on the planet is talking heads. The beast looks effective though, with its long gangly limbs making it look suitably inhuman. The close-ups on the face are particularly good. Ridgeway makes the eyes look intelligent and slightly feminine, but still alien enough not to give the game away. The soldiers also look great with their t-shaped helmets and fancy rocket sleds. The likenesses are great throughout and there’s even a decent drawing of Davison in a little aside as the Doctor remembers his skill at throwing a cricket ball.
Simon Furman’s debut on the comic strip is a very simple story with just enough twists to keep it interesting. The back-story of the war doesn’t meld to well with the main story on the forest planet and the might of the war-like Yl-Caan isn’t particularly prominent. If Lady Irna was really so important it seems odd that she’d be protected by only six guards. The disjointed story telling at the start of part three is confusing and unnecessary. There’s a flashback at the start that fills in on events that happened between parts two and three, but rather than speeding up the story it interrupts the action and slows it down. The denouement is satisfying if a bit predictable. Perhaps more could have been made of Lupe’s decision to leave his life as a soldier to become a beast with Lady Irna, but the final frame of the two of them running in the forest together is quite sweet. In a carnivorous mutated alien kind of way. I quite enjoyed Nature of The Beast. Although it’s a solid start for Simon Furman it’s still a bit of a filler story. A ham-sandwich picnic rather than champagne and smoked salmon.
Simon Furman was the first ‘jobbing’ writer for the Doctor Who comic strip. Previously the writers had overseen the strip for a few stories, but from this story they alternated through various writers. Simon Furman had previously worked on Transformers Comic and was a Marvel UK regular. He would go on to create the character ‘Death’s Head’ who would turn up briefly in the Doctor Who comic strip. He also wrote Big Finish audio Axis of Insanity. These days he’s known as the foremost Transformers writer. This story features a were-wolf like creature. Were-wolves would appear in Doctor Who in Big Finish audio Loups-Garoux, new series episode Tooth and Claw and BBC Books Wolfsbane. The Doctor was originally heading to Berryn Four for an intellectually stimulating break studying artefacts. A picnic in a forest was much more to Peri’s taste. One of the foods in their picnic is Prenuvian paté. They appear to have tea and cake as well. Part two is subtitled ‘Wolf in the fold!’ and part three ‘A wolf in wolf’s clothing!’
Lupine pain
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