The Star Beast

"He must not know he is now... a living bomb!"

Writers: Pat Mills & John Wagner 

Format: Comic Strip

Released: February-April 1980

Printed in: DWM 19-26

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Sharon, K9

Synopsis 

Pursued by the Wrarth Warriors, Beep the Meep crashes his craft in Blackcastle where he is found by the young Sharon and Fudge. The Doctor and K9 arrive on the Wrarth ship but don't understand the whole situation until it's too late...

Verdict 

The Star Beast was a brilliant comic strip adventure! It continued my reading of The Iron Legion graphic novel wonderfully and I must say that I have been very impressed with the quality of the stories thus far, especially considering how early on Doctor Who Magazine was to producing comic strip stories at this point. This story gets the same rating as the title story of the graphic novel, but it is ever so close to being the best comic in the collection so far. There is a story that separates this adventure and City of the Damned in the form of the much shorter Timeslip. I didn't go back and read it again as it actually wasn't long ago at all that I read it because it was the bonus comic strip of The Tides of Time graphic novel. I've been doing a lot of comic strips lately with six of my last seven blog entries being one so I think tomorrow I'll be moving back to a different format, but it has been a busy week or so and comic strip stories can be done quickly. I do like to try and blog daily so they just seem an easy option. Anyway, on to the story itself and I thought it was brilliant. This is the earliest comic strip that I knew considerable detail about prior to reading and I think a lot of that might be down to The Ratings War audio adventure in which Beep the Meep returns and makes his performed Doctor Who debut. The furry creature was adorable at the start and had I not known about him being evil, the moment he revealed his true colours would have been a huge shock! In some respects it still was but I loved thinking back in envy to those who would've purchased what was Doctor Who Weekly and read that moment without knowing it was coming. I must say I am very jealous of those people. As well as introducing us to a classic villain, the story also provides us with a new comic strip companion - the first from DWM! I thought Sharon was terrific and her shocked reaction to learning the truth about Beep the Meep was fantastic. She didn't want to believe it at first but once he pulled a gun on her she was soon all ears! I thought Fudge was pretty good as her friend but as the story went on, the focus was fully on her. I found it interesting that she was referred to as a schoolchild and I must say it does seem a tad weird that his companion will be that young. Nevertheless, I'm confident that she'll be great (and if you scour back to somewhere in 2014 on this blog, you'll find this comic was not my first experience of Sharon as the Doctor's companion. I thought the cliffhanger to part three was absolutely phenomenal and I'm not using hyperbole when I say it's one of the very best of all time. It's right up there with The Reign of Terror part one, The Stolen Earth and Dark Water in my opinion. The Doctor discovering he's a living bomb just as the Wrarth Warriors hit the detonation button is simply astounding. The resolution was a very shaky though and I think it's a large part of why the comic doesn't secure that elusive perfect rating. The other cliffhangers were still very good. Blackcastle provided a very good setting and I loved the use of the steel mills and a cover story when it came to the UFO sighting. We even had UNIT soldiers appear which was marvellous. The characterisation of Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor was once again excellent and that always the comic adventure all the more exciting. The Wrarth Warriors were very good and I liked how they started off as looking like the enemies but we eventually learned that was not the case. The different flashbacks to the history of the Meeps was terrific and I also enjoyed the references to Revenge of the Cybermen and the Key to Time season. The ending was done well and I'm glad that it finished strongly and with pace. 

Rating: 9/10