Star Beast II

"I'm a nice Meep, really."

Writer: Gary Gillart
Format: Comic Strip
Released: September 1995
Printed in: Doctor Who Yearbook 1996

Featuring: Fourth Doctor

Synopsis

The Fourth Doctor hopes to land the TARDIS on Uniceptor so he and K9 can attend the wedding of his former companion Sharon. However, he ends up on Earth in Blackcastle during 1995 and encounters a deadly foe who has just been released from prison and is recovering something deadly...

Verdict

Star Beast II was an excellent comic strip adventure! It really improved the standard of The Clockwise War's bonus adventures thus far and I was thoroughly delighted with what I read. I had no idea this story even existed before looking at the contents for this comic strip collection and based on the name alone, I was incredibly intrigued. It was, as pretty much labelled, a sequel to Doctor Who and the Star Beast and I love the simplicity of the name in just adding on a II to let you know exactly what you're in for. That, the second ever DWM comic strip story, is incredibly famous and renowned and it is a very good adventure so to get a mini sequel here was fantastic. I thought it did itself justice and definitely lived up the reputation of its predecessor. The prison scenes with Beep the Meep attempting to convince the wardens of his clearing of the black light possession was quite comical and I liked how we as the reader always knew that it wasn't actually a good guy that was cleared. The moment where Meep revealed it was still very much evil despite fifteen years imprisoned was terrific and I was hugely impressed with how much this comic strip covered in just eight pages. The previous adventures from the Doctor Who Yearbooks were decent but this really was on another level which I was delighted with. The pace was very exciting and I loved that the Doctor was intending on visiting Sharon for her wedding. The inclusion of K9 in the form of just dialogue was great and the TARDIS arriving in Blackcastle for 1995 at the cinema was very good. The moment where the Doctor has a gun pointed at him by Meep was hilarious and it was one of the very few instances where I have physically laughed at a comic strip moment! It was such perfect characterisation of the Fourth Doctor and I liked how he wasn't at all disturbed by the threat and return of Beep the Meep. Beep wanting to recover the Black Star drive that was misplaced on its last visit there was good and I liked the linkages to the first story the weirdly whacky enemy appeared in. The interaction between the Doctor and Beep was excellent and I liked how quick things happened because they were exciting and made perfect sense! The Doctor taking advantage of the cinema setting was extremely good and I like to think that the TARDIS was partly responsible for defeating the Meep by arriving here instead of on Uniceptor. The use of the light reels to literally trap Beep the Meep in a film was just wonderful and the enemy's reaction was sublime! It was gutted, angry and trapped so soon after being released from prison in some really great irony. The inclusion of Fugde Higgins was also something I should mention as being a positive and further links back to the original story which really made this a brilliant sequel. He didn't have much of a role here and I'd have liked some more acknowledgement from the Doctor, but it was just nice for him to appear. Overall, a really excellent comic strip story!

Rating: 9/10