Writer: Pat Mills & John Wagner, Artist: Dave Gibbons, Editor: Dez Skinn
A holidaying 4th Doctor & K9 arrive on the Wrarth ship, where he encounters a hostile reception.
When the Doctor wakes, he escapes, not suspecting that he is leading the Wrarth Warriors directly to the Meep, and that his stomach has been implanted with a bomb!
The Doctor repairs K9, albeit something's not quite right - he thinks he's a cat!
When Sharon and Fudge investigate the crashed ship...
...they're attacked by the Wrarth...
...but rescued by the Doctor.
Luckily he's able to block the Wrarth detonation signal.
...but the Wrarth have tracked them down.
As the story begins to unfold we hear the Meep's innermost thoughts and his true nature is revealed.
...that the Doctor learns from the Wrarth officers, Sergeant Zogroth and Constable Zreeg, that the Meeps were once a happy advanced race. Radiation from a Black Sun, however turned them into conquering, savage beasts. Beep was shot down following his escape from the Battle of Yarras.
Beep has even managed to gain control of Sharon and make her attack the Doctor, but he helps her to reassert her personality and free herself.
When the Meep's control over the workers slips as the radiation effect wears off, the Doctor is able to return the workers to Earth in the TARDIS.
The Wrarth ship captures and boards the Meep’s ship and Sharon is returned to the Doctor and K9, who is still erratic and purring like a cat.
The Meep appeals to Sharon but receives short shrift.
The Doctor agrees to take Sharon with him in the TARDIS so he can return her to Earth, and she becomes his newest companion!
On the surface a 'don't judge a book by its' cover' story, where the cutesy-pie Meep is the villain whilst the hideously monstrous Wrarth 'Warriors' are the peace-keeping policemen of the galaxy, "Star Beast" is a much more polished and classy affair than at first sight.
Characterization is top drawer, starting with the perfectly pitched season 17 4th Doctor but ranging from the deliciously despicable Beep to the officious Adams-esque Wrarth (their surgeon being a particular highlight), and from the rambunctious Fudge to the fearless Sharon.
In a perverse way it barely seems worth mentioning the artwork from Dave Gibbons because of course it's peerless, but it really is worth highlighting the duality of his unique and memorable characters. Beep's ability to turn on a dime is fully dependent on Gibbons, as is the Wrarths' to terrify and tickle the funny bone.
It's interesting that the strip places the 4th Doctor squarely in contemporary Britain at a time when his TV counterpart rarely looked in, and that we get the first-black-companion (TM) in Sharon in so pleasingly untrumpeted a manner, and it's testament to Mills and Wagner that what we have on offer here mirrors the true deception of season 17: that we have a confident, joyous, intelligent and thoughtful plot and script masquerading as something painted with broader strokes i.e. a seemingly silly story grounded in the banal, that wears a cultivated cheapness on its sleeve to distract from its rich ideas.
Memorable for all the right reasons, and all the more enjoyable as a classic that eschews the epic for joie-de-vivre. You might say it has a bouquet, but even though it hides its light under a bushell (or perhaps in a discretely hidden pouch), only a fool would take the "Star Beast" for a table wine!
9/10
Star Beast II
1 part (DWYB 1996) September 1995Writer: Gary Gillatt, Artist: Martin Geraghty, Colourist: Paul Vyse, Editor: Scott Gray
Beep the Meep is freed on parole after fifteen years of incarceration for his crimes.
The Black Sun drive with which he enslaved people has been removed from his ship.
Attempting to go to Unicepter IV for Sharon Davies' wedding, the Fourth Doctor inadvertently ends up in Blackcastle, where he'd first met Sharon and her schoolmate Fudge Higgins. The TARDIS has materialised at a cinema, so the Doctor decides to leave K9 in the TARDIS (having noticed a NO PETS sign) and watch a Lassie film.
The two escape to the projection booth, where the Doctor converts the projector to a black light receiver.
Activating it imprisons Beep within the Lassie film which was loaded into the projector.
A one shot from the 1996 (published 1995) Doctor Who Yearbook that homages the original with a direct sequel set 15 years later (albeit seemingly only a year or so later from the Doctor's point of view as he's in his season 18 outfit!), Star Beast II is a fun little run-around that captures the DWW 4th Doctor strips perfectly.
Whilst it's perhaps a shame that we don't get to see the Doctor reunited with Sharon, the unexpected return of the adult Fudge is pleasing, and the 'Most High' is at his despicable best. Martin Geraghty's artwork is up to his usual standard and sympathetic enough to Gibbons' style to boost that feel of continuity. No great shakes overall, but does what it sets out to do with assurance.
6.5/10
TTFN! K.
Coming Soon... The Tides of Time
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