Doctor Who and the Star Beast (comic story)

— or The Star Beast — was a Fourth Doctor comic strip published in Doctor Who Weekly. The story introduced new companion Sharon Davies, as well as popular DWM villain Beep the Meep, and served as the basis for Russell T Davies' Fourteenth Doctor television story of the same name.
== Plot ==
Pursued by Wrarth Warriors, Beep the Meep crashes his craft in Blackcastle, where he is found and hidden by school children Sharon and Fudge. The Doctor follows the flames of the neutron drive star cruiser and investigates, unaware that he is leading the Wrarth Warriors directly to the Meep. The Warriors attack K9, making him useless. After he has sent the Meep with Sharon for safety, the Doctor learns from the Wrarth officers, Sergeant Zogroth and Constable Zreeg, that Beep is being hunted by the Wrarth (biological constructs of the five strongest races in the galaxy) for unspeakable crimes.
The Meep were once a happy advanced race. Radiation from the Black Sun, however turned them into conquering, savage beasts. Beep was shot down following his escape from the Battle of Yarras.
Taking the Wrarth Warriors with him, the Doctor finds Sharon and the locals turned into zombie drones by the radiation of the Black Star drive. Beep has made them work to repair the ship for a star jump from Earth. The Doctor, along with Blackcastle and the workers, are caught in the star jump.
The Doctor returns the workers (the radiation effect has started to wear off) 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 erratic and purring like a cat but back together. The Doctor agrees to take Sharon with him in the TARDIS so he can return her to Earth.
== Characters ==
* Fourth Doctor
* Sharon Davies
* Fudge Higgins
* Beep
* K9 Mark II
* Constable Zreeg
* Sergeant Zogroth
* Mrs Higgins
* Newsreader
== Worldbuilding ==
* Expecting to land in Benidorm, the Doctor wears a sombrero.
* When K9's memory and identity circuits are damaged, the Doctor recognises the speech patterns of Leela.
* The Doctor mentions receiving an O-level in Starship Weaponry from "Gallifrey Comp".
* The Doctor keeps a medal in his pockets that he earned in an unrecorded adventure for defeating the Cybermen, whom the Wrath Warriors are familiar with. He also has a small model Dalek on his TARDIS key chain.
* The Doctor claims to Sharon he would rather face the Black Guardian than have a mortgage.
== Notes ==
* Although Pat Mills and John Wagner were jointly credited, they took turns to write the scripts, with The Star Beast written by Pat Mills, as explained in Dave Gibbons' Interview for the The Iron Legion graphic novel, which also revealed that The Star Beast was based on a television story by Mills and Wagner that was submitted to and rejected by the BBC.
* Dave Gibbons consistently drew K9 smaller than the actual K9 prop, enabling him to be carried around more easily under characters' arms in the strip – something that was quite impossible on television.
* The newsreader is modelled upon contemporary newsreader Angela Rippon. Rippon herself played the role in the audio adaptation.
* When the Doctor and his bizarre companions take a bus ride, a worried-looking man is shown thinking, "Oh no! Please don't let them sit next to me!" The man is modelled on stand-up comedian Jasper Carrott, who had a well-known routine based around his encounters with "The Nutter On the Bus".
* Sharon becomes the first (known) person of colour to act as a continuous companion to the Doctor, predating Mickey Smith and Martha Jones by more than a quarter of a century.
* In Star Beast II, Beep is released after fifteen years in prison in the year 1995, dating this story to 1980.
=== Original print details ===
::Publication with page count and closing captions
# DWM 19 (5 pages) Next Week: The Human Bomb!
# DWM 20 (4 pages) Next Week: The Hunt!
# DWM 21 (4 pages) Next Week: Doctor Death!
# DWM 22 (4 pages) Next Week: Revenge of Wrarth!
# DWM 23 (5 pages) Next Week: Hour of the Beast!
# DWM 24 (4 pages) Next Week: Countdown to Apocalypse!
# DWM 25 (4 pages) Next Week: Stardeath!
# DWM 26 (4 pages) Next Week: Join the Doctor, Sharon and K-9 in... Devil-Spawn!
=== Reprints ===
# DW84 1-2 (Doctor Who (1984) colourised reprint)
# DWCC 25-26 (Doctor Who Classic Comics colourised reprint)
# The Iron Legion
# DWC 4-5 (IDW colourised reprint)
# Doctor Who Classics Volume 1 (IDW colourised reprint)
# Doctor Who Classics Omnibus Volume 1 (IDW colourised reprint)
# The Fourth Doctor Anthology
# Doctor Who and the Star Beast
== Continuity ==
* The Doctor expects to land in Benidorm. (COMIC: Doctor Who and the Iron Legion, City of the Damned)
* The randomiser is still attached to the Doctor's TARDIS. (TV: The Armageddon Factor)
* The Doctor uses harsh words to goad Sharon to proceed onward when she believes she can't, just as he did with Sarah Jane Smith aboard the Nerva Beacon. (TV: The Ark in Space)
Category:Fourth Doctor DWM comic stories
Category:K9 comic stories
Category:UNIT comic stories
Category:1980 comic stories
Category:Stories set in Blackcastle
Category:Stories set in 1980
Category:Comic adaptations of unproduced television stories
Category:Eight part comics
Category:Beep the Meep comic stories
Category:Fourth Doctor comic stories