Well, I am glad to be looking at these comics after watching the TV special. Featuring the extraordinary art of Dave Gibbons, best known for the Watchmen, you aren't going to find many Doctor Who comics looking better than this. Like the Iron Legion and some of these other earlier comics, Gibbons really makes these books special.

The story is interesting because while it does a lot well, I didn't like the humour that consistently. Sometimes it felt very kiddy while also featuring some very intense action and horror within the same spread. It's a little disjointed, but hardly outside of the character of this whole franchise, I guess, either. I guess I don't think The Star Beast struck that all-ages balance much of Doctor Who is normally able to achieve.

Still, it was a fun story and its flaws are all the better reason for it to have been adapted for the main series. I think Russel T Davies did a better job of the reveal around Beep the Meep - by showing his true nature later on, it feels like more of a surprise, while the comic tips the reader off much earlier to the audience than most of the characters. I definitely think the show does that better, but also gets bogged down in all the stuff around the "new" Doctor, UNIT, and Donna. The comic, on the other hand, stands entirely on its own - introducing most of these concepts and characters while breezily blending that in with the content overall nicely. Sharon, the new companion for this story, is fun but a bit unremarkable outside of this being the first companion of colour.

That's the beauty of adaptation, though, as I find both the TV and comic versions are worth checking out and are interesting companion pieces to each other. It is really cool seeing just how faithful the show is to the comics in adapting Gibbons' distinct visual style, while also making a lot of changes to make the story better work in live action. It's cool and a great example of adapting source material well. It also makes me very interested in checking out the audio adaptation, too!