Of course, we know that the source for this story would be useful in the first story of the 60th Anniversary stories, featuring the Fourteenth Doctor,  Donna Noble Temple,  and Rose Noble Temple, along with The Meep and the Varax Police.

I love that The Doctor is still trying to get to Benidorm. It’s a small detail but proof that the team behind this series want to put their own stamp on Doctor Who.

The basic outline of this story and the aliens within it are perfect. The delicious moment clearly being when the cute Beep the Meep turns out to be an evil intergalactic villain who can possess its victims. The character design of Beep and the Wrath Warriors are most excellent. When you get beyond that the details don’t always deliver the same impact but the big beats are simply perfect. It's a great shame that the eventual TV adaptation did not include the backstory of the planet of the Meeps, that is truly exceptional.

The Star Beast - ★★★½☆

Probably the most iconic story of the Doctor Magazine, but it's a bit overrated. Most whovians must be well acquainted with the premise of The Star Beast now it had a TV adaptation, but here we go: a ship crashes in an English city (in this version what I believe is a fictious town, Blackcastle), and local girl Sharon Davies rescue a defenseless creature being chased by horrible monsters. And of course, wherever is trouble there is the Doctor.

I actually prefer the comic version to the TV one, simply because I think the alien characters are much better utilised and the plot is better structured. The Wrath Warriors in special are both more interesting and terrifying here, and the conflict between them and Beep the Meep is better developed. I can't deny the adaptation has stronger emotional moments though, but it's less because of anything to do with the originals ideas from The Star Beast and more because it's a reunion of the Doctor and Donna that just hit in the feels. I like the visuals in both fairly enough, but I dislike the conclusion to the TV episode.

And then there is Sharon. I actually like her here, it's a really strong introduction and probably the most emotional scene is courtesy of her; when she yells at Beep how horrible he is and that she will never make the mistake of so easily trusting again. It's a bit tragic, actually. Her innocence was just robbed from her. But it frustrates me in retrospect because she's so good here and I just hate the path they took her character. It's not really The Star Beast's fault, of course, but I can't completely dissociate it from the rest anymore as long as Sharon is concerned.

And there is also an actual problem, and it's the Meep. Or rather the reveal that he is evil, which I didn't try to hide at all since everybody probably knows already anyways. I like the character, I like his background, but the comic ruins its own twist by showing the reader way too early that he's evil by telling us so through his thought bubbles and evil faces when nobody is looking. It'd have worked much better is there was just ambiguity to his actions until the climax, when he mind control a bunch of people, Sharon included, and the reader was left to wonder who to trust.

Totally understandable why this is so iconic, but it's a flawed classic.

If I could give this a 6.5, I definitely would.

Comparing this to the TV story that adapts it is a real struggle, I think the plot itself is better here, but because of the format it does lose out on some of the charm, and this is the first of the Doctor Who Magazine comics where I feel the art is really working against the story rather than adding to it.

The Meep looks as cute as he can with the art style, but I can't help but wonder if a different style would be able to create an even better contrast between him and the Wrath Warriors or even just both sides of him.

I also think the Doctor Who comics are at their best when telling stories you can't imagine being done on screen (or at least not at the scale they're done on the page), and nothing here particularly stands out as impressive for me on that front here, I could definitely see this being a story they tell on TV, not only because of the obvious, but even just, I can imagine them telling this story on TV back with Tom Baker.

Overall, this is a strong 6/10, but it doesn't do enough for me personally to push it over to a 7/10

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!