The Star Beast

Comic Strip Adapatations #1.2

Released: 13 March 2019

Listened: 6/8/22

Although I don’t have nostalgic memories of “The Iron Legion,” like many nerdy Whovians, I’ve heard of Beep the Meep, so this story holds more interest for me. Unlike the comic story, K-9 doesn’t feature, but the well-drawn secondary characters of Sharon and Fudge, teenagers who find Beep after he crashes on Earth, make up for it. Fudge has more of a role this time, although he’s still slightly pathetic. Of course, if you already know that (spoiler) Beep is the baddie of the piece, that takes quite a bit of the suspense out of the story. Sharon, Fudge, and Fudge’s mother all have rather thick Sheffield accents, and speech patterns that I assume are normal for the era. I can deal with most accents in Big Finish, but the characters’ tendency to drop articles from their sentences was remarkably distracting, more than I’ve encountered before. As in the comic, Sharon ends up as a companion, which was perhaps intended as an ongoing role for Rhianne Starbuck, but to date, there haven’t been any more comic adaptations. I think that’s probably fine by me, as some of the later stories get rather surreal, which is perfect for comics, but not so good for audio. (Addendum: This review was written before the Fourteenth Doctor's version of "The Star Beast," which likely blows continuity to smithereens, but why not enjoy as much Beep the Meep as possible?)