‘NATURE OF THE BEAST!’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
The Beast with the Sixth Doctor, Peri and Frobisher
And no, this thankfully isn’t the Beast from ‘The Impossible Planet’/’The Satan Pit’. This is a werewolf-type of beast that the Doctor, Peri and Frobisher encounter when they visit an alien world.
Peri has persuaded the Doctor to take them to a sunny woodland glade where they and Frobisher can relax and recuperate. This is after they saved the universe on TV, in the audios and in the comics.
‘Nature of the Beast!’ is a three-part comic story from the pages of ‘Doctor Who Magazine’. I’m glad the comic stories went back to multi-part stories with no individual titles for each of the episodes. 🙂
Once again, John Ridgway is the artist for this comic story, but this time, it’s Simon Furman who’s the writer of this ‘Doctor Who’ adventure. Simon Furman is well-known for writing ‘Transformers’ comics.
I believe this is the first time that Simon Furman has written a comic story in ‘Doctor Who’. He would write more comic stories for both the Sixth Doctor and the Seventh Doctor in ‘Doctor Who Magazine’.
He’s also written the Big Finish audio ‘The Axis of Insanity’ with the Fifth Doctor, Peri and Erimem. As well as ‘Doctor Who’, he’s also written a couple of ‘Torchwood’ comics for ‘Torchwood Magazine’. 🙂
Anyway, back to the story. It was amusing to see Peri wearing a big sun hat, as she, the Doctor and Frobisher go off to enjoy a picnic. Sadly, like in ‘Prison In Space’, their picnic gets curtailed in the story.
The planet that the Doctor, Peri and Frobisher hope is uninhabited turns out to be inhabited by a wolf-like beast from the woods. The beast attacks them and soon the beast’s pursuers come along. 😦
Eventually, the beast gets captured. It transpires that the soldiers who have captured the beast believe that it killed Irna, wife of their War Lord Mackal and an aristocrat of a space faring species. 😐
I liked the cliffhanger ending to ‘Part One’ where the Doctor tried to calm the beast down and we’re made to believe it’s about to attack him. In the end, in ‘Part Two’, the beast was after someone else.
As the story progresses, the Doctor and his friends discover that the beast is actually Irna herself. Her former lover Lupe, a scientist, is trying to save Irna’s life from the soldiers that want to kill her. 🙂
I like how the backstories are given on what happened when Irna became the beast. The soldiers’ leader Hon gives his account of events in ‘Part Two’ whilst Iran relays his account during ‘Part Three’.
Incidentally, Commander Hon is a member of the Yl-caan war-like species. Apparently, War Lord Mackal married Lady Irna in order to gain access to the space travel technology that her people had.
Commander Hon seems a dodgy sort, especially when he’s in communication with War Lord Mackal about the situation concerning Lady Irna and the beast. He also attempts to destroy the alien planet.
Thankfully, the Doctor manages to stop the whole planet from being destroyed by Commander Hon. Hon himself meanwhile believes to have failed in his task of saving Irna, not knowing she’s the beast.
The Doctor also succeeds in arranging for Irna and Lupe to live in the woods together. This is done by making Lupe into a wolf-like beast like Irna. Huh. I expected Irna to be turned back into human form.
Then again, Irna had been poisoned – this is the reason why she came to the alien planet, as it has healing air – so, I suppose it makes sense for Lupe to end up becoming a wolflike being like his lover.
I’m slightly disappointed that Frobisher didn’t get much of a standout role in this story. Although it was so funny to see him hanging upside down compared to the Doctor, Peri and Lupe being upright.
Then again, Frobisher is still suffering from the monomorphia that he contracted in ‘Genesis!’. Peri makes mention of it after suggesting that he shapeshift into something and she forgot his condition.
It was nice when old Sixy recounted the events of ‘The Invasion’ to Peri and Frobisher, mentioning Cybermen and U.N.I.T. This is especially after they had encountered Cybermen in the previous story.
‘Nature of the Beast!’ has been an engaging ‘Doctor Who’ comic story to get into. This shouldn’t be a surprise, since Simon Furman is the writer of this story. I look forward to more comic stories by him.
At the end of the ‘Doctor Who: The Complete History’ edition of the ‘Voyager’ graphic novel, there’s quite an amusing interview with Frobisher, which was first published in ‘Doctor Who Magazine’ in April 1989. Frobisher’s interview is also in ‘The World Shapers’ graphic novel with the Sixth Doctor. 🙂
I’ve enjoyed the Sixth Doctor ‘Doctor Who’ comic stories so far. It’s interesting how they began with the Sixth Doctor and Frobisher and how at this point, they seem to have the Sixth Doctor, Peri and Frobisher as a trio. I’m so looking forward to reading the rest of the Sixth Doctor’s comic adventures.
‘Nature of the Beast!’ rating – 8/10
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