BEEP THE MEEP - THEN & NOW

The TV series version of ‘Doctor Who’ has dipped into other ancillary sources for story ideas in the past, with “Human Nature”, a Seventh Incarnation novel which RTD adapted to be two episodes in the TV show for the Tenth Incarnation.  

(That major change, plus the origins for the “Blink” episode is why I don’t automatically include other media as Toobworthy enough to be considered canon.)

It looks like RTD is going to other such outside sources for the 60th anniversary specials.  Here’s a look at one character becoming the live-action version of its pen-and-ink origin….

From Gizmodo:

Beep the Meep [is] the hilariously named antagonist of a comic story in Doctor Who Weekly that ran in 1980, "Doctor Who and the Star Beast". It’s a tale famous for other reasons beyond Beep, as it also introduced a new companion for Tom Baker’s fourth Doctor, Sharon Davies—the first comics-original companion to the Doctor, and the first person of color to be a long-term companion in any medium in 'Doctor Who' history.

Criminal mastermind and leader of the Meeps—small, spherical, furry creatures with large eyes and mouse-like ears— Beep hails from the Wrarth galaxy, where his people were once a peaceful civilization. After their planet crossed orbits with a Black Sun expelling dangerous, corruptive radiation, the Meeps were suddenly transformed into a rage-filled, hateful race, and began a campaign of intergalactic conquest. World after world fell to the Meeps, who harvested Black Sun radiation to use in their warships—and as a tool that could mentally enthrall their foes into violent rages, as they were before them. Eventually, the Star Council of other races in the Wrarth galaxy came together to establish a new police force to fight back against the Meeps, defeating them in a grand battle.

But Beep himself fled the war, and escaped to 1980s Earth.

Using his cute appearance to ingratiate himself to Sharon and her best friend, Beep also managed to trick the Doctor into thinking he was an innocent being hunted without reason.

When the Doctor discovered the Meeps’ history, however, he helped save Sharon and her hometown from Beep’s thrall, using Black Sun radiation to brainwash them into repairing his ship, and helped capture Beep. Beep would escape imprisonment several times over the years in future Doctor Who comics, attempting to get vengeance on Earth and the Doctor for his detainment—a regular in-joke for the Doctor’s comic adventures.

How much of that character development is retained remains to be seen....

[Toobworld’s Beep will be voiced by Miriam Margolyes.]