Doctor Who is celebrating 60 years of time and space adventures in style with a slate of anniversary specials with David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor and Donna Noble. The pair reunited in “The Star Beast,” as the Doctor went up against a very furry antagonist being chased by scary looking bug-like creatures. The adorable yet angry Beep the Meep and the Wrarth Warriors are brand new to many fans of the TV show. However, these characters are far from new to the overall Doctor Who universe. Here’s what you should know about the Big Finish and Doctor Who comics history of Beep the Meep and the Wrarth Warriors and how they appear in “The Star Beast.”
The Doctor Who Comics and Big Finish Audios History of Beep the Meep and the Wrarth Warriors
Beep the Meep made his debut in the black-and-white comic story Doctor Who and the Star Beast (1980), written by Pat Mills and John Wagner with illustrations by Dave Gibbons. In the comics, Beep the Meep is big, furry, and white, much like the character appears in the TV show. Beep is the leader of the Meeps, a peaceful race who lived joyfully until their planet orbited near a Black Sun. The rays mutated them, making them an angry collective hellbent on conquering other planets. The Meeps were stopped by the Wrarth Warriors, a group of genetically engineered law enforcers with red eyes and a detachable claw for their left arm. The Star Council designed them specifically to deal with the Meeps, which they mostly succeeded at. However, Beep managed to escape death.
Beep’s ship crash landed into Earth, specifically the city of Blackcastle. The Meep leader put on a sweet front and befriended two kids named Sharon and Fudge. The innocent duo gave Beep shelter and the Fourth Doctor soon came along to help the fuzzy creature out. However, Beep the Meep’s true nature came to light. The Doctor teamed up with the Wrarth Warriors to defeat him. Following this story, Sharon became the Fourth Doctor’s next comic companion.
Beep the Meep later made a brief cameo in Doctor Who Magazine #173’s Party Animals in 1991. This time, he appeared at a party that the Seventh Doctor and Ace attended. Here, Beep was colorized as a blue creature with yellow eyes. But we don’t see more action from him until 1996’s The Star Beast II. In that story, he got out on parole and wanted sadistic revenge. Once again, the Fourth Doctor got the upper hand, using black star energy to trap Beep inside For the Love of Lassie, a kids’ movie.
The most hilarious Beep the Meep comic appearance is Doctor Who Magazine #283’s TV Action! (1999). Beep tried to take over BBC’s TV hub to turn everyone in the UK evil, until the actor Tom Baker distracted him from his evil plan. You see, Beep the Meep thought Tom Baker was the Fourth Doctor (can’t imagine why…) and focused on destroying his longtime nemesis. The Eighth Doctor and Izzy came together to defeat Beep.
Beep the Meep made the leap to audio stories with Big Finish’s The Ratings War, which was a CD that came with Doctor Who Magazine #313 (2002). Toby Longworth gave Beep the Meep a voice as the character faced the Sixth Doctor. Again, Beep tried to use TV to control the masses but he did not succeed. Once again, Beep ended up back in the hands of the Wrarth Warriors. In March 2019, Beep the Meep was in a Big Finish audio adaptation of Doctor Who and the Star Beast, with Bethan Dixon Bate providing the leader’s voice.
For the most part, the Wrarth Warriors only made comic and audio appearances to stop Beep the Meep. However, the Wrarth Warriors do briefly face the Slitheen family in the Russell T Davies’ story “Raxacoricofallapatorius,” which was in the book Monsters and Villains. In this adventure, they are still star police who deal with the Slitheen family’s illegal deeds.
Beep the Meep and the Wrarth Warriors in Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary Special Episode “The Star Beast”
In the episode, Rose Noble, the Doctor, and pretty much everyone else in London except Donna Noble see a spaceship that appears to crash land in London. The ship lands in a steelworks mill; however, a separate vessel ends up near the Noble family home. Rose walks in an alleyway and runs into Beep the Meep (voiced by Miriam Margolyes). Who can resist a furry white creature with big brown eyes?! Beep is undeniably cute and Rose immediately tries to befriend this new alien creature. Meanwhile, large bug-like creatures are dead set on hunting him down.
The Doctor arrives at the Noble home, with Donna’s mum Sylvia trying to prevent Donna from remembering her TARDIS travels. Beep the Meep tells them that the bug creatures, known as Wrarth Warriors, cultivated Meepkind for their fur until the galaxy said that was no longer acceptable. So the Wrarth Warriors slaughtered them and said that they will hunt down Beep. We also learn Beep has two hearts like the Doctor.
Things predictably go awry when the Wrarth Warriors and UNIT soldiers, who are under a mind spell of sorts, get into battle. They destroy poor Donna’s home as the Doctor works to get them and Beep the Meep out alive. The Doctor soon realizes the Wrarth Warriors are perhaps not the villains after all. He brings Donna and her family along with Beep to an abandoned garage. Fourteen then summons the two main Wrarth Warriors via teleportation.
One warrior gives them the real story. He says the Meeps’ planet once basked in the light of the living sun. One day the sun went mad and became psychedelic, its radiation mutating all of Meep-kind into cruel beasts who live for conquest. Basically they all went mad and they can transfer this psychosis through their eyes. The Meep army captured the Galactic Council, beheaded them, and ate them. So, the Wrarth Warriors were summoned to stop them. They eliminated majority of Meepkind and now Beep the Meep, the cruelest of them all and the leader, is the only one left. Beep finally reveals his true nature and kills the two Wrarth Warrior leaders. This story largely lines up with the comic origins for Beep and the Wrarth Warriors.
Beep the Meep’s ship did not crash at all. He purposely landed on Earth to use its dagger drive to gain energy by stabbing into the ground and burning everything within a five-mile radius for fuel. Yep, that means Beep the Meep would destroy the entirety of London to give his ship some more juice. Of course, the Doctor and the DoctorDonna (!!!) come together once again to save the day. They work together in the engine control room to disable the dagger drive system and render his ship useless.
The Doctor ejects Beep out of the capsule and into the custody of the Wrarth Warriors. Beep the Meep gets 10,000 years in prison but, before he goes, he says he will tell “the Boss.” We can assume this is the Celestial Toymaker, whom the Doctor and Donna will face in the upcoming specials. For more about him, check out our explainer about his Doctor Who history.
It’s unclear if we will see Beep the Meep or the Wrarth Warriors in the next two Doctor Who anniversary specials. We doubt it considering the Toymaker is on the way. But it was fun to see deep-cut Doctor Who comic characters come to life to celebrate the show’s enduring legacy.
