Next year, the Seventh Doctor will have a new companion: the werewolf Mags, whom he first met in the classic Doctor Who story The Greatest Show in the Galaxy!
There’s a lot to enjoy about The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. It features a lot of key elements that make a classic Doctor Who story: colorful characters, scary villains and of course, an incredibly high body count!
But one character that really stood out was Mags. Not just a circus performer, but also a werewolf, she worked well against McCoy’s Doctor in the 1988 story. So it’s fantastic to hear that the character will be returning in three Seventh Doctor audios next year!
I’m sure many fans of this story are excited about this news. Certainly, Jessica Martin, who plays Mags, is more than happy to return to the role after thirty years.
"It’s wonderful. I can’t quite believe it, I have to retrospectively thank John Nathan-Turner and Stephen Wyatt, who wrote The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, which spawned so many wonderful characters. It’s great to be back all these years later."
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Script-editor and writer Alan Barnes is also eager to bring the character back, and explains his reasons why.
"She was such an engaging character that it seemed unfair that she didn’t go off with the Doctor in the TARDIS at the end, which would have been so ‘right’, dramatically speaking. It would have opened up some really interesting story possibilities, too: how would it work, having someone who might turn into a savage beast as a companion?!"
That’s definitely an interesting point. It’s certainly not an idea that’s been often explored in Doctor Who – a companion with two completely seperate sides to them. One nice and friendly, the other beastly and savage. It’s definitely going to be exciting to have a werewolf on board the TARDIS!
Jessica Martin and Sylvester McCoy reunite as Mags and the Seventh Doctor in three brand new audios next year.
(Image credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.
Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)
Another old friend returns
Each of the three stories themselves sound interesting. The Monsters of Gokroth by Matt Fitton is the story that reunites the Seventh Doctor with Mags. It’ll be interesting to discover exactly what the character has been up to since we last saw her.
Emma Reeves’s The Moons of Vulpana will explore Mags’s home world and its history. What was it like during its Golden Age, and what changed it into an utterly savage world?
The last story, An Alien Werewolf in London by Alan Barnes, has the Doctor and Mags reunited with Ace. It’s strange to think that this will be exciting, as we hear plenty of stories with Ace on an annual basis.
But that’s the wonderful thing with Big Finish – they really get to play with the eras and jump around the timeline. So one year, we’ll be hearing when Ace is travelling with the Doctor; the next, we’re hearing their reunion after a long time apart. It’ll be interesting to hear how this story unfolds.
Are you excited for the return of Mags? Are you a fan of The Greatest Show in the Galaxy? Which of the upcoming stories sounds the most appealing to you? Let us know in the comments below.