Mags
Mags was a werewolf from the planet Vulpana who was taken from her home by the explorer Captain Cook to serve as his companion.
After an adventure on Segonax with the Seventh Doctor and Ace, she was finally freed from Cook and took over the running of the Psychic Circus with Kingpin.
She later left the Psychic Circus after her transformations became far too deadly to those around her for her to stay, she set out into the universe and was eventually reunited with the Seventh Doctor and became his travelling companion.
Biography
Early life
Mags had a mother and also a sister called Adele. Her childhood sweetheart was called Loz. (COMIC: Hill of Beans)
Mags was a pure-blood Vulpanan and changed with the Second Moon of Vulpana. (AUDIO: The Moons of Vulpana)
She was taken from her family when Captain Cook, an egotistical explorer arrived on Vulpana. Mags was hunted alongside her sister and Loz, by Cook. Adele and Loz escaped and when Mags did not return, they believed her to be dead. (COMIC: Hill of Beans)
The Psychic Circus
Mags travelled to the planet Segonax with Captain Cook, Cook related that he had saved Mags when she was about to get shot with a silver bullet.
The Seventh Doctor and Ace befriended her while looking into the Psychic Circus. She and Cook were abducted by the Ringmaster and forced to perform in the circus to entertain the Gods of Ragnarok. Mags was later revealed to be a werewolf, her transformation triggered by moonlight. Mags feared her transformations, as well as the image of the moon itself. Cook managed to trigger her metamorphosis using artificial moonlight recreated by circus lights in an attempt to kill the Doctor for the amusement of the Gods of Ragnarok. The Doctor convinced her that she could control her feral instincts, but not before Mags ended up killing Cook himself.
After the Doctor had defeated the Gods of Ragnarok, she decided to stay behind on Segonax with Kingpin to re-start the Psychic Circus, despite her fears that her transformations might once again get out of control. (TV: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy)
Mags brought the circus to the Moon of Domusalba, which orbited her homeworld Vulpana, for its millionth performance. There she encountered her sister Adele, and her childhood sweetheart, Loz who were leading a werewolf rights campaign. The President of Vulpana had forced the werewolf population of Vulpana into camps and made them wear armbands in order to mark them out as werewolves. Some refugees escaped to Domusalba, but then Vulpanian forces followed them and annexed the moon.
The Doctor and Ace arrived on Domusalba and while they set a plan in motion, Mags met with Commander Denari, who attempted to have the Pyschic Circus shut down. After discovering that Adele and Loz had been imprisoned, the Doctor and Mags paid a visit to the Vulpana Bureau of Intolerance, where they discovered President Carde's plan to take over the circus.
Upon their return to the circus, the Doctor and Mags were met by President Carde, who had a group of werewolves imprisoned, including Adele and Loz. With help from Ace, the Doctor and Mags released the prisoners and Carde was killed by a werewolf in the struggle. The Doctor had been using a perfume that drove the people of Domusalba to rebellion. Mags made peace with her sister and gave her and Loz her blessing. She was then invited to travel in the TARDIS with the Doctor and Ace, but was unsure of whether to accept due to her responsibilities to the Psychic Circus. (COMIC: Hill of Beans)
Travels with the Doctor
Mags eventually left the Psychic Circus, as her transformations were becoming more and more difficult to control. She travelled from planet to planet searching for a new home, until she arrived on Gokroth, where she sought the help of Dr Maleeva to remove her wolf side. She reunited with the Seventh Doctor, who had been following her for some time, and he offered to take her with him on his travels. (AUDIO: The Monsters of Gokroth)
Mags continued the struggle to control her changes during her travels with the Doctor, who used a sonic modulator in order to try and keep her under control. The Doctor decided to take her to Vulpana in hope of figuring out another way of controlling her changes. (AUDIO: The Moons of Vulpana)
The Doctor and Mags responded to a summons from Ace. This took them to Camden Lock in the 1990s, where they encountered the Feratu family. After being bitten by the Sin Eater, Mags' wolf side disappeared and then Doctor theorised that this would last about a year. (AUDIO: An Alien Werewolf in London)
Personality
Mags was often quiet and docile, resigning herself to following the orders of Captain Cook, who had taken her from Vulpana and made her his companion. She struggled deeply to control her werewolf side and would worry about letting it manifest. (TV: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy) She was disturbed by her transformations to the extent that she travelled to the planet Gokroth in order to seek the help of Dr Maleeva to cure her lycanthropy in the hope of living a normal life. (AUDIO: The Monsters of Gokroth)
She was selfless and noble, putting her life on the line to protect werewolf rights and the psychic circus from President Carde. She also blessed the relationship between her sister and the man she referred to as the love of her life, citing that "the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of Beans in [this] crazy galaxy". (COMIC: Hill of Beans)
Skills and abilities
Like many other Vulpanans, Mags was a werewolf. Moonlight was one of the stimuli that could trigger her change, whether natural or artificially generated. (TV: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy) Alternatively, the change could also be triggered by feelings of anger or emotional distress. (COMIC: Hill of Beans, AUDIO: The Monsters of Gokroth) Often it would be out of the Mags' control and could often be particularly emotionally draining for her. (TV: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy)
In her werewolf form, she grew long vampire-like fangs, while her eyes turned a piercing yellow colour and her skin a pale shade of green. She would become feral, and attacked anyone who might be seen as a threat. Often these attacks were fatal for the victims. (TV: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, COMIC: Hill of Beans)
Behind the scenes
According to Alan Barnes, it was his idea to have Mags return as a companion alongside the Seventh Doctor in the Big Finish Productions Monthly Adventures because he had always felt that she was "such an engaging character" and that "it felt unfair that she didn't go off with the Doctor in the TARDIS at the end". [1]
Footnotes
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