Doctor Who: 10 Myths And Legends That Should Be Explored
4. The Beast Of Bodmin Moor
Our UK readers will most likely be familiar with this particular part of British folklore but for those unacquainted with it; the Beast of Bodmin Moor is effectively rural South England's answer to Bigfoot; a mysterious creature that roams a remote area and splits opinion about whether or not it exists. Though specifically, the Beast is a large and vicious catlike creature that roams Cornwalls Bodmin Moor and sometimes mutilates cattle. The story of the Beast spans more than five-hundred years, which gives a huge amount of range for when an episode centred around it could take place, and the legend itself is so broad that it could be integrated into an episode in various ways. Such as the Beast terrorising local towns in a standard Doctor investigates storyline, or an episode set entirely on the moors at night that gets played out as a horror story like the pocket dimension scenes in Series 7s Hide. As well as this, a specific part of the Bodmin Beast legend that would suit a Doctor Who episode to a tee is the Bodmin Killings of 1515; when twenty-four inmates at a local prison were slaughtered by a mysterious creature. Its a setting thats possibly a tad violent for Doctor Who but also a combination of the two things it does best: a period setting and the base-under-siege story. And as with a potential Faeries story, any strong violence could be circumvented with careful writing and direction.
JG Moore is a writer and filmmaker from the south of England. He also works as an editor and VFX artist, and has a BA in Media Production from the University Of Winchester.
