Buzz!

"Alright hornets, why don't you try picking on someone your own size..."

Writer: Oli Smith

Format: Comic Strip

Released: September 2010

Printed in: Doctor Who Annual 2011

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Amy, Rory

Synopsis 

The TARDIS team visit Kenya in 2013 were a new bio-enhancing hormone is causing quite a stir amongst the locals as insects are slowly growing in size...

Verdict 

Buzz! isn't the greatest of comic strip stories by any stretch of the imagination. I'm not entirely sure why the Annuals still persist on doing poor quality, small in length comic stories. Surely, with them being released just the once a year, as a celebration of the year before it of sorts, that it would be the ideal opportunity to do a spectacular comic strip would it not? Usually with these stories from the annuals, they either go one way or the other: very good or pretty poor which is a shame. This story just seemed a bit random and all over the place. The reasons the Doctor, Amy and Rory arrived in Kenya in the near future (of when the story was released) were never really explained. The father and son they were helping weren't given any background or anything which was a shame. The humour from the Doctor upon arrival was good but I didn't get at all just why Rory was present. I don't think he actually had a line over the six pages so it was pretty much a waste of colour including him! It was nice seeing how much the Doctor cared for Amy though when she realised that the enhancement wasn't diluted as it would have been upon testing. But with an interesting throwback to The Christmas Invasion, the Doctor amended that with the TARDIS weather control device, wherever that was added on board. The portrayal of the giant wasp, completely different from The Unicorn and the Wasp, wasn't anything spectacular but it did the job for an Annual story I guess. Overall, far too short which I'll never understand. There isn't much more that I can say other than it did its job without really exciting. 

Rating: 6/10