The Grey Hole

"Entire galaxies, untold solar systems, held in a pocket universe... and all of it teetering on the edge of oblivion!"

Writer: Trevor Baxendale

Format: Comic Strip

Released: September 2010

Printed in: Doctor Who Annual 2011

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Amy

Synopsis 

The Doctor and Amy arrive on the Gemstone Moon of Regol Genaralon where they find a prefabricated human research base that appears to have been abandoned for the last two weeks.

Verdict 

The Grey Hole was a fantastic little comic strip which actually came to my surprise considering some of the past stories to feature in the Annuals and the distinct poorer quality in artwork from the DWM or IDW ranges which I'm currently reading. This was my first story with Amy since my rerun watching of Series 7 so it was nice to see her, by herself, with the Doctor. As I've mentioned on more than one occassion, I much prefer Amy as a sole companion than when she's with Rory and the example set by her is why I'm worried about Clara and Danny's increasing relationship in the current series. I absolutely love Clara and I don't want her to become associated with anyone like Amy did. But anyway, in this short story Amy didn't have much to do or say other than ask the questions which I guess is about right for a story of this length. The plot itself though was outstanding in my opinion! The concept of the grey hole was superb and one I would love to see developed further in a TV, novelised or audio format. It has a lot of potential as you can see from my opening quote. Just what is inside? It could be anything! It's almost like a physical void. You've got what we already know with the black holes, what many believe to be the opposite in white holes and then there's the stuff in between. That's where the grey hole wonderfully pops in. The research on a distant moon by a colony was very good and I loved the humour in how they'd gotten lost within the hole during research! That's taking work a bit far isn't it? Ha. The Vorpon were decent villains and I liked how they were created to guard the nexus by the grey hole itself. The reasoning by the Doctor to get he, Amy and the search team they'd found safe out of the gateway and to safety was good. The only downside was the lack of explanation as to how the search team had gotten so far into the grey hole where the Doctor needed the TARDIS to reach. But overall, a brilliant little comic strip that I hope is expanded in some form. 

Rating: 9/10