Terrorformer Part 2

"The most powerful races in the universe formed an alliance. Led by Rassilon, Lord President of the Time Lords of Gallifrey, they declared war. A war that would extinguish the fires of Hyperios forever..."

Writer: Robbie Morrison

Format: Comic Strip

Released: November 2014

Printed in: DW12 #2

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Clara

Synopsis 

The Doctor and Clara came to the ice world of Isen VI - to find it transformed into a lush jungle by terraformers in the pay of the richest man in the 25th century, Kano Dollar! But this is no holiday - the Doctor has tracked a signal of Time Lord origin to the planet. After... ingratiating himself with the terraformers, they descended to the core of the planet to discover that the terraforming machines had ruptured an ancient containment unit... and now, after millions of years in cryogenic suspension, a fearsome Hyperion is awake!

Verdict 

Terrorformer continued (and I'm almost certainly finished) tremendously well in this second part in the latest issue of the brand new series of Twelfth Doctor comic adventures by Titan from across the pond in the US. I must admit it irked me a little when 'favour' was spelt as 'favor' and it came from the Doctor's lips - surely he uses the English language properly. The British way. The correct way I may add. Woops, slight dig at Americans there! Ahh well, bless 'em, they still think 1812 was a big deal. Anyway, back to the story at hand and I really liked it! Continuing nicely on from the intriguing cliffhanger of the first part with Hyperios rising, it turned out that name was actually a planet, home of the Hyperions, and not a Time Lord as I first figured and hoped. But my slight disappointment was soon eradicated when we got the history of the Hyperions and the historical war they had with an intergalactic alliance led by the Time Lords, or more specifically Rassilon. Seeing the Alliance looked brilliant with Rassilon standing side by the side with the likes of Silurians and Sontarans! Not too shabby an alliance at all. The depiction of the War was excellent and I really liked the way the Hyperions were defeated millennia ago, after they rampaged through the universe holding on for survival as they burned up. The idea of the species really is unique - sentient sun beings with vast intelligence! Now that's quite a combination. I can see why a Time Lord led alliance was needed to defeat the species! The Doctor standing up to Ramm-Korr as it was named (I'll just stick to calling it the Hyperion) was splendid and very typical of the Twelfth Doctor in my opinion. I read every line in my head with the voice of Peter Capaldi and the dialogue really was spot on for this incarnation which is always a brilliant thing. I think The Blood Cell failed a little in that and was a reason why I didn't rate it so highly as the other two BBC New Adventure novels which nailed the persona of this current Doctor. The war of words between the Doctor and the Hyperion was excellent and I loved how since gaining an extra regeneration cycle, the Doctor is seemingly more attached to the race he ran away from all those years ago. As seen in Death in Heaven when Missy lied about Gallifrey's whereabouts he was devastated, and here he was just silent when the Hyperion worked out that he was all that was left and Gallifrey had fallen. Clara was very good in this story with the humorous references to the ski-pole and the way it came in handy at the end. I was also impressed by her combat skills against Eric! One-nil to Coal Hill indeed! The Doctor bluffing about the plans he had was oh so topically wonderfully but what he actually carried out was great. He literally froze the Hyperion and returned Isen VI to its cold and snowy state. Dollar was abandoned after the wedding went to hell and all things just about worked out for once. The Doctor had defeated the last of the Hyperions, or so he thinks. The ending was intriguing with the Neptune rising but that was some 300 years before the setting of this adventure. I do hope it was just a late prelude into what we had read because the story ending fantastically and I don't think and I do hope that this particular one is over, because if so it was marvellous! 

Rating: 9/10