The Eye of Torment

"Humans! Stupid, brilliant, brave, semi-sentient monkeys, some days I love you!"

Writer: Scott Gray

Format: Comic Strip

Released: August-November 2014

Printed in: DWM 477-480

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Clara

Synopsis 

Far in the future, the Doctor and Clara stumble across a sunship located right at the heart of the sun. But something is alive, living at the very centre, feeding on regret - and the Eye of Torment is opening, as the prophecy states it would. It's time for the Umbra to rise, and condemn the human race.

Verdict 

The Eye of Torment was a fantastic start to the comic strip adventures of Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor in the pages of the wonderful Doctor Who Magazine. I liked how they delayed the arrival of the Doctor in part one with the magazine going out two days prior to the broadcast of Deep Breath - the official debut of the Twelfth Doctor but instead keen readers like myself who pick up the magazine on the day of release were welcomed to a surprising yet brilliant cliffhanger. Before he'd even appeared on television, the new Doctor was in a comic story! Unheard of and potentially scandalous, yet I loved it. To any old Dick and Harry who will read this story on back issues or in the inevitable graphic novel, they might be surprised and somewhat disappointed by that cliffhanger, but for me it's massive! I know we got hints of our new main man in The Day of the Doctor and The Time of the Doctor but we now knew that this was the first instalment of a brand new Twelfth Doctor adventure and it had come before his appearance on screen! I liked the way it was accounted for with a recap of events from the Doctor's perspective leading up to the cliffhanger moment. His babbling to himself without noticing Clara had gone back to get changed (and somehow looking amazing even in comics!) to accommodate the chilly temperature. At first, Clara seemed pretty accurate with her thoughts of being in the Antarctic, but instead the setting would be the complete opposite of whatever you'd expect based on the cold references. The ship was right next to the sun! The actual sun. The appearance of the Umbra was intriguing and pretty horrifying, especially at the part two cliffhanger! I'm really glad that they were given a name after being referred to a couple of times as simply 'the thing'. The ability was excellent and gave them a really intriguing scape. They sensed and pounced on regret. And that's how they got in the ship. The way they got into the ship by using psychic control and the hunt on regret to let down the defences of the Pollyanna was very good. I loved how the Doctor and Clara were split up from each other throughout the story but that allowed a brilliant climax with each of them having their own bit of the plan of defeating the Umbra. It was nice to see the Doctor and Clara on good terms in this story as on television there were many moments where the lead duo were far from being on the same page! The most obvious example being Kill the Moon. I loved the moment the Umbra tried to feast on the regret of the Doctor, and there was so much of it. The subtle references to Doomsday, Earthshock and Genesis of the Daleks were magnificent. Are they the three things he regrets most? Losing Rose, leaving Adric to die and not destroying the Daleks at birth? An outstanding little moment. I liked how this had no obvious similarities with 42 which it might have been prone to but I was glad that this was completely original. I wasn't keen on us not having a clear explanation as to how the sun wasn't frying them instantly but the brilliant backdrop to the Umbra made up for it I think! I really liked the flashback of how they ended up in the gigantic fireball. Rudy was such an annoying character which was absolutely the aim! He somehow wanted to step foot on the sun! He hired a whole team of women and really wasn't listening to advice. He thought he could reason with beings from within the Sun. Sandy was a lovely character and I liked how she got on with Clara but the best guest character for me was Alice. She had some good dialogue with the Doctor, especially once he'd arrived, and her shock of him going out into the mass Umbra gathering was terrific! Of course, along with Clara edging Rudy into the Umbra net, that was all part of the plan. One that I liked. It was obvious Rudy didn't regret anything and that destroyed the Umbra! Now, with the upmost of irony, the Doctor helped them melt on the sun. A very good climax! Overall an ironic, fantastic and well paced plot. A good start to the Twelfth Doctor comic strips!

Rating: 8/10