The Crossroads of Time

"See, when people get in my way I either bargain with them or kill them."

Writer: Simon Furman

Format: Comic Strip

Released: September 2011

Printed in: Doctor Who Classics: Volume 7

Featuring: Seventh Doctor

Synopsis 

The Doctor collides with something so ferocious in the time vortex that the time warden responsible for solving matters is frightened off...

Verdict 

The Crossroads of Time was a very good little comic strip! Now when I say little I really do mean it due to the story only spreading across eight pages in just the one part. But what we got really was fantastic! Quick fire blasts to the past with many references to past stories, enemies or accessories, all of which were welcomed wonderfully. I loved the idea of a Time Warden, an early branch of the Shadow Proclamation perhaps? Although the chap was actually rather useless when he saw what it was that the Doctor had just collided with. A giant of a mechanism - Death's Head! The name itself is just frightening but the sheer size and scale of the monstrosity when compared with the Doctor was just horrifying! There'd surely be no escape for the Seventh Doctor this time. But desperate times called for the upmost of desperate measures as the Doctor pulled out the Tissue Compression Eliminator! A gem of an item at a time like this and at least he would be using it sparingly which can't be said for the device's previous owner in the Master. I liked the throwback to The Chase with the Mechanoid reference and I also loved how when faced with the prospect of death, the Doctor offered Death's Head a jelly baby. Humour in the face of adversity is something the Doctor has always had which is just magnificent. The way the Doctor used a horrific device of the Master's to eventually defeat an antagonist is quite a turn of events. Never would we expect the Doctor to use such a device, even if he did mock the name, while he was in complete control. Where we've seen in stories such as Castrovalva and Planet of Fire, where the Master leaves his victims as a puny and embarrassing size, the device only brought Death's Head down to the size of the Doctor (now that wouldn't be a good story name would it!) but that actually enabled the Doctor to get rid of his new foe. He'd pretended to give up the TARDIS as a bargain for his life but once inside he sent the mechanism to Earth in the ninth millennium! Goodness knows what destruction will ensue there, but the Doctor rarely visits in the 8000 and something's does he. The Time Warden letting the Doctor off was a nice touch to a decent story with an unexpected device returning for use by the Doctor! I just wish it could have been longer! 

Rating: 8/10