The Infinite Astronaut

"There will be no cheating, Doctor. No breaking the rules. The rules of war... are sacred."

Writer: Al Ewing 

Format: Comic Strip

Released: 13th August 2015

Printed in: DWC #7

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Alice, Jones, ARC

Synopsis

Interstellar dogfights still rage in the skies over London! 

When Alice is forced into a high-stakes solo challenge that could end the conflict, she'll need to muster everything she's learned on her travels with the Doctor in order to succeed - and even that might not be enough!

Has the Doctor made a grave mistake - or is it all part of a larger plan?

Verdict 

The Infinite Astronaut was a decent conclusion to the story already started in The Eternal Dogfight. I'm not sure why a two-parter has two different writers for each comic strip adventure but it really did give it a feel of separation. I'm not sure I'm a fan of that as I think if I'm giving a combined rating, for comic strips the story really should have the same name and be by the same writer. Or at least a co-writer! There wasn't an awful lot made out of the Eternal Dogfight between the Astrons and the J'arrodic which was a shame. The main focus was on the apparent resurrection of Alice's mother. It wasn't explained how Alice got to the ship which was a real blunder I think but thankfully the story as a whole was still very good and scores an extremely positive rating. It's testament to the quality of Doctor Who Comic thus far that no story has been lower than this rating. If it continues like that then I'll have absolutely no complaints! After the hugely successful Space in Dimension Relative and Time, I really thought the Eleventh Doctor adventures of the comic would kick on but the TARDIS foursome just seems a bit clustered and not suited to Matt Smith's incarnation at all. I did love his reaction to ARC being a ball though. That was wonderful. I feel Rob Williams did a better job of characterisation than Al Ewing and I feel that overall the former is certainly the better writer. I quite liked how Alice knew that her mother wasn't actually back from the dead because she failed to recognise Jones who was her all time favourite singer. That's when Alice got some determination and we finally saw some strength from the character. Maybe this horror meeting with what appeared to be her mother can help her move on from the loss. She flew into the reality of totality which did look absolutely incredible but I wasn't convinced by the fact that she simply could do what other astronauts couldn't. What made her, someone not trained at all and apparently doing a two person's job, so special that other astronauts couldn't achieve? It being revealed that her mother was actually the Talent Scout was pretty much expected after the 'Serve You' reference in the first part. It seems that ongoing story arc is going to consist for most of the Eleventh Doctor comic run, however long that may be! I do like the idea of doing extended editions and getting a whole story for just £1 extra is fine by me! We'll soon catch up with the USA hopefully. But four stories for a fiver is the much cheaper option. The origin of the Eternal Dogfight was great and it was quite similar to a lot of arguments for religion. I won't go into religion as I despite it but it was just so simple. I'm thankful there wasn't much similar to The First Sontarans here as there were similarities in their war with the Rutans in the first part. The climax seemed a tad rushed but the two part story as a whole was very good indeed. I do hope Alice moves on now and I hope we get some sort of direction for Jones. I still believe there's something more for ARC but for now it appears we're back off to SERVEYOUinc.

Rating: 8/10