The Traitor

"My name is Dr Who. I'd be pleased if you could explain all this to me."

Writer: Paul Crompton

Format: Comic Strip

Released: September 1977

Printed in: Doctor Who Annual 1978

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Sarah

Synopsis 

The Fourth Doctor has taken Sarah to the edge of the Siginund Galaxy, the best vantage point from which she can observe the aurora arctialis, a stunning display of lights caused by the interaction of the three suns in the galaxy. But there is a traitor at work on a planet where a spaceship crashes...

Verdict 

The Traitor was an intriguing little comic strip from the 1978 Doctor Who Annual, a prized piece of my collection as it is now nearly forty years old! I think that's quite a phenomenal fear and although a number of the Target novelisations I have date back to around the same time, some are actually older, there's just something wonderfully special about having a Classic Doctor Who Annual in my collection. In comparison to most diehard fans' collections I imagine that mine probably isn't that large but in the grand scheme of things I would like to think that it is. Moving out of my home because of university has sort of scattered my collection a bit this past year with me wanting to have some things close by but others back at home, and I've even let my cousin borrow a number of items as he's becoming a bigger fan each and every day, but I think the old Annuals are just so retro and that's something I really do like. I currently only own three of the pre-revival era Annuals (1980 and 1982) are the others and I was amazed at how cheap I managed to purchase them. For the three combined I think it was around £8 which is just an absolute steal in my opinion. They add to any collection and although they're not my priority at the minute, I am actively looking to add a few more to the collection if I can find them cheap enough. The Annuals themselves are so much better than the modern ones we get as they're not solely aimed at an audience of children. I really don't understand why they still persist with going in that direction nowadays and surely they'd only have to take one look at the Classic Annuals to see that a mixed audience is the way forward. Anyway, to the story at hand and it wasn't bad at all. The artwork was extremely questionable which I thought was a shame as although they're never quite up to the standard of Doctor Who Magazine was at this time, they're still usually better than what we got. Sarah's depiction was really bad and although some argue that it shouldn't, it really did take away from the quality of the story. I'm not at all sure why she was in the comic strip at all though to be honest as the Annual was released nearly a year after her departure in The Hand of Fear. It was strange that the story didn't include Leela and to be honest the artwork probably looked more like her! The story was pretty good with the Doctor and Sarah arriving on a crashed planet but the truth of the planet would surprise them. As is often the case with comic strip stories from Doctor Who Annuals, there were significant gaps between some of the key events and although sometimes it doesn't effect proceedings, it did here. Zemos was a great character though and the way he was so normal in gaining the help of the Doctor was excellent. We would soon see what his original form was, as you can see in the above picture, and it was significantly different to what we saw on the planet's surface! The Lokans were an interesting race and I liked the Doctor's reaction when he realised he had helped the wrong people. Prior to reading, I did not expect the story's title to refer to the Doctor. My opening quote is unusual and generic but I chose because I can't remember an example in anything I've done that the Doctor openly refers to himself as Dr Who. It seems so strange now but it just caught my attention and it was something that I liked. Zemos returning to help the Doctor was unexpected and he ended up just getting trapped on the planet once more. The Doctor had betrayed him but it was for the right reason. Overall, pretty good but more than room for improvement! 

Rating: 7/10