Playing House Part 1

"Where's your sense of adventure? It's a mystery!"

Writer: George Mann
Format: Comic Strip
Released: 20th October 2016
Printed in: DWC: Tales from the TARDIS 12

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Hattie

Synopsis

The Twelfth Doctor and Hattie receive a strange summons from an impossible source, and finds himself trapped inside a house of infinite dimensions! What is the Doctor's connection to the family that brought him there, and what is the stunning secret of the house itself?

Verdict

Playing House kicked off in tremendous style with this superb first part of the story! It completed my reading of this month's issue of Doctor Who Comic's Tales from the TARDIS and I think it was probably the best segment of the magazine which is quite an impressive feat in its own right. After arriving onboard the TARDIS in The Twist, this was the first full outing for Hattie as companion and she got off to a brilliant start. I loved how she and the Doctor were having a jamming session in the TARDIS and I bet this incarnation of the Doctor was particularly pleased at engaging in some social activity with his latest companion. I'm intrigued to see how long she'll long with Bill's arrival not far away now as she arrives on our screens in the early part of next year but whilst she's here, I'm liking her. George Mann seems to have an incredible idea up his sleeve with this comic strip adventure as this was just pure brilliance as far as an opening part is concerned. There were spooks, thrills and humour as well as a whole lot of intrigue into just what was going on. The TARDIS performing an emergency landing was good and actually something I can't recall occurring too often and the search for the reason behind it was very good. The enormity of the house was pretty impossible and I was surprised that the Doctor didn't pick upon the fact that he was inside a TARDIS. Even if he couldn't see from the visual evidence what he was inside, I thought he might have been able to feel it. However with everything that was going on and the strangeness behind Holly and her search for her children and husband I couldn't really blame him for not working out. The visuals of the TARDIS interior were kept consistent with the depths we saw in Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS which was very good and actually something I think was pretty important. The characterisation of Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor was excellent which is something I always hold in high regard and it definitely does help with the quality of a story. Hattie was very good and it was fantastic to see how quickly she was learning about life alongside the Doctor. He quite enjoyed that which was good to see. The pace of the story was great and things were fed to us in drips which I liked. We saw the Doctor and Hattie going into impossible places. We would see them go from outside to inside and vice versa and then we'd see them meet Holly. The fact she had lost her kids and husband because of a game of hide and seek was something I couldn't help but find a little humorous but her description how rooms just seemed to be randomly added to the house really has me thinking. With the reveal that the house was actually a TARDIS serving as a wonderful cliffhanger, just what the hell is going on? That's a great feeling to have in my opinion as I now really want to read what happens next and I'm greatly anticipating the next DWC issue. Overall, a sublime start to the adventure!