Doorway to Hell Part 3

"I know a villain when I see one, and this one's nicked!"

Writer: Mark Wright
Format: Comic Strip
Released: 9th March 2017
Printed in: DWM 510

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Jess

Synopsis

With the Master taunting the Doctor and luring him into the trap, the Collins family are trapped and separated in Hell. The Doctor is doing all he can to protect them but that means he must do exactly as the Master instructs. With the evil Time Lord planning a trip to a time-locked dimension, what exactly does the Master have planned this time around?

Verdict

Doorway to Hell continued in excellent fashion with this terrific third part of the story! Once again, it has been a while now since my last blog but March is actually turning out to be the most prolific of the year but I think I will be limited in my entries until at least the summer, but I do think there is a distinct possibility that this will be the future for Doctor Who Verdict moving forward sadly. Now, I know this issue of Doctor Who Magazine was released nearly three weeks ago now but after catching up on the previous two issues and a trip to Ireland in between has meant that I have only now opened its pages. This comic strip story is the only feature that I have read but as always I will give my thoughts on what looks set to be another excellent issue of the magazine. They're lucky that given the recent price rise the content has improved over the last few months so I will continue to collect the magazine with no qualms. Doctor Who Comic, something else I need to catch up on, has been on hiatus recently but that looks set to return this week and with it being released on a different day to DWM now I think the expense won't look so bad. This issue's cover is fittingly tributed to John Hurt who sadly passed away recently. He of course played the iconic War Doctor in The Day of the Doctor and a number of subsequent audio adventures that really were fantastic and I am hoping to purchase what would be his final performances in the Casualties of War boxset this summer. I'm sure the magazine has done a great job in paying tribute to the legendary actor but that's not the only feature I'm looking forward to reading. The Home Taping piece sounds very intriguing and the advancement of technology is something I am mightily interested by given the age I have grown up in but Doctor Who's experience of it is something I can't quite recall. The only encounter I have is asking my Nan to tape The Doctor's Daughter episode on VHS as it broadcasted as I was out playing with friends. The Dramatic FX feature on The Invisible Enemy should be very intriguing and I'm also looking forward to the feature on Sydney Newman and who was truly the creator of Doctor Who. Surely there should be a definitive answer to that? Anyway, back to the comic strip itself and this has been a part I have been looking forward to reading for sometime now because of the presence of the original Master who was of course played by the superb Roger Delgado. I thought it was great that we finally got this Master and the Twelfth Doctor meeting face to face and that image really did put a smile on my face. That is the beauty of the comic strip format as you can do just about anything you want. I liked how we got this story's placement from the perspective of the Master and it would take place after Frontier in Space. This is important as it's a story for this incarnation of the Master after his last appearance on television. I was intrigued that he thought the Twelfth Doctor was actually the fourth incarnation and he neatly referenced the events of The Pestilent Heart in referring to what he thought caused the Doctor's regeneration. Little did he know. The Collins family being in Hell (I'll roll with it for now) was interesting but with the Master mentioning a time-locked dimension, I am intrigued to see where they actually are. The cliffhanger presented a lot of danger and I really am looking forward to part four now to see what happens! Overall, another brilliant continuation of the story!