Train-Flight

"This ship is nothing but a glorified slaughter house!"

Writers: Andrew Donkin & Graham S. Brand 
Format: Comic Strip
Released: April-June 190
Printed in: DWM 159-161

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Sarah Jane

Synopsis

On his way to a jazz concert with former companion Sarah Jane Smith, the Doctor has been transported aboard a strange space ship orbiting the Earth... and it seems to have quite the desire to eat London transport, of which the Doctor and Sarah are on board!

Verdict

Train-Flight was a decent comic strip that continued along my reading of the Nemesis of the Daleks graphic novel but I can't help but feel a tad underwhelmed. For something as monumental as the Seventh Doctor and Sarah Jane sharing a story, I was hoping for a little bit better and I have to say that I think I've even been a little bit generous with my rating. After I seemed to have finished the content from The Incredible Hulk Presents on such a high with Nineveh! I was actually quite glad to be back doing stories from the pages of Doctor Who Magazine and when I saw Sarah Jane on the very first page, I had very high hopes. Sadly it soon became clear that these would not quite be reached. Now, I have sounded very negative so far but that is far from a fair reflection of the story as a whole. I quite liked how Sarah Jane seems to have moved on from her life with the Doctor and she didn't actually seem all that happy that he had come to visit her. It wasn't clear how long after she had departed the TARDIS this story was but judging from her appearance it can't have been long after A Girl's Best Friend. I really liked the reference to that story and I also very much enjoyed the moments the Doctor and Sarah Jane shared talking about her hasty departure in The Hand of Fear. She wasn't all too happy about that and who could blame her but at least she had the knowledge that the Doctor put things right when he became President which we of course saw in The Invasion of Time. Sarah not wanting to travel in the TARDIS was intriguing and far different from what we saw of her in School Reunion. Now, this comic strip doesn't really fit in with that TV episode but who cares? This was lots of fun. The Kalik weren't the best of enemies and when I first caught a glimpse of their appearance I was hopeful that they were Zarbi. Despite the similarities, there was nothing reminiscent of The Web Planet. However, we did get an excellent reference to Planet of Giants which was terrific when Sarah Jane suggested they might have shrunk. The train being transported into Earth orbit for what seemed to be consumption was interesting but I was half expecting a similar story to Time-Flight given the title. What we got wasn't outstanding and I thought the actual delivery of the story had a lot of room for improvement. Some of the dialogue was questionable and the Doctor seemed to know and solve things awfully easily. The ambiguous ending was very good though but I would have liked to see the Seventh Doctor bid farewell to his companion of old. With the mention of Ace being in the Cretaceous period though, I do wonder when or if she'll join him on his travels once again. At least we have an explanation for her whereabouts. Overall, a decent story!

Rating: 7/10