Hotel Historia

"They're offering actual time travel..."

Writer: Dan McDaid
Format: Comic Strip
Released: April 2008
Printed in: DWM 394

Featuring: Tenth Doctor

Synopsis

4039. The Earth has been ravaged by the monstrous Graxnix, but the Tenth Doctor has bigger problems. A Chronal Interface leads him back to the present day; where it soon becomes clear that someone is interfering with time...

Verdict

Hotel Historia was a very decent comic strip adventure to begin my reading of The Crimson Hand graphic novel. Now, I'm not sure why the Doctor Who graphic novels do this but I like to read things in the order they were released and this story was not printed in The Widow's Curse collection which I am currently reading. Luckily, I have the final Tenth Doctor volume on loan from the library so I was still able to ensure that I read things in the order in which they were originally intended to be read. That is rather important to me. That being said, I can completely understand why this story was part of the final collection for the Tenth Doctor as Majenta would go on to play quite an important role. I've only read Onomatopoeia in which she has featured so my experience of her is very limited but I am aware of her so it was quite intriguing to see her in a somewhat villainous role here. I thought she was very good and her relationship with the Doctor was terrific. She even admitted to him that she liked him (not romantically) and there were definitely signs of a friendship and respect between the pair. The moment he walked in on her and mentioned to Tony about them being green was fantastic. I liked the part of the setting being in 4039 and a far future invasion of Earth by the Graxnix was mightily intriguing. The world of two millennia in the future will probably be unrecognisable but we were soon brought back to London in 2008. However, the Graxnix were tracking the Doctor and their proclamation of being able to destroy the city all over again was very good. I was quite intrigued by the fact they had connections with the Time War as they really didn't seem important or intelligent enough for that conflict but the effects it had were certainly visible. The concept of Hotel Historia was great and, despite people apparently not being interested in time travel anymore, the idea of them existing in history but outside of time was superb. I really liked that and I'd love for it to have been extended with more being seen from it. The fact it was used to defeat the Graxnix was excellent though. I thought the characterisation of the Tenth Doctor was brilliant and I was also delighted to see the artwork restored to a great quality following Universal Monsters. It was interesting for the Tenth Doctor to be travelling alone and I do hope Donna joins us soon. Overall, a great comic strip adventure!

Rating: 8/10