Sunscreen

"We're all gonna die here."

Writer: Jonathan Morris
Format: Comic Strip
Released: August 2007
Printed in: Doctor Who Storybook 2008

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Martha

Synopsis

The TARDIS lands in the late 21st century, on the Great Solar Shield which, according to the Tenth Doctor, is the single greatest achievement of the century. It is designed to partially block the sun and to stall the effects of global warming. However, it is attracting some deadly energy parasites...

Verdict

Sunscreen was a decent little comic strip adventure to form part of my reading of The Widow's Curse graphic novel. I think it's quite a little bonus to get this story as it didn't feature in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine and was instead taken from the Doctor Who Storybook 2008, something I am unfortunate to not own (I do have the 2007 and 2009 versions though!). So instead of coming across that release in a charity shop or shopping online, I was able to view its and blog its comic content here which is great. I'm getting back into the Series 3 era now with my reading these past few entries and I have to say I thought the writing of David Tennant's Tenth Doctor here was very good. The characterisation was excellent with his quirky personality easily captured on the page. It was very well done. With that being said though, I didn't think the writing for Martha was overly strong which was a little bit of a shame. She didn't really do much and even when she was the reason for finding the way to defeat the Silhouettes, it was through no genius of her own. It was simply dumb luck so she didn't really look that impressive which was a shame. I thought the setting of the Giant Solar Shield was very good but I was quite surprised to see it come in the 21st century. A solution to global warming was a good explanation for its existence but it did seem like it should be set a little more in the future. Martha's reaction to being on board what she called a cure for global warming was good and I liked how the Doctor even marvelled at its creation. Chaudhuri was good and I was quite surprised how little alarmed he was by the arrival of the Doctor and Martha. I know they didn't get visitors but would he really just welcome them? The fact they were on a suicide mission whilst defending the globe seemed a little harsh, especially when they didn't initially know that was the case when they signed up. The Silhouettes were actually really good and I liked how they were energy parasites in space. They came from the Dark regions of space which intrigues me but for them to be defeated by colour gave me mixed feelings. I didn't like that they were put off Martha by her t-shirt though. The realisation that they were heading away from the Shield but then to Earth was superb but the Doctor defeated them too quickly and easily for it to maintain the desired effect. Overall though, a good little comic strip!

Rating: 7/10