The Age of Ice

"Three hundred men, women and children - aged to death in a matter of seconds."

Writer: Dan McDaid
Format: Comic Strip
Released: April-July 2009
Printed in: DWM 408-411

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Majenta

Synopsis

Returning to Earth, the Doctor is reunited with UNIT - and some of his old enemies - the Skith. As a master plan to crack the codes of time travel gets underway, the Doctor, Majenta and UNIT must race against time to stop the Skith Leader from avenging the destruction of his Ownworld by wreaking havoc across the Earth...

Verdict

The Age of Ice was a super comic strip story and probably my favourite of the entire The Crimson Hand graphic novel thus far. It was excellent from start to finish and as well as telling a great story, there was some considerable development in the overall story arc that has been occurring for the travels of the Tenth Doctor and Majenta. Their relationship was strained here and I was quite surprised to see the latter taser the former. But she was doing what she thought was best for her as she had the chance of having some memories restored. The Doctor was hurt by her selfishness though and I thought it was brilliant how he made her aware of exactly how he felt. The inclusion of UNIT was fantastic and I thought the setting of Sydney worked terrifically as well. It's always nice to not have a typical London story and I liked the idea of UNIT tracking the TARDIS and just waiting for it to arrive on Earth. The comments about the team wanting a different incarnation were humorous but I thought the likes of Colonel McKay and Kath Braxton worked very well. They really were very good characters. The return of the Skith was unexpected following their appearance in The First and I really liked how they had altered their agenda. They were no longer concerned with knowledge and being the first to know everything before destroying all they have assimilated. Now they were running from a premonition concerning a certain hand that has been mentioned previously in recent stories. Just what it means is yet to be seen but I like how powerful it seems as it had sent the Skith scurrying. The continuity from the Skith's previous appearance in DWM was sublime and the concept of a Skardis was extraordinary. I absolutely loved that. Their ability to construct time travel technology was flawed though and their efforts at dematerialising caused chronal waves which brought all sorts of things to present day from dinosaurs to the Ice Age itself. The internal battle amongst the Skith with the Leader and the General having disagreements was good and I liked how the former returned to stop the General from achieving his goal of revenge out of jealousy. The UNIT Bestiary was a sublime image and the likes of a Sontaran pod, Cyberman, Mona Lisa paintings and even a War Machine all being contained within really was terrific. Majenta went through a lot in this story with Fanson and he knew a lot about her past but she didn't find out too much, other than that it was him who had wiped her memory. She was appalled at that but the Doctor wasn't ready to give up on the mystery surrounding her yet. I liked that and I look forward to seeing their adventures continue. Overall, a fantastic story!

Rating: 9/10