Universal Monsters

"The Valley is our home."

Writer: Ian Edginton
Format: Comic Strip
Released: January-March 2008
Printed in: DWM 391-393

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Martha

Synopsis

The Doctor and Martha visit a village, where there are stories of an evil man living in a castle. But is he actually the real villain? Martha soon discovers the truth about the Thane but will she be able to tell the Doctor in time?

Verdict

Universal Monsters was a bit of a mixed bag of a comic strip story to continue my reading of The Widow's Curse graphic novel. The plot was interesting in parts but nowhere near as good as it could have been and I also have to say that I thought the artwork was rather disappointing. It's usually of a high standard in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine but here, it just looked far too child-friendly and I hate to say it but, it just wasn't all that good. It was too blocky and the Doctor looked quite silly and I do think that it definitely had an adverse effect on the reading of the story. I thought the Valley setting was actually quite decent but the plot was trying to do too much without actually stopping to explain precisely what was going on. Now, that's not to say it was completely bad because as my rating reflects, that was definitely not the case. I thought Martha was actually pretty decent and it's a shame that her final comic strip story wasn't of the usually high standard. The characterisation of the Tenth Doctor was actually very good with David Tennant's likeness, in terms of text dialogue, being very well-captured. I thought the Thane was an intriguing character and it was good how he went from being the villain and cliffhanger to part one to actually not being evil at all. His sword fight with the Doctor was entertaining and I liked how Martha was unable to be given the chance from the Doctor to tell him the truth about him. It was completely unexpected and actually quite a twist in the plot for the villagers to actually be the ones that posed a deadly threat. The Doctor wasn't impressed with the Thane at all though as he learned of his doings and how he was using the life of the villagers to replenish his own. That obviously wouldn't sit well with the Time Lord. However, the truth about the Thane and Viktor came out and after joining forces following an ancient war, they were looking after the Khamirae and ensuring that each generation didn't cause trouble amongst the population. I liked that all they knew was the Valley but I thought the threat of the beast wasn't expanded upon enough. Cora and Gideon were very good characters and I liked the latter's reaction to the former being found by the Doctor and Martha but their relationship deserved a little more exploration for me. Overall, a decent story but it had its flaws and the artwork certainly had an effect on the story's reading.

Rating: 6/10