The Memory Feast

"They foresaw their own end..."

Writer: George Mann

Format: Comic Strip
Released: June-July 2017

Printed in: The Eleventh Doctor #3.6-7

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Alice, Sapling

Synopsis

When the Sapling's mysterious vision leads the TARDIS to a luxury space cruise liner orbiting a black hole, the Doctor was shocked to discover over a dozen Ood still enslaved onboard, who had turned on their masters! Further investigations revealed that they had been disconnected from the Ood Song due to the black hole, and the Doctor was able to free them, and return them to the Song, and their planet.

Now, the journey continues... 

Verdict

The Memory Feast was a very good continuation of the third year of Eleventh Doctor comic strip adventures! It does seem quite a while now since I read Time of the Ood and I admittedly acknowledge that my reading of most of Titan's releases has been hampered by the shocking decision from BBC's Tales from the TARDIS comic to become a tri-monthly release. Thankfully, the superb Libraries West service has enabled me to pick up the graphic novels and continue my reading of the Eleventh Doctor's adventures at a far more favourable pace. I was delighted to see that George Mann was back penning a comic strip and I thought his characterisation of the Eleventh Doctor was pretty good with a decent likeness of Matt Smith captured on the page. I thought the acknowledging of Alice being a good companion and taking the initiative when it came to running away from the Thrake was terrific and as an enemy, I thought they were decent. I liked the concept behind the Xerxes and the prospect of them having died out before Time Lord civilisation had even begun showed the scale of just how long the memory ark had been floating around in space. I thought that was a good setting and the whole theme of memory and projection was fantastic. It was intriguing to see the memories of just one of the Xerxes but the most fascinating memories were those of the Doctor's. The little nod to An Unearthly Child with the image of 76 Totter's Lane was wonderful and I liked the fear factor of Skaro getting a mention too. The Sapling was really great in this story and I've been a bit sceptical about its presence but the sacrifice it was willing to make to save its progenitors was really quite something. The echo of the Xerxes never being forgotten and surviving its sacrifice was really good as well. The imagery of this comic strip was quite brilliant and I liked how it turned out to be one big chase. The Doctor being shown the way to defeating the Thrake by the Xerxes was good and I liked the simplicity of him providing the means to overload their greedy desires. The reference to The Tragical History Tour by the Doctor towards the Sapling and the hopes for a chat were good and I do hope that gets further explored in the next story in the run. For now though, this was a great little comic strip adventure!

Rating: 8/10