Mistress of Chaos Part 1

"The terrorist known only as 'The Doctor' has struck again."

Writer: Scott Gray

Format: Comic Strip

Released: 19th September 2019

Printed in: DWM 543

Featuring: Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Ryan, Graham

Synopsis

The Mahuika Power Station is in meltdown. Everywhere within a fifty mile radius is moments away from disaster. Segonus IV will never be the same again and there's no time for help to arrive... Until the TARDIS dematerialises. But the Doctor and her friends soon find that there's a larger plan at work.

Verdict

Mistress of Chaos began in excellent style with this fantastic first part of the adventure! More of that shortly, but this looks set to be another stellar issue of Doctor Who Magazine! I really enjoyed last month's exploration into the plot devices of each decade of Classic Who and I'm excited to see it continue on a smaller scale with the post-regeneration story. I would love for this kind of thing to become a regular feature as it really is a great feature. The DWM Review is always good (if I've covered the content being reviewed), and I'm delighted to see from my initial flick through that the recent B+M action figures are the subject! I actually purchased the War Doctor and Dalek pack recently from there so I'm sure I'll enjoy that. Andrew Cartmel and Sophie Aldred should be very good interviews as they are synonymous with the Seventh Doctor era and whilst that may not be my favourite time in Doctor Who's chronology, I always find the plans and discussions going on around that time very intriguing. The Nathan-Turner Years is also something I'm looking forward to and I'm intrigued to read just what exactly it will be dealing with from that era as the title is quite vague. The look at regeneration itself in the Cheating Death feature is also of particular interest to me, along with Galaxy Forum which will be quite heartfelt given the recent and tragic passing of the amazing Terrance Dicks. I didn't grow up reading the Targets but in my collections and reading through what I have collected, I was always excited when his name was on the front cover. A true legend to the show as a whole as well and he obviously played a huge part in my all-time favourite story of The War Games. I'm sure an issue in the immediate future will pay more of a tribute and I await that graciously. Now, back to the comic strip and I thought this was one of the strongest opening parts for any of the Thirteenth Doctor adventures we've had so far in DWM. I was really impressed and I liked how Team TARDIS were just thrown straight into torrential chaos with a meltdown literally 15 seconds away. The Doctor was a genius, luckily, and saw to that being averted and I hugely enjoyed the characterisation of Jodie Whittaker's incarnation. It was absolutely spot on. Her attempt to save Harold who was on a wonky ledge was devastating as her very appearance led him to die rather than jump into her arms and to safety. I was shocked by that and I was expecting something along the lines of a resembling Doctor like in The Enemy of the World, but that wasn't to be. It was actually the slander of Berakka Dogbolter which I liked for its comic strip continuity. The use of the flashbacks to The Warmonger were terrific and I think where it now feels a long time since we've had any Doctor Who on screen, the continuity with the current team was very much welcomed. The companions were quite quiet which was good as this one was all about the Doctor and her anger. They had helped people, whilst the Doctor was not so lucky. She was going to show Dogbolter an angry Doctor and that was the cliffhanger finish. I loved that. The Doctor was angry and that's something we haven't seen an awful lot of in this incarnation. I'm looking very forward to the ramifications in the next part but for now, this was a strong opener.