The Age of Chaos

"The beast will lead them to the atonement of death!"

Writer: Colin Baker

Format: Comic Strip

Released: October 1994

Series: Marvel Graphic Novel #1

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Frobisher

Synopsis

The Doctor and his penguin pal Frobisher take a perilous journey across the war-torn planet Krontep, battling wizards, warlords and witchcraft! 

Verdict

The Age of Chaos was a pretty good comic strip adventure and it's really fun to know that this was the first original Doctor Who graphic novel, and even cooler to know that Colin Baker wrote it! Now this isn't the first blog entry featuring the Sixth Doctor that has been penned by the actor who played him, but considering the release date of this one I thought it was a very cool anecdote. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the adventure quite as much as I hoped despite having a lot of appreciation for what was going down. I really liked the idea of a sequel to The Trial of a Time Lord and the Doctor going to visit Peri and Yrcanos, so it was very disappointing not to get that reunion in a proper way. I think it was a little predictable that Ranith turned out to be Peri all along after it was revealed she had ran away, and the image of a hooded figure looking at the TARDIS at the end was good but I think it would have been really nice to get a Doctor and Peri embrace. One thing I did like though was getting to meet some of Peri's family with her grandchildren featuring heavily. Actis actually got to travel in the TARDIS temporarily as she and the Doctor went to pick up Frobisher which seemed really random. It was humorous though that the Doctor tried to reintroduce Actis to the wrong penguin. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm just not a big fan of Frobisher. His shape changing abilities aren't utilised enough and the fact that he was not willing to use them when he and the Doctor were imprisoned by Farlig because it was cheating just seemed silly and idiotic. One thing I will compliment the story on was the colourful artwork. It was hugely impressive and whilst the style was very reminiscent of the 1990s, it was perfect in highlighting the look of the Sixth Doctor. That was done very well. I thought Ptou was a bit of an annoying character and with it not saying anything else throughout, it got slightly tiresome. However, that could be a side effect of reading every part all in one go. Carf was a decent character to have alongside the Doctor and his vicious and violent nature was fun to play with as he was not interested in following the Doctor's advice of giving in and not causing issues. Euthys revealing his presence was decent and I liked the reunion he had with his sister, but then he seemed a bit forgotten about which was a shame. The threat of the Nahrung was pretty good and I liked the twist of them being made of machinery rather than being organic, and they looked good too. I thought the ending was exciting with the tension that came and whilst the cliffhangers were a bit hit or miss in peaking my interesting for what was to come, it seemed a bit too neat that there was no hint at it. The Doctor having two hearts was a good explanation but having Ptou just take in the threat and literally ingest it didn't seem apt after such a lengthy build! As a whole, that left me feeling a little lacking for a conclusion but I could definitely appreciated the adventure. The feel was very much of Peladon and that is a big compliment. Overall, a worthy read but definitely something felt missing.

Rating: 6/10