Dr Who & the Mechanoids

"We thought this planet was perfect."

Writer: Jacqueline Rayner

Format: Comic Strip

Released: May 2022

Printed in: DWM 578

Featuring: Dr Who, Susan

Synopsis

Trying to conduct an important experiment in TARDIS, Dr Who and Susan are soon accompanied by an unwilling companion as they embark on an encounter with the Mechanoids...

Verdict

Dr Who & the Mechanoids was a glorious comic strip adventure! The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine was very much focused on the two 1960s Doctor Who movies of Dr Who & the Daleks and Daleks' Invasion Earth - 2150 AD and with them having been restored to 4K quality recently ahead of their BluRay release, the magazine focused on them with numerous articles and this quite delightful special one-off comic strip adventure! I have to say that I think the comic strip era of the Thirteenth Doctor has been severely lacking and a large part of that is enforced given the hiatus during the peak of Covid-19 and now what appears to be a permanent reduction down to six pages. Unfortunately, that really isn't a lot of room to tell an extensive story but they managed to do so quite brilliantly with this comic strip! The idea of a special glimpse at what could have been with the Peter Cushing movie version of the Doctor and his young granddaughter Susie takin on the Mechanoids was just magnificent and it's such a fun idea. Having the Mechanoids on the big screen really would have been spectacular so to have them face to face with this iconic version of the Doctor was so much fun. I was really impressed with the artwork and I think the fact the movies were originally in colour really helps as this feels nostalgic and modern at the same time. I don't think it would work as well if we had the Hartnell version of the First Doctor in a shiny comic strip story. But this excels. I thought the dialogue was also marvellous and just the simplicity of the time travelling ship being referred to as TARDIS without a 'the' preceding it has such a profound effect and really makes it feel authentic as part of that 1960s era. It was nice for the Mechaniod sequences to feel like how they were presented in The Chase and this definitely was partly how I would imagine them being adapted for that unmade third Dalek movie. It's a shame that never got made as it would have been so much fun to see if the Mechanoid appearance was altered at all from how they were tackled on screen. I thought the artwork for their design in the comic here was tremendous. I liked the addition of Vince and how he became an unwilling traveller in the TARDIS and almost as a new companion I imagine should there be any continuation from this. The plot was always going to be a pretty simple one given that there were only six pages to play with, but having logic play a big part in a Mechanoid adventure was a nice touch. The colonists were clearly troubled by the hostilities that they had been deemed to have displayed towards the Mechanoids, but Dr Who was on hand to help! Just hearing him referred, and responding to, Dr Who feels so wrong and out of place but just added to the brilliance of the comic strip. It was so good in capturing those movies that are such a quirky piece of Doctor Who history. Susan being on hand to feed the Mechanoids the correct codes to show that they were friends was great, and I enjoyed the humour at the end with Vince. Overall, a delightful comic strip! 

Rating: 9/19