Hour One

"For a dead woman, she looked amazing."

Writer: James Goss

Format: Short Story

Released: June 2023

Series: Doom's Day 01

Featuring: Doom

Synopsis 

Someone has sent literal Death after Doom. She can only outrun it for 24 hours. Unless she can find the Doctor.

Launching today with the first story below, you can follow Doom as she travels through all of time and space in pursuit of the Doctor to save her from the ever-approaching Death. She only has 24 hours and a vortex manipulator to save herself before her fate is sealed forever.

Verdict  

Hour One was a great little short story to kick off the multimedia adventure that is Doom’s Day! Whilst I’m not sure that an online text story is entirely the best way to kick off a story like this, I thought it was a really fun and entertaining read that almost certainly exceeded my expectations! It really is baffling that in a story that goes chronologically hour by hour we start on a small scale online, but I guess I do understand the marketing there of trying to offer the start for free and entice readers and fans to perhaps delve into the rest of the adventure across the numerous paid stories. I know I will certainly be hoping to consume every single hour of Doom’s journey to find the Doctor, and this was a fine beginning to lay the groundwork and send us on the adventure to come. I think Doom is a fun character and whilst I’m not buying for a second that she’s the universe’s most dangerous assassin, there’s a lot of potential with the character. I thought the promo video that introduced this multimedia adventure a couple of months ago was good and whilst I can’t wait to hear Suz Kempner in the performed role, it was good to finally put some dialogue to the face. Her encounter with the Doctor here was intriguing and I actually didn’t expect that to happen so early. It was also a little odd for the incarnation of the Doctor to not be specified but with the description of him being a grandad, it could only really be the First, Third or Twelfth Doctor. I do hope that we get it specified as the hours countdown, but for now my gut reaction tells me this is the First Doctor. That would make sense to go chronologically through the Doctor’s timeline as Doom hopes to secure her life. I thought Terri was a fun character as almost the secretary for the Lesser Order of Oberon, and that organisation in of itself was very good. It sounded impressive and certainly suited to assassins! I did like how Doom’s success rate as an assassin was sold by Terri confirming the mission as a success purely from Doom confirming she got to the Ball at New Venice, but the involvement of the Doctor proved quite the hinderance. The Doctor was well known in this assassin community which was fun and I loved how if you were sent to kill him that it was a laughable mission. You had no chance. That said a lot about the Doctor which I adored. The Doctor knowing what Doom was up to and warning her to stop was nicely done and it’s fun to think where things will go from here as Doom is dying with exactly twenty-four hours to save her life. The idea of Death itself following Doom is brilliant and with the Doctor being the only one who can save her, that sets us up nicely for the adventure to come. She didn’t want to be taken off the mission rota because that gave her twenty-four chances to find the Doctor. Her missions could be anywhere and when, so she had to use her final day to try and once again find the Doctor to help save her life. Was he responsible? That was implied but still left ambiguous which was fun. I really enjoyed the lead into the next hour with Doom set to head for the Stormcage and surely a meeting with River Song! That really excites me for the next instalment in Doctor Who Magazine, but for now this was a really solid opener! It sets us up very nicely and introduces us to Doom in an entertaining and just a really great way. Overall, a great read! 

Rating: 8/10