Every Dog Has His Day

"All humans must die."

Writer: Unknown 

Format: Comic Strip

Released: September 1980

Printed in: Doctor Who Annual 1981

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Romana II, K9

Synopsis

On a world where humans are far from welcomed, the hopes of the Doctor and Romana lie with their robot canine friend.

Verdict

Every Dog Has His Day wasn’t the greatest of comic strip stories to kick off my reading of the 1981 Doctor Who Annual. Now, these stories are about as whacky as Doctor Who gets because they don’t often carry all of the rights for likenesses which hurts the story, but we also don’t even know who wrote or drew this adventure! That’s a shame because some of the artwork is actually really good. I’m a fan of the colours and it certainly has a vibrant feel, but I think right from the off the tone is a bad one set with how completely inaccurate the likeness for Romana II as companion is. The artwork is so bland and incredibly generic. It’s clear no effort has been made to capture the likeness of Lalla Ward which is a shame because it just doesn’t feel authentic right from the off. I know this is a book aimed at the younger audience and I’m sure fans of a certain age would barely have noticed the companion here doesn’t resemble Romana, in either incarnation, but for this reader some 43 years later it is a bit frustrating. Especially when the drawing of the Fourth Doctor and K9 was so good! I love the retro feel of the story and that’s a big part of my enjoyment, but I have to say the story is a bit bland and doesn’t really match the imagery. Now, there’s only so much that can be done in six pages and that’s evident by the decline in quality of Doctor Who Magazine comic strip stories since the pandemic saw it reduced in size, but it was just a bit boring which is a shame. There were so many references to the robots being programmed to eliminate humans so why couldn’t the Doctor and Romana just confirm their species as Time Lord? That was a bit odd, especially when they were referred to as Time Lords in the narration. The title of the comic strip makes it clear which direction things are going to finish in with K9 being the hero, and in a story that is this short I’m fine with that. It’s basically a spoiler but K9 is a fun character so I don’t mind. A bit more of his traditional humour with the Doctor should have been included, but him not being human was enough of a differentiation for him to infiltrate the robot headquartered and programme the robots after a simple comment. Danesman wouldn’t require them once he had his robot army and with that the creator was dead as the revolt ensued! It was quite the revolution that happened at pace. It was exciting for a conclusion, but the build there was predictable and a little easy. The Doctor’s suggestion of using K9 as a Trojan horse was good considering we saw him come up with that idea way back in The Myth Makers, so reverting back to it was quite fun even if it was far too easy for K9 to get into command. Describing the revolution as oily was not my favourite description, although the ending with K9 wearing a crown and being proclaimed robot king was good stuff. The Doctor had always wondered what the K stood for, but where did the crown come from? Regardless, overall some fun stuff and good artwork but there was something lacking for sure.

Rating: 5/10