Menace of the Molags

"Cars will not start. Lights fail. The tube trains are stationery. As panic begins to grip the city, the Prime Minister declares a state of national emergency."

Writer: Steve Livesey

Format: Comic Strip

Released: September 1973

Printed in: Doctor Who Annual 1974

Featuring: Third Doctor, Jo

Synopsis

As an alien ship towers above the Houses of Parliament, the country is sent into a frenzied panic. But the Doctor knows who the culprits are, and death is not on their agenda. Can he convince the human race that this is the case?

Verdict 

Menace of the Molags was a mightily impressive comic strip story! For an Annual adventure this has to rank right up there with the likes of The Time Sickness and The Grey Hole as the truly great stories to appear in the yearly Annuals. It's no secret what my opinion is on the length of the stories that appear in the Doctor Who Annuals (that's mostly a dig at the ones we've had since the 2005 revival due to the short length and child target audience) but the Classic era comic strips that have appeared in the Annuals have been very good to be fair. Six pages, not being aimed specifically for the younger audience who would be inclined to buy Doctor Who Adventures, is an adequate length and this comic strip just proves that you can pull off something special in the small format. I just loved it! Immediately after the ship's arrival in the skies, the human race was sent into panic. Frenzied panic. The Houses of Parliament took the appearance of an alien ship above the building as a threat, and I guess I can hardly blame them, so words of the Prime Minister himself were heard in a little Doctor Who comic strip! I really like that fact. With all the reference and appearance of politics and political leaders in the revived series, this almost seemed out of place in regards to the era it appeared in. But it's not only featuring the Third Doctor and Jo, it was released during the actual time they were the TARDIS pairing so there's no possibility of forgery, though I'm not sure that's the word I was looking for but you get my point. I loved the eagerness of the Doctor to just go against the orders of the Prime Minister and to go in a helicopter and contact the ship. After the message they'd broadcast to the globe, the Doctor knew who would be on board. He wasn't too happy with the Brigadier for refusing his helicopter request but he and Jo swiftly disappeared and ascended in one anyway! So typically brilliant of the Third Doctor during his time with UNIT and I also adore how Jo prodded along with him, going against her employer. The scenes in the Molag ship were good and I liked how the Doctor immediately got on with what appeared to be the Molag leader. He knew what they needed so he was happy to offer it to them and fetch it himself! The life cycle of the Molags being told by the Doctor was a beautiful tale and I find it mightily intriguing how they start off life as a seed and then as we later saw could spawn into basically a dinosaur! This comic strip illustrated an unknown preview to Invasion of the Dinosaurs and I do hope the writer looked back on this comic strip when that TV serial was broadcast. Of course, the idea of the two stories is completely different but the imagery is very reminiscent. The descent of the Molag ship to the surface to meet with world leaders was met with mass tension from the onlooking crowd. We knew that they were part of human mythos and were the drawings of cavemen we've seen preserved for centuries, but some idiot in the crowd blurted out that the Molag was the devil and a religious theme momentarily took centre stage. Humph. Religion is just something ridiculous and I dislike how people couldn't grasp their head around an alien. Alien life is so much more believable, and likely, to exist instead of the ridiculousness of the Devil, supposed ruler of Hell. Anyway, rant on religion over, the ending of the story was comical with the Doctor stopping the dinosaurs (is that what they actually were?) in their tracks and giving the Molags the scientific equipment they wanted and then assisting with making sure Earth was safe from any threat. Overall, a quite brilliant comic strip with politics, dinosaurs and a wonderful relationship once more between the Third Doctor and Jo. I must say I was impressed!

Rating: 9/10