Blood and Ice Part 1

"You are looking at the most unspoiled view on this planet."

Writer: Jacqueline Rayner

Format: Comic Strip

Released: 2nd April 2015

Printed in: DWM 485 

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Clara

Synopsis 

The Twelfth Doctor and Clara arrive at Snowcap U, a study base in the Antarctic. There, some students are acting suspiciously and Clara receives the shock of her life...

Verdict

Hurrah! It's a DWM Thursday and quite a celebratory one as the magazine has four collectable covers for the keen reader to choose from. Seeing as the magazine is celebrating the tenth anniversary of Doctor Who's return in 2005 with Rose, I thought I should pick the Christopher Eccleston cover seeing as he was the Ninth Doctor that so successfully brought it back to our screens a decade ago. The issue looks to be a promising with an abundance of interviews from many of those responsible or part of bringing the show we all love back to our television screens. I've already read Steven Moffat's column which was as good as ever and I loved how he admired a fan theory relating to Delta and the Bannermen! I'm not sure I'll be entering any of the competitions as I wasn't overly struck on the prizes though I may be tempted by the audio of Frontios. Gallifrey Guardian is always a good read so I'm looking forward to that and I adored DWM's distaste at the DVD release of The Underwater Menace still not having occurred. I'm not a fan of Fact of Fiction and I usually give that a miss but seeing as it's covering the episode that brought it all back I may give it a go this time around. I always look forward to Jacqueline Rayner's little column that follows the comic strip and speaking of which, I was absolutely thrilled to see that she was penning Blood and Ice! I really liked the comic strip this month as I expected after seeing that the wonderfully barmy Jacqueline Rayner was the writer! The setting of the Antarctic in 2048 was a superb one and I like how a big future cliffhanger was immediately opened with the Doctor declaring that their location seemed familiar. I wonder just what might have caught the Doctor's eye about his surroundings. Again though, Clara's representation in DWM isn't like it truly is on television at all which I'm finding quite annoying now because I love her and I love these comics but they're getting her wrong consistently. I'm going to try and not let it affect each story's rating, as I did with the relationship with Danny during Series 8, but I do hope it improves. The Titan Doctor Who Comic has it so much closer to reality. To give DWM its credit though, it's absolutely nailed Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor in probably a more effective way than the Doctor Who Comic has. I wasn't struck on how they presented Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor early doors but here they've nailed the Doctor to precision which is vitally important. The story was good and I liked the subtle reference to this Doctor being an unprecedented thirteenth (shouldn't it technically be fourteenth) member of the party. There should only have been twelve just as the Doctor should only have regenerated twelve times. That was really clever. George Evans enquiring about his daughter Polly had me thinking at first that we were going to meet the First and Second Doctor companion of the same name during her late teenage/early 20s years. But the year soon quashed that theory. Dr. Audley was a mysterious character and there's obviously more there than meets the eye. Winnie was a quiet character but after a shocking albatross attack on the helicopter, an even bigger shock followed back at the complex as Clara and Winnie were changing clothes, Winnie looked identical to Clara! Have we met a fragment of Clara that we saw were splintered in The Name of the Doctor? I bloody hope so! A fantastic start to the comic strip.