Blood and Ice Part 4

"They don't all die. The splinters don't all die!"

Writer: Jacqueline Rayner

Format: Comic Strip

Released: 25th June 2015

Printed in: DWM 488

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Clara

Synopsis 

With the Doctor and Clara locked up at the hands of the merciful Dr Audley, it appears that Winnie has betrayed them and joined with the evil human experimenter. What does this mean for the Doctor, if the splinter doesn't help him survive?

Verdict 

Blood and Ice concluded in excellent style with this fourth and final part! The Twelfth Doctor comic strip has started off pretty strongly with a solid The Eye of Torment, which amazingly started nearly a year ago. It then continued wonderfully with the return of the Sontarans and Rutans in The Instruments of War which was followed by a slight detour in terms of quality with Space Invaders! But now all is restored as this comic strip adventure is certainly the best of the Twelfth Doctor run thus far! I'll get into the details shortly but before I do, let's have a look at what this issue of DWM has in store for us. It doesn't seem like a few days since I picked up the last issue due to A-Level exams, in which I incredibly won star letter of the month due to my praise of this very story. But here we are again, late, but only by a few days this time. I'm really looking forward to the Ingrid Oliver interview as I think the character we see in Osgood on screen is not far from the actress herself at all! I'm sure that'll get confirmed during the interview. I'm intrigued by what a main feature on Doctor Who cosplay has to offer. I can't imagine what that'll consist of other than pictures. The thrills of dressing up as our heroes? I can't say I've ever wanted to do that, though I do own a Fourth Doctor sonic screwdriver and Tenth Doctor fob watch as part of my collection, so maybe there's something deep inside me that wants ti join the cosplay party. I'm looking forward to the continuation of looking at Doctor Who's history on home video as I've enjoyed that feature a lot over the last few issues. It's incredible to think that almost instantly the birth of the DVDs just destroyed the VHS market. I'm enjoying the retroness (is that a word?) of some of the covers and it's nice to know that whilst Doctor Who was off our screens, and with episodes not readily available on the internet, fans were able to watch Classic adventures that they may never have seen before or at least not seen for years. That's the one thing that's sad from my perspective in having watched every TV story ever, there's nothing new for 39 weeks of the year. Thankfully, I've still got loads and loads of audios, novels and comic strip stories to explore to fill the void, but there's nothing quite like the television stories. Steven Moffat's column was a superb read and it's nice to see how positive he is about the John Nathan-Turner interview that appeared in the last issue. He's exactly right about Season 26 too - it's fantastic! Galaxy Forum is always a great read as we get to see other fans' thoughts on just about anything! And as always, I can't wait to read what Jacqueline Rayner has in store in her Relative Dimensions column which is usually a highlight of the magazine. Anyway, speaking of Jacqueline Rayner. What a wonderful comic strip she's given us with Blood and Ice. A superb finale for a superb story. I feared that after the first two magnificent parts, and part three not following at the same high standard, that the story may dwindle to lower than I had first hoped. But thankfully that was not the case! The experiments came to an end and after the fearful cliffhanger of the last part, Winnie truly did give her life to save the Doctor. I think it's brilliant that whilst the TV series seems to have forgotten about Clara's impossible girl gimmick, other than a reference in Deep Breath, the comic strips can still deal with the aftermath of The Name of the Doctor. It's such a landmark occurrence! But it's nice to know that everything said in that story does happen. The splinters do sacrifice themselves for the Doctor. Of course we saw preludes to that in Asylum of the Daleks and The Snowmen, which was nicely referenced, but after the story in which the splinters are born we see that it's not all bad. Clara feels so guilty for what she has created but she had no other choice. The embrace between Clara and Winnie at the end was a lovely touch as all seemed lost. The Doctor catching on to Winnie's hints to thwart Dr Audley was brilliant. Of course the splinter was going to save the Doctor! That's what she was born to do. And by chance she survived. The blue blood continuation was fantastic and I liked that Clara was going to step in a a Winnie when the latter's mother arrived. However, whilst the characterisation of the Twelfth Doctor has easily been mastered, I still feel that they can't get Clara quite right. But hopefully there's plenty of time to get that right. Overall though, an excellent comic strip across the four parts with some incredible past references, flashbacks and dwelling. A very good plot with some great characters. 

Rating: 9/10