The Vortex Code

"The interior dimensions are at variance with the outer dimensions."

Writer: Trevor Baxendale

Format: Comic Strip

Released: August 2009

Printed in: Doctor Who Annual 2010

Featuring: Tenth Doctor

Synopsis 

The Doctor tends to the lone robotic survivor of a crashed ship, of which there are no human survivors. But danger strikes as a crew of Stellion Core pirates demand the Vortex Code!

Verdict 

The Vortex Code was a very enjoyable little comic strip adventure! I say little because at just six pages that's exactly what it is. Sometimes (well, every year to be honest) the Annuals baffle me as surely it's an intense struggle to tell a whole story over just six pages of comic strip. Instead of filling the Annual with rubbish that we already know like brief recaps of the stories we've watched over the previous year. We don't need to be retold what happened in them when we've probably watched them all at least twice by around the time Annuals come out. Instead, why don't the Annuals follow suit with their Classic counterparts, the 1980 Annual in particular to be precise as that's the only Classic Annual I actually own, and just be mainly full of stories. It would make them a whole lot more entertaining and by having a bunch of canonical adventures it would make the Annuals worthwhile again. Whilst the Doctor Who Storybooks were a thing it's arguable that the Annuals didn't need to be quite so heavy but since they've discontinued nothing has changed to my annoyance. However, I am hopeful that the 2016 Annual will break with tradition of the new Who era Annuals and at least give us some decent artwork comic strips. With Doctor Who Adventures being taking over by Panini, I do hope that they'll now be responsible for the Annuals. I am very optimistic about the next Annual, which amazingly is only probably about just over two months away! Crikey, time is flying. Speaking of which, to the story at hand and despite my usual critical nature against the Annuals whenever I read one of their stories, this was actually a nice little read. Now, it only took about three minutes to read but the story was pretty good. I liked that the Doctor was investigating the remains of a crashed ship he detected whilst travelling around by his lonesome in the TARDIS. Other than what we saw in The Deadly Assassin and the four 2009 Specials, I just can't imagine the Doctor enjoying travelling on his own. He always needs somebody and because he's now experienced at seeing wonders, what he enjoys most is showing humans things they never dreamed they'd see. Take Gabby for example, his companion prior to where this story is placed, she was so overwhelmed at the beginning of The Arts in Space by the birdsong being different. That's something so beautiful and I just can't see him enjoying ventures much on his own. At least here he met up with the Servitor Robot who was damaged by the crash. I thought this was a pretty small story to establish something as huge as Chrone being the oldest planet in the universe! But I liked it. The Doctor really has just about been everywhere hasn't he? Here he was on the hidden first planet battling Stellion Core pirates who were after time travel. However, in brilliantly clever style the Doctor gave it to them in a very limited way. The only places they could go were the top three theme parks in that sector of the Galaxy! Overall, a decent and fun little comic strip.

Rating: 8/10