Spirits of the Jungle Part 1

"One is never alone in the jungle..."

Writer: Jonathan Morris 

Format: Comic Strip

Released: 23rd July 2015

Printed in: DWM 489

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Clara

Synopsis 

The Doctor and Clara get caught up in the hunt for the Hadax Ura, an enigmatic superweapon which has an enormous reward for being found. But as Clara gets lost in the jungle, are the dead returning to life?

Verdict 

Spirits of the Jungle was a pretty decent opener to the brand new comic strip adventure in the latest Doctor Who Magazine! Again, I'm a little late reading as I usually like to read the comic strip on release day but due to being away that was put on hold for a couple of days. This seems to be a very good issue of DWM with an interview with one of my favourite Doctor's - Colin Baker! It's going to be interesting to see what he has to say about his Doctor finally getting a regeneration story, though I'm intrigued to see how the writers will tie it in with the beginning of Time and the Rani. But that's for another day and a much later blog entry. I've read Steven Moffat's column which was one of the barmiest ever with him envisaging how a conversation would go down between him and his ten year old self! There's also a wonderful preview of the audios from Big Finish next year with River Song, Churchill, Weeping Angels, Judoon, Sycorax and modern-era Sontarans all making their audio debuts! It's going to be quite a year on the audio front. We've also got the survey results in this issue of DWM which I'm really intrigued to see after voting quite a while back. Thanks to this issue I only noticed that the Series 9 trailer has a 1960s era Dalek sneaking into shot! A return to the Asylum perhaps? A Malcolm Hulke feature should be good and I'm looking forward to the Coming Soon section as there's a lot to look forward to! Relative Dimensions is always a favourite of mine with the whacky Jacqueline Rayner and Galaxy Forum is always a great read. It looks set to be the best DWM in quite a while! But let's talk about the comic strip and although there's still a long way to go, I haven't got a great feel about where this is going. It was a solid opening part but I'm not sure about throwing the Doctor and Clara straight into action and then having 'earlier' and 'even earlier' recaps. The latter seemed a bit comedic to include. The story behind the Hadax Ura seems to be a good one and it certainly sparked quite the action packed opening! Clara though got lost in the jungle as she went below the canopy. I definitely felt that this comic strip had a post Series 8 feel, which is brilliant as this story should conclude during Season 8, with the Doctor and Clara getting along nicely. That's something I expect to see on television starting in September. The characterisation of the Twelfth Doctor was superb, as it has been ever since his comic strip debut in The Eye of Torment, but again I'm not sure they're getting Clara quite right. Jacqueline Rayner was somewhere close in Blood and Ice but I think they've gone further away again now. The artwork wasn't as great as past stories of the Twelfth Doctor comic era in my opinion which was quite surprising. The Doctor appearing at the door of Clara's classroom was typical of this incarnation though which I liked. The Doctor showing how much he cares about Clara in saying that his assistance would be voided if they didn't find her was magnificent. I'm not too sure about the cliffhanger to be honest. I thought I'd ridded myself of bloody Danny Pink. Just die! He surprisingly appeared in Last Christmas, which didn't thrill me, and now he's showing up here. To be honest, it didn't look very much like him though so I remain skeptical. I'm also convinced that the two words that convinced the Doctor to go on this venture were definitely not 'jet pack'. I'll be disappointed if that's the case! But overall, this story always had a hard act to follow and this wasn't too bad so I hope things fasten and improve in the future parts to come.