Onomatopoeia

"I have ended the pall... the silence... of a hundred thousand years..."

Writer: Dan McDaid

Format: Comic Strip

Released: September 2009

Printed in: DWM 413

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Majenta

Synopsis 

The Doctor takes Majenta to Graveworld 909, where they find that the natives, who are rat-like humanoids, cannot speak. They soon discover that they cannot speak either - will they be able to rescue this world from silence?

Verdict 

Onomatopoeia was a superb little comic strip adventure! I was very intrigued just by looking at the name and with a bit of knowledge forecast from my English lessons back in comprehensive school, I remembered the definition. Once I'd remembered, what came in the story was stunning. Some people might not grasp the concept but to me it was absolutely wonderful. To be honest, it was genius! I think the only reason that the story didn't get full marks was because it didn't go all the way throughout with no speech. I'd really have loved it had that been the case. It's been a while since I've done a Tenth Doctor comic strip from the pages of Doctor Who Magazine so this was a nice break from the currently sublime Doctor Who Comic. In fact, I don't actually own a graphic novel of the Tenth Doctor's so his adventures in DWM are actually quite unknown to me. I'm aware that he's fought the likes Sontarans and Sycorax but that's about it to be honest. This was my first experience of Majenta as companion and although it probably wasn't the best place to start with the lack of speech, I really enjoyed her. I know literally nothing at all about her character but I must say that I like the idea of the Doctor travelling with an alien. He obviously did so quite considerably during his fifth incarnation with the likes of Nyssa and Turlough but here she's visually alien but also humanoid which I think is the perfect mix of alien companion. In DWC, we've had ARC travelling about with the Eleventh Doctor but I think that's more to do with the story of SERVEYOUinc whereas here she really is just a companion. It's really difficult to find things to write about when there's barely any speech but as I would expect there was a lot of great action scenes. Even in a comic strip story, action is definitely important when it comes to pace and excitement in a story. I really liked how the Groundskeeper broke the spell of not talking in the way he did, even if I wanted no speech throughout the entire story. That would have made it ridiculously unique! It was interesting reading this story from the pages of DWM 413 itself in which houses 'The Big 200' ranking poll. The Caves of Androzani sat top of the list and I can't argue with that choice though I thought Love and Monsters was placed stupendously high. How it was ranked above the likes of Underworld and Timelash I'm not quite sure. The Twin Dilemma is always ranked bottom which is a huge shame as I think it's actually underrated. DWM has changed quite a bit since 2009, for the better, though this did have a nostalgic feel. The comic strip layout seems to be improved I must say. Overall though, despite the lack of speech making this quite difficult to blog about, a wonderfully superb comic strip.

Rating: 9/10