The Rise and Fall

"I've spent a thousand years living in a box and stealing most of my clothes. I've saved up."

Writer: Al Ewing 

Format: Comic Strip

Released: 10th September 2015

Printed in: DWC #8

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Alice, Jones, ARC

Synopsis 

Alice believed her mother had returned from the dead, only for it to be revealed as a trick by SERVEYOUinc's deplorable Talent Scout. Accidentally volunteering herself as the Infinite Astronaut, Alice was forced to embark on a dangerous dimension-crossing mission to discover the Creator's true identity. While their quest ended an interstellar war, Alice's inability to feel the cosmic wonder she witnessed had left her empty. Now, the Doctor has had enough. No one hurts his friends and gets away without at least a stern telling-off. It's time to lodge a complaint - at SERVEYOUinc Headquaters! 

Verdict 

The Rise and Fall was an excellent opening part to what certainly appears to be the start of a multi-part story. Sadly, it appears that they've frustratingly gone with the two separately named parts for a multi-part story which I think is fine for the TV series but it just shouldn't happen in the comic strips, especially where the Twelfth and Tenth Doctor stories in the same magazine don't follow suit! Anyway, the story was superb and followed on very nicely from The Eternal Dogfight/The Infinite Astronaut, which was nearly referenced also. After the horrible events of that story for Alice, where the Talent Scout embodied her late mother whom she's been mourning with difficulty, the Doctor had just about had enough with SERVEYOUinc, and who could blame him? They've featured in just about every Eleventh Doctor comic strip in DWC and this is where it seems I'm going to have an issue with the magazine as in the next issue they're seemingly jumping ahead which is rather disappointing, especially when they're only going to print the first half of one story! They can't just leave it hanging. That really annoys me, although the stories that are set to come look incredible I must say. I liked the Eleventh Doctor in this story very much and although the characterisation could definitely have been better, I thought there were a lot of traits of Matt Smith's Doctor which was very good. It reminded me a little bit of A Good Man Goes to War in the anger being ventilated. Obviously this story is set prior to that but the resemblances can definitely be drawn. Alice had been made to feel really down by the Talent Scout and the Doctor just wouldn't accept that on top of everything else SERVEYOUinc had put the TARDIS team through. I enjoyed the reference to Space in Dimension Relative and Time and I was also intrigued by the mention of Vortis which was a nice throwback to The Web Planet. The prologue being continued on all the way back from The Friendly Place was fantastic and I really did love that continuity. I wasn't a fan of Jones at all once again as well, he just doesn't do anything! All he does is annoy Alice by creating song lyrics instantly for their current situation, no matter what that might be! It does get annoying and his look has changed so much since What He Wants... it's actually ridiculous. The overall TARDIS team is fluctuating in my thoughts in this segment of the comic but thankfully the story quality has been mostly superb. Alice dealing with the death of her mother was much better handled in this story and it doesn't feel like such a burden in the way it's been handled this time around. The SERVEYOUinc headquarters looked pretty impressive I must say but the Doctor didn't seem too impressed, and rightly so. The plot was decent and I really liked the cliffhanger leading into the final part. After endless phone calls and what I imagine would also be quite a lot of ingenuity, the Doctor had somehow managed to become the majority shareholder at SERVEYOUinc. I imagine he was rather pleased with himself in pulling that coup off! The way he announced it was magnificent. ARC was quite humorous in this story just basically cowering as a ball. It's been hinted recently that 'he was coming'. And indeed as things would have it, he did arrive in mightily intriguing circumstances. All had changed at SERVEYOUinc. The chairmen was dead. The majority shareholder was now the Doctor. But the Doctor was all change. His companions were worried and the Doctor now seemed evil. Was he now a fully fledged member of SERVEYOUinc? I have no idea when I'll find out due to the DWC revamp, but I'll get there eventually and whenever I do that's where the final rating will appear.