Junk-Yard Demon

"The Cyberman has stolen the TARDIS!"

Writer: Steve Parkhouse 

Format: Comic Strip

Released: June 1983

Printed in: DWM Summer Special 1983

Featuring: Fourth Doctor

Synopsis 

Interstellar scrap dealers have a lucrative business reprogramming dormant Cybermen into domestic servants, until one prematurely awakens and steals the Doctor's TARDIS. 

Verdict 

Junk-Yard Demon was an excellent comic strip and it was a whole lot better than I expected it to be! I took a chance on eBay by purchasing the 1983 Summer Special edition of Doctor Who Magazine and although there was some damage to the back page (which I fully knew about from the product description), I just couldn't resist some Classic Doctor Who comic content for the price of £1! How could anyone resist? I wasn't aware that there also a few text stories within the pages to go along with the lengthy comic strips so I am most pleased with my purchase. I thought the story, for a two-parter, seemed very detailed and long which is definitely a good thing and credit must go to Steve Parkhouse for that. He is a very good comic strip story writer and this is another addition to his great works. With the exception of The Deadly Assassin, both on TV and novelised, the lack of a companion usually bothers me but here the absence of a Leela or Romana didn't pose any problems for me and when I think about it's probably better that the Doctor was travelling alone. I seem to find that Tom Baker's incarnation of the Time Lord is the most difficult to characterise but I think Parkhouse did an excellent job here - I really was impressed. There were all the wonderful and quirky traits that made this Doctor still the most popular today. He's not my favourite by any means, but I really do love this incarnation. Flotsam and Jetsam were interesting characters to say the least! I liked the idea of them being intergalactic scrap merchants a lot, as there would definitely be no shortage of supply in the Whoniverse! That is something that we would soon find out. The Doctor's reaction to seeing the Cyberman was outstanding! If any readers at the time, some seventeen years after The Tenth Planet was broadcast, had any doubts about this design of Cyberman being evil or menacing they were soon quashed. It's probably against popular opinion, but the very first design of the Cybermen from William Hartnell's swansong is my favourite. I love the looks that we would later see in The Invasion, Attack of the Cybermen and The Next Doctor, but there's something incredibly and wonderfully retro that makes the 1966 version my favourite. I read the Cyberman's words in the marvellously monotonous tone that was hear some 49 years ago on our screens and the threat of just one Cyberman was all you needed. It was more than credible! The cliffhanger was very good with the Doctor having accidentally re-activated the dormant creature but my favourite moment probably came when the Cyberman sneakily stole the TARDIS! That was just incredible. Luckily for the Doctor it didn't venture too far and stayed in the same time period. It wanted to resurrect its leader Zogron for orders. It reminded me a little bit of Dalek with the last survivor wanting orders. That was similar here but the Cyberman didn't get what it wanted as Jetsam fiddled with its systems and made it into another Cyber-butler! That was quite humorous. The demise of the Cyberman was good and I loved how Jetsam and Flotsam were thrilled with their new Cyber scrapyard. Overall, this was a superb comic strip! If in parts it just went into a tad more detail, this could have scored the perfect ten. However, it wasn't quite to be but I absolutely loved it! 

Rating: 9/10