Weapons of Past Destruction Part 2

"I fought the war to end all wars - and I won. The only survivor."

Writer: Cavan Scott 

Format: Comic Strip

Released: 17th December 2015

Printed in: DWC: Tales from the TARDIS 01

Featuring: Ninth Doctor, Rose, Captain Jack

Synopsis 

The Ninth Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack: it's the classic TARDIS team in an all-new adventure, as ancient weaponry from the Time War begins to show up on the intergalactic black market! Can the Doctor stop the Time War from happening all over again?

Verdict 

Weapons of Past Destruction continued in excellent style here with this tremendous second part! Following on immediately after the cliffhanger of part one, literally on the next page, this was well paced and quite informative which was a real treat. Prior to The Day of the Doctor, Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor was the incarnation we would most associate with the Time War and whilst the Big Finish audios are now going to considerable length to highlight to us that it was not that way, I thought it was intriguing to have the Ninth Doctor talk so expressively and openly about the Time War. This was obviously set before Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways so that added to my intrigue. Despite this Doctor being the incarnation to deal with the aftermath of becoming the sole surviving Time Lord, we didn't really learn much at all about the Time War until the Tenth Doctor came around. That's something now, thinking back, I find quite interesting. I love how this incarnation of the Doctor regenerated on screen over a decade ago now but we're still getting brand new stories and probably story arcs with him. That's the beauty of comic strips and it's a big reason why the blog is going to be full of them over the coming months. I don't think it'll be as much as I think but I do still have a considerable amount of The Betrothal of Sontar to get through as well as starting The Iron Legion and The Tides of Time graphic novels. So we'll see. I've been thinking to myself that once I've purchased each comic strip, I'll go back and do them all in order! It's something I'd also love to do with the Target novelisations but expense will make that task a lot more difficult to achieve. But I do like a challenge! Speaking of which, after the excellent cliffhanger of the previous part, the Doctor had quite the challenge to try and save Rose! He was absolutely determined to ensure that she survived and after tracking her through some quite snazzy TARDIS technology, his reaction when just her jacket returned to the console room really did say a lot about how much the Doctor thinks of Rose. His outburst to Jack about not believing the facts and doing something to change them was superb. But once the Doctor and Jack were reunited with Rose on Fluren's World, there was a lot more for the Doctor to have an outburst about. His disgust at discovering the Time War weaponry from Gallifrey was superb and the characterisation of Christopher Eccleston's incarnation was absolutely brilliant throughout. If they keep that up, I'm going to absolutely love his place in the DWC comic strips! The characterisation of both Rose and Captain Jack continued to be excellent and for the latter I think that's particularly impressive to capture the Series 1 likeness as we've had him return in Utopia/The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords, The Stolen Earth/Journey's End and four series of Torchwood! So bravo to Cavan Scott for that. I think the same could be said for Rose as well after her return in Turn Left and adventures with the Tenth Doctor. The story itself looks set to be superb and the name seems to be more understandable now. The Doctor offering his mind for the right price as he knew how to operate the weaponry was quite a surprise but I love how outrageous the Doctor seems to be when things that shouldn't happen do occur. The Unon, or Riders, didn't appear but we learned a lot more about them which was good. I liked the twist with the Lect showing up at the cliffhanger which wasn't expected! It didn't have the same effect as part one and wasn't as good but it will advance the story on nicely. Overall, another brilliant part and it's great to have the Ninth Doctor comics in the UK. The rating will appear whenever the story concludes!