Super Gran

"He's all grown up now Doctor. He knows you're not real."

Writer: Paul Lang

Format: Comic Strip

Released: October 2015

Printed in: Doctor Who Annual 2016

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Clara 

Synopsis 

Gertie used to travel with the Doctor. A long time ago. She knows she will see him again on September 26th... she just doesn't now what year. Each year she waits and tells her grandchild stories of time and space but he's getting older now and Gertie is becoming impatient. Will the Doctor ever come back?

Verdict 

Super Gran, a name I absolutely despise for a Doctor Who story, was a pretty average conclusion to the story already started in Zorgo the Terrible. Here we are again then, another Doctor Who Annual and another criticism heavy blog entry. I'm sorry but I just can't understand why the Annuals have to be so ridiculously child friendly. I get that most Annuals are bought for children but the age of this apparent target audience seems to be extremely young and not fitting for a Doctor Who programme. Despite what people say, Doctor Who is not a children's programme. It's dubbed as for the family and that means it's to be enjoyed by everybody, regardless of age. It really does anger me when in charity shops they put Doctor Who novels in the children's section. Thankfully this week, I actually found my first charity shop finds since moving out and into university with incredible finds of Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks and Doctor Who and the Green Death at just £1 each. I think my point about the Annuals was proven as I did see the 2015 edition in the children's section but to my surprise and happiness, the Target novels didn't appear with it! I can't remember the name of the charity shop off the top of my head, but I can remember where it is and I'll be sure to make another visit soon! I doubt I'll be as lucky but there's no harm in looking is there? I thought not. I was quite surprised by the audacity of a Doctor Who Annual (speaking of today, in the Classic era I would be fine with it) to introduce what appeared to be a new and unseen companion for the Twelfth Doctor. That's an extremely bold step considering we've only seen the current incarnation travel with the wonderful Clara. Following Face the Raven, we knew that a new companion would soon be coming but not even in Doctor Who Comic has a different companion for this Doctor been presented but instead we get it in an Annual? That was a surprise and something I'm not really a fan of. I mean, there's plenty of gaps for where the Twelfth Doctor and Gertie could have travelled together due to the number of times the Doctor has popped up at Coal Hill School, who knows what he did in between, but references to Daleks and visits to Mars that we didn't see seemed intriguing but annoying at the same time. There seemed to be something resembling a mix of Pyramids on Mars and Mummy on the Orient Express, but if we are going to have a new companion for this Doctor, whilst Clara is still around outside of television, then I want to see the adventures she was telling her grandchild all about! Her adventures certainly did sound interesting and who knows, I could be wrongly criticising the writer and she may have appeared in Doctor Who Adventures as the companion, but as Clara appeared in Empire's Fall, the one and only comic strip I have done from the revamped magazine, I'll be confident in thinking that this was her one and only story. I liked the idea of the Doctor not telling her which year he meant when he said he would see her again on September 26th, but not a lot really happened in this story which is quite an achievement considering there are only six pages to play with. Usually the Annual comic stories feel rushed but this didn't have enough content! How is that possible? Once the Doctor and Clara arrived immediately following the events of the first part of the story, it was quite fun with a sweet reunion and Gertie's grandchild being bewildered by the dragon and the existence of the Doctor. Overall, as a two part story, I liked that something new was tried in having both comic strips linked as one story but it was still just far too childish. Will I ever get my wish?

Rating: 6/10