Spiral Staircase Part 2

"Science so advanced it's like magic to me eyes."

Writer: Nick Abadzis 

Format: Comic Strip

Released: 11th February 2016

Printed in: DWC: Tales from the TARDIS 03

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Gabby

Synopsis 

A terrifying pyramid has appeared in the skies above New York City, and it's here to claim an ancient secret - buried in the body of a very-much alive movie star! 

As the Doctor attempts to unravel the conflict, Gabby and Cindy's friendship is stretched to breaking point. Has Gabby changed too much in her short time away - or has she changed just enough to save the day?

Verdict 

Spiral Staircase continued in excellent fashion and was definitely the best of the four instalments thus far in the story, which also includes The Fountains of Forever. I had quite a rant yesterday in my blog entry of part one of this story about the naming confusion of this year one finale for the Tenth Doctor and Gabby. The pairing is just magnificent but we didn't actually get much of it all here in the fourth part. What we got instead was much of a continuation of the third part with the Doctor and Cindy getting to know each other very well. I actually thought they were very good together and the love they both have for Gabby was magnificently realised when Cindy first entered the TARDIS and realised that Gabby wasn't lying at all about the whole bigger on the inside thing. The story really did have the feel of a first for a new companion through Cindy's eyes and although I can't see it happening, probably because of her lack of appearance in Four Doctors, but I certainly wouldn't be against her travelling with the Doctor and Gabby! I'd love for the Doctor to have two female companions who are best friends as it would offer so much in terms of emotion and humour. The Doctor would probably end up getting bullied but with this incarnation it would work so well. I know I've still got one more part to go, but judging by the direction of the story so far I think the option could be there in year two of these adventures. I loved the fact that this story now serves as a sequel to Pyramids of Mars! I'm not sure where this will leave the relatively recent Bernice Summerfield audio series that features the return of Sutekh, but I guess with his lack of appearance here nothing should really be contradicted. Now, it's been a long time since I've watched Pyramids of Mars but I have actually seen it twice and I've also read the Target novelisation which can be found somewhere in the 660 blog entries I have posted so far, but for those who weren't familiar with the reputable story, we got quite an extensive recount of what went on during the Fourth Doctor adventure. It was a fantastic account of events and I loved the Doctor's interaction in things that went on. Usually we're used to a bit of narration of what's going on in a story from Gabby's perspective as we have seen in The Arts in Space and The Weeping Angels of Mons, but with Gabby really going independent in this story that part of the story was allocated to Cindy through her note making and texting to Gabby on her phone. I thought it was really effective and would definitely fill in for those who don't know anything about Pyramids of Mars as like those possible readers, Cindy was in exactly the same boat. For us Classic fans though, it was a real treat. I absolutely love it when a Classic villain returns to take on a post-revival Doctor and I got that with the Eleventh Doctor in Space in Dimension Relative and Time with the Nimon and now we had the son of Sutekh make an almighty appearance at the cliffhanger! I had expected something of the kind from the start of this part but the moment was still wonderful. It was like turning to the last page of Instruments of War where DWM brought back a Classic version of the Sontaranand things were the same here. I loved it and I'm immediately anticipating the fifth and final part, which also has a bloody different name. Huff. Anubis looks like he's going to be a great villain and the Doctor couldn't believe that he existed which made things even better. An Osiran is back and with Erik and Hanif in awe, this finale is going to be interesting and that's where the rating will of course appear.