The Comfort of the Good Part 1

"I wanted to be someone special. Someone like nobody ever before. I wanted to be one of the stars."

Writers: Al Ewing & Rob Williams

Format: Comic Strip

Released: 28th January 2016

Printed in: DWC 2.05

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Alice, Jones, ARC

Synopsis

The Doctor, Alice and ARC remain in 4th century Rome after fending off a Cybermen attack. Jones thinks he's dead whilst inside the Entity. But when the TARDIS turns its back on the Doctor and leaves with no way of leaving, how will they rescue Jones from entering a timestream of nothingness?

Verdict 

The Comfort of the Good kicked off in tremendous style with this brilliant first part to the story! If it carries on in the same way then we're going to have quite the first year finale for the Eleventh Doctor and co! Starting pretty much where Conversion left off, I finally got the story I was after with Jones! He finally felt like a companion and he actually contributed and played a major role in the story which was pleasing. I mean, it took for him to think he was dead for that to happen but at least we finally got there! Judging by his lack of appearance in Four Doctors, and what occurred towards the end of this story here, my guess is this story will be his last as companion and although I haven't been his biggest fan since What He Wants..., I can't say I've disliked him. He's just not contributed greatly but hearing what he would tell his mother made me think that actually he had done quite a considerable amount on his travels in the TARDIS. There were great references to The Rise and Fall/The Other Doctor and Conversion but as he was flying the air he seemed to have quite enjoyed what he took to be dying. He was having a whale of a time in the afterlife and to be honest, what we saw was exactly how I'd depict Jones! It was just perfect for what had happened to him and suited his character perfectly. ARC played a prominent role in the story and it seems his time as companion may soon be up as well. After the Doctor hurt him to save the people from the Entity Cybermen, the Doctor wasn't sure if he could learn from what he had done. ARC still had a connection with Jones who was now in the Entity itself and through that the three of them in fourth century Rome managed to help him back just in the nick of time. For me though, whilst Jones was extremely prominent I thought the story was absolutely all about the Doctor and the TARDIS. The relationship between the pair hasn't been brought to the forefront of a story since The Doctor's Wife, which actually chronologically takes place after this story, but never have we had so much information revealed about Time Lords and their TARDIS! There was a connection of trust on both parts which I found extremely fascinating as it led me to ask are there evil TARDISes as well? How else could you explain the Master and the Rani's respective TARDIS trusting them. I was quite surprised that after everything the Doctor and his TARDIS had been through, that these events saw him locked out, and apparently for good. The characterisation of Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor was outstanding here with his anger portrayed sublimely. It really did feel like a Smith story with all that anger ventilated! I loved it. He got outraged by the TARDIS closing her doors on him and that led him to calling her his. His TARDIS. She should do as he commanded and that led her to run away. The Doctor revealed what happened in that situation as usually it would just return to Gallifrey but with the planet lost, it would now go to the nearest Time Lord. The only problem was, there are no others left. Or are there? We saw a brief glimpse of one a long time ago now in After Life and I do wonder whether that is truly the same women we saw at the incredible cliffhanger! When I first read it, I was not ready for that bombshell! Even if this Time Lord turns out to just be another trick of the Talent Scout as I suspect, the fact we now know unambiguously what the mother of the Doctor looks like makes these comics a huge deal! We weren't entirely sure in The End of Time but the artwork doesn't really contradict whether the two are the same women or not, and with regeneration I don't think it really matters. But now we have an actual image to start basing a family of the Doctor off. Other than Susan, we know pretty much nothing about the Doctor's family but now things could change. The cliffhanger was superb and so was the story! I just hope it continues well which is of course where the rating will appear.