In With the Tide

"They won't stop until the oceans rise above the very trees!"

Writers: Scott & David Tipton 

Format: Comic Strip

Released: March 2013

Series: Prisoners of Time 03

Featuring: Third Doctor, Sarah, Liz, Brigadier

Synopsis 

Our yearlong celebration of Doctor Who's 50th anniversary continues! "Now listen to me!" It's time to fire up Bessie, as the Third Doctor takes the spotlight in this issue of a 12-part epic adventure featuring all 11 incarnations of the Doctor! 

Verdict 

In With the Tide was another very good story to continue along the Prisoners of Time epic. It wasn't quite up to the standard of Unnatural Selection and Bazaar Adventures mainly because of the ending which I'll come to shortly, but as my rating shows, I still very much enjoyed what I read! I was not surprised that Sarah Jane was the chosen companion for the Third Doctor but I must admit I was pleasantly shocked to see that Liz would also be in the story! It was so great to see her reunited with the Third Doctor after her abrupt departure in which we didn't even get to see her goodbye moment. Of course, the Companion Chronicles range has established meetings between the Third Doctor and Liz after the events of Inferno, her last televised appearance, and although they were wonderful there's nothing quite like a visual story when it comes to reunions of this kind. Seeing both Liz and Sarah alongside the Third Doctor was a real treat I must say. However, I must be a little harsh and criticise the artwork for Liz. She didn't look an awful lot like Caroline John which I thought was a shame but the other three main characters were drawn to perfection, capturing the era in which this story was set with absolute ease. The characterisation of Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor was magnificent and I must I really was impressed with its consistency throughout the adventure. The characterisation of the Brigadier was also superb with Nicholas Courtney's likeness from the Third Doctor era captured with effortless ease. Although Sarah didn't have an awful lot to do, Lis Sladen's likeness was also captured very well and I thought the artwork for her was fantastic. The plot of the story was an interesting one and after appearances in the first two stories of this interconnected arc from the Zarbi and the Ice Warriors, you could forgive me for thinking we were going to be getting a Sea Devils story. That wasn't to be so I guess my ongoing reading of Clara Oswald and the School of Death will have to suffice for that. Agent Paul was a bit of a menacing character but I guess that comes naturally considering he's a member of the CIA. The American influence in the story was quite heavy but I thought the announcement from Nixon was quite humorous and didn't make an awful lot of sense. The Remoraxians posed a threat and were changing the weather across the globe but did that really mean that the whole of Great Britain needed to be nuked? I really don't think so. It seemed way too far a measure. The plan of the Remoraxians was actually very good with them wanting to make the entire planet into a water world. They excellently acknowledged that it wasn't all that far off but there was still a good 30% or so that was covered with land so something needed to be done about that. They had infected UNIT which was a very impressive feat and the Brigadier ordering the Tower of London to be flooded obviously was out of the norm! The appearance of the Whomobile was quite a surprise, especially with Bessie getting a mention in the synopsis. I didn't think it was the one of the best things introduced to Doctor Who but given its lack of appearances it was nice to see it again in this adventure. The major problem I had with this story was the ending. It was just rubbish to be honest. The Remoraxians simply packed up and left the entire planet on the threat from the USA. Why kind of enemies are they? Nobody ever leaves from a threat and they certainly don't go down without a fight! What was even more surprising to me was the fact the Doctor simply just let them go on their way without any repercussions. That seemed awfully strange and was something I didn't really agree with. The scene on the last page was very good though with the mysterious cloaked figure actually coming to take the three companions of the Doctor. In the previous two stories they had just simply disappeared but here we saw the cloaked figure once again and the Doctor actually saw his companions get taken but there was nothing he could do to stop it. I'm intrigued to see where things go from here now. Overall, another very good story but a weak ending. 

Rating: 8/10