Witch Hunt Part 2

"You should know that where my friends are concerned, all bets are off."

Writer: Jacqueline Rayner

Format: Comic Strip

Released: 31st March 2016

Printed in: DWM 498

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Clara 

Synopsis 

With Clara trapped in the past with the witch hunter general Matthew Hopkins, who believes she's a witch and has forced to take the swim test, the Doctor's limits are pushed to the extreme by Miss Chief who holds the cards to Clara's survival. Will he cooperate or will Clara die?

Verdict 

Witch Hunt continued in tremendous style with this magnificent second part of the story! Jacqueline Rayner really is a superb writer and even though this part doesn't see the story finish, I can just tell that as a whole it is going to be outstanding. I really love what she brings to the table and after the high quality that she brought us with Blood and Ice and the excellent quality already shown from the first two parts of this story here, I'd love her to take over as head comic strip writer! She could even do something similar to what Jonathan Morris did with The Child of Time graphic novel and just pen a series of stories. I don't think anybody would be unhappy with that! She's truly brilliant and no matter the format, I seem to have enjoyed all of her works ranging from The Transit of Venus to The Last Dodo. As is usual for my blogging of the DWM comic strip, I like to preview the magazine itself and the cover puts a smile on my face immediately as after eight long years since Series 4 came to a close, we're going to have brand new Tenth Doctor and Donna audio adventures! I can't wait to read the previews of this boxset and although the price is pretty steep at £30, I'm hoping to purchase it quite quickly and at the £20 mark on eBay if I'm lucky enough. It's just wonderful that we're getting more stories with this popular pairing and I'm sure it's going to spearhead a brand new audience for Big Finish but it should also pave the way for future appearances by David Tennant alongside other companions as well, but also it should see Matt Smith and co from the Eleventh Doctor era make their mark on the audio format. I think it's inevitable that we get more from the revival era actually featuring the Doctors. The magazine also has a nice feature with the daughter of Elisabeth Sladen who is talking about the new Lethbridge-Stewart novel that she has written. I do own the first novel in that series but I'm yet to get into it sadly. I will eventually get there though! The 'Missing in Action' piece on The Evil of the Daleks sounds tremendous. The DWM Review and Coming Soon features always catch my eye and I hope that something appeals to me and makes me want to go out and buy it. However, I will be avoiding the review of Infernal Devices to avoid spoilers on the upcoming War Doctor boxset. Galaxy Forum and Relative Dimensions are always excellent reads and probably my favourite regular parts of the magazine. Now, back to the story itself and after the excellent cliffhanger of part one I thought the resolution was superb. The Doctor and Miss Chief were having a verbal quarrel, and did so for pretty much the whole of this part, and the more that the Doctor talked and didn't play along with her games, the longer it meant Clara was stuck in the past with Matthew Hopkins thinking she was a witch. Her claims at not being one weren't helped by the fact she had survived the swim. The artwork was very good in this story and for me to mention that it certainly must have caught my eye with its quality. The time-space scavenger hunt game between the Doctor and Miss Chief was sublime and I really loved everything that came with it. She was pushing the Doctor to his limits and I just loved it. The Doctor seemed to be behind all the way but then from out of nowhere he pulled a genius move and won the game thanks to some great knowledge of geography and history. That meant Miss Chief had to give the Doctor Clara's location and whenabouts, but that just sparked the cliffhanger almost immediately as Clara was confessing to being a witch and named the Doctor as an accomplice! I'm sure him arriving out of nowhere won't do anything to help his disagreement but I guess we'll see in the next part and if the story concludes there, then that's where the rating will appear.