Pull to Open

"It can be perceived only as an expression of simplicity."

Writer: Si Spurrier

Format: Comic Strip

Released: 5th May 2016

Printed in: DWC: Tales from the TARDIS 06

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Alice, Squire, Abslom Daak

Synopsis 

The Doctor and Alice have met persistent foes before - but never anything like the THE THEN & THE NOW, the group of supremely strange cosmic bounty hunters sent to bring them to justice! It's getting so they can't even solve an intergalactic war crime without having to flee for their lives! 

Verdict 

Pull to Open was a superb comic strip adventure to continue along the Eleventh Doctor segment of Doctor Who Comic's Tales from the TARDIS. It seems such a long time now since The Hyperion Empire concluded the original format for Doctor Who Comic and having just the Tales from the TARDIS comic really has given the second year of adventures its own feel. I'm surprised that the other comic didn't continue with the availability of the comic strip stories of the Fourth, Eighth and Ninth Doctors but as long as the graphic novels from Titan Comics are made available in this country I'll be more than happy with that. Anyway, I guess it's a bonus that we're getting the stories from the Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors so I shouldn't complain. It actually seems a while now since I read The Then and the Now but I liked how this story referenced its events in some detail. It was a good start to the year for Eleventh Doctor adventures but it quickly saw my hopes of the Doctor and Alice travelling alone dashed as the Squire and Abslom Daak joined the TARDIS crew. I don't know an awful lot about Abslom Daak but based on these first two stories to feature him, he's a rather aggressive character. His denial at being the Doctor's companion was something that I really enjoyed but I think the highlight of this story was the immense references to the Time War. It wasn't something that I expected but it does seem like it's going to be a running theme in the stories featuring this incarnation of the Doctor. That's exciting for me and I really do like the idea of the Doctor being tested about his actions in the life he has tried so hard to forget. The cameos of the War Doctor portrayed him in a way we have never seen the Doctor before and I think that's brilliant because that was exactly what was intended by this hidden incarnation of the Doctor. He was somebody the Doctor hated so much that he revoked his own name. But it seems that the Eleventh Doctor is now suffering the repercussions for crimes the War Doctor committed, but crimes that the Doctor couldn't remember happening. That brought its own problem which was fantastic and I really liked how the memory of a Time Lord was looked at in quite some depth. I had a moment of embarrassment in this comic as I learned that the Squire was actually female whereas I originally thought she was male! I'm not sure how I managed that but thankfully my perception got rectified early on in the run of adventures. That could have caused a lot of confusion in the future. The relationship between Alice and the Squire was intriguing and I liked how the latter knows a lot about the TARDIS and the Doctor from what he saw under the companionship of the War Doctor during the Time War. It's going to be interesting to see where these comics fit in with the War Doctor audios but because the Time War span such a lengthy period, and the depiction of the hidden incarnation looks very young in this story, it shouldn't make much of a difference to things. I do hope Abslom Daak becomes a little less aggressive though but I guess with his wife dead and the TARDIS playing tricks, he had every right to be angry here. The TARDIS shifting its inner dimensions of her own accord was a contrast to The Doctor's Wife and I liked that very much. Exploration of the innards of the TARDIS is always a welcomed sight in my opinion. The Eleventh Doctor thinking he was being tried by the first ten Doctors for his actions as the War Doctor was a sublime scene and really did provide a great image. As has been the case for much of the last week, this story has saw a welcomed break from revision but today was my last day of revision for the year! Tomorrow I sit my final first year exam at university and then I head back home for the summer. I'm looking forward to it very much, just like I'm looking forward to the next comic in this segment of the adventures after the sighting of the the Then and the Now. Overall, a great story!

Rating: 9/10