Stars Fell on Stockbridge

"This could be the chance of a lifetime!"

Writer: Steve Parkhouse 

Format: Comic Strip

Released: September-October 1982

Printed in: DWM 68-69

Featuring: Fifth Doctor

Synopsis 

Maxwell Edison, a normal man from the village of Stockbridge finds himself entering the TARDIS and the Doctor's adventures.

There's no time for questions when Maxwell suddenly finds himself on an alien spaceship and facing the battle of his love to save his village from destruction.

Verdict 

Stars Fell on Stockbridge was another brilliant comic strip story and continued my reading of The Tides of Time graphic novel in great fashion. After a hugely successful opener with the graphic novel title story, which spread over seven epic parts, I was intrigued to see how this story would do to follow on with just two parts. I was pleasantly surprised that the standard continued which was fantastic. Being as much of a fan of Doctor Who as I am, I've obviously heard of Stockbridge but this was actually my first story to explicitly feature the village. We actually learned that segments of the previous story were also see there but this comic strip saw it officially stated. As far as I'm aware (I try not to give myself spoilers), the village obviously features in the next story but after that I believe it plays a part in quite a few audio adventures as well as playing a part in more than one novel. I'm not sure why it has become such a prominent part of the Doctor Who universe but despite the village appearing in the title, it didn't appear much in the story at all which was fine with another lengthy story set to follow in the village. But of what we did see from the village, I didn't like the people within it. Max was a wonderful character and I actually felt a huge amount of sympathy for him because of his reputation in the village. Stockbridge didn't seem like they'd change their opinion on him but the ending really did put a smile on my face. It was clear that Max was quite mad but even if that is the case I think it's very unfair for him to be given a nickname like 'mad Max'. That's pretty sad. How he's able to locate a ship and the TARDIS remained a bit of a mystery but I'm sure this won't be the last time that the Doctor meets him, as he himself stated. I'm looking forward to what that next meeting will bring and I do hope that we get to learn more about Max's ability. He was tracking life with a broken stick for goodness sake! It was very barmy which I very much enjoyed. There'll definitely be something more to it so I look forward to that being revealed. The Fifth Doctor was once again characterised perfectly by Steve Parkhouse and he really has been able to capture Peter Davison's likeness with absolute ease. I must admit, it does seem strange having the Doctor without any recognisable companions and I've never been quite sure why Doctor Who Magazine didn't use the television companions. I like the idea of comic strips exploring there own thing and I've been a huge advocate of that with the Tales from the TARDIS comics in which we've been introduced to the wonderful Gabby and also Alice. The scenes on the spaceship were excellent and I was very interested with the voice that Max was hearing. It instilled him with an immense amount of fear and I loved the revelation that there was no other life form on the ship, or so the Doctor thought. The TARDIS scanner was no match for a stick though! It was quite insane that Max knew there was a life form on the ship despite the TARDIS not registering it. I enjoyed the cliffhanger which was important because in a story that's just two parts I feel that the halfway stage must have some impact and this story delivered with that so that was good. The ending was done well and I love how Max was able to see, and also boast and predict, the moment the stars fell on Stockbridge thanks to the breakup of the ship in the Earth's atmosphere. It was a wonderful little moment and I do hope that we see a change of perception on Max within the village. I look forward to seeing him again and I'm interested to see what comes next for this mysterious village. Overall, another brilliant comic strip! 

Rating: 9/10