The Choice

"They're my friends - all of them. They make the universe worth saving."

Writers: Scott & David Tipton 

Format: Comic Strip

Released: November 2013

Series: Prisoners of Time 11

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Clara 

Synopsis 

Our yearlong celebration of Doctor Who's 50th anniversary continues! Geronimo! The Eleventh Doctor joins the fray in this issue of a 12-part epic adventure featuring all 11 incarnations of the Doctor. Now that the Doctor has uncovered the true identity of his latest adversary, he must track him through time and space for a final confrontation!

Verdict 

The Choice was a simply stunning penultimate story of the Prisoners of Time epic adventure! It was everything that I could have asked for and more to leas into what is bound to be a sublime finale but I really couldn't find a flaw with this individual comic strip as it really was that good. Unlike the ten stories prior to it, this story actually kicks off with Adam's arrival to capture Clara from the Doctor and add her to his list of imprisoned companions. We actually learned that the companions we have seen taken between Unnatural Selection and Quiet on the Set weren't the only occasions friends of the Doctor had encountered Adam. They were just the moments the Doctor was present. It was quite incredible to see pretty much every companion associated with the television format suspended and isolated. They were helpless, but they might stand some chance now the Doctor had arrived. Leading into the fiftieth anniversary and with this story celebrating that incredible landmark, I think it's only right that what was the current incarnation of the Doctor took centre stage when we got into the nitty gritty details of the overlapping story. It has been quite the adventure and we are from over and this really saw us explore how the Doctor was going to go about saving nearly every companion he has ever travelled with. However, that was not all we got as we finally got a story where the Eleventh Doctor battled the Master! I was thrilled with that because it's something that I desired so much during the Eleventh Doctor's run in any format and although it's taken me until well over two years since Matt Smith departed his role, I'm delighted that we saw this incarnation meet the Master. With it, the beauty of the comic strips were more than realised as it was the Anthonly Ainley incarnation of the Master that met a post-revival era Doctor. That's truly wonderful and just the image of the two of them side by side really did please me. I'm not surprised at all that the writers went with a Classic incarnation of the Master because of the trouble they might have with contradicting The End of Time if they decided to go with John Simm's incarnation. Even they could use his incarnation, I think it's so good to have used the Ainley Master alongside Smith's Doctor because that image just merges the two eras as one and also immediately gives us a reason to celebrate the anniversary (not that we needed one of course!). The arrival of the Master was done in brilliant style and I did love the Doctor's reaction to seeing this incarnation of his arch nemesis. He didn't seem too pleased that was for sure. He'd had a lot of battles with this version of the Master and that prompted quite the speech about the Doctor's thoughts on his greatest enemy. He was absolutely damning about the Master's past and his desires and tried to explain things to Adam but he was far too embroiled in exacting his revenge for what the Doctor had done to him. He'd caused his life to be a living hell and now Adam was going to reverse the roles. The Doctor had excellently found his way to Adam thanks to the time agent that had unwillingly forfeited his vortex manipulator to the man out for revenge and Adam was ready for him. Once he'd revealed the Master as his accomplice, accompanied with a brilliant reference to Cat and Mouse, Adam was keen to show the Doctor what he had assembled. The Doctor had also thrown in a nice reference to The Mark of the Rani but now Adam was challenging him about his companions like nobody ever before. He questioned where the risk of almost dying fighting evil by his side was worth it. But my favourite part about this story was Adam challenging the Doctor on favouritism when it came to his companions. He had mentioned that the Ninth Doctor never much liked him but the Doctor disputed that and said there were no favourites when it came to his friend. Adam was quick to test that theory though as he offered the Doctor a simply impossible choice. Adam declared that every companion would die. Every companion except one. And that one was up to the Doctor. Out of all of his companions past and present, the Doctor could choose one to live. Could he dare give an answer? Surely not. I'm sure the answer would be different in every incarnation but the choice is no choice at all. What happens next will be mightily intriguing and I simply can't wait to see things conclude! I really do think it will be phenomenal. 

Rating: 10/10