Witch Hunt Part 3

"This superstition thing is fun! I'm going to make some more come true..."

Writer: Jacqueline Rayner 

Format: Comic Strip

Released: 28th April 2016

Printed in: DWM 499

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Clara

Synopsis 

The Twelfth Doctor and Clara are stuck in a spot of bother in the seventeenth century as they are the subjects of a double execution! Renowned General Witchfinder Matthew Hopkins has ordered them returned to Satan, and it seems like nobody is able to stop him...

Verdict 

Witch Hunt concluded in tremendous style with this terrific third and final part. After twelve consecutive days of reading Prisoners of Time, you may think that I'm rather sick of the comic strip format and to be honest I rather am but I didn't let that have any bearing on the quality of the story. It was superb stuff from the wonderful Jacqueline Rayner. However, after nearly two straight weeks of blogging comics I can say with absolute confidence that tomorrow's blogging will not be of a comic strip! It might involve reading if time allows but no more speech bubbles! Not until I delve into Tales from the TARDIS or The Tides of Time in at least a week or so. Anyway, back to the comic strip story itself in a bit and although it's been well over a week since I purchased DWM on its release date, I'm still going to talk about the magazine as has become the norm for my monthly blogging of the comic strip content from its pages. I must say I absolutely adore the cover with it taking on the artwork from the Genesis of the Daleks Target novelisation which is of course getting a reprint in the coming days. The coverage that the reprints are getting is tremendous but I already own half of them and I think I can get the others on eBay for a fraction of the retail price, which is still reasonable, so I think I'll hold back on buying them anytime soon because of the sheer content of unread novels that I have. I will conquer them all eventually, I can assure you of that. I've actually read a lot of the magazine up to this point and I can say that it has been another tremendous issue! Relative Dimensions was brilliant as always but I think the highlight of the issue has been the celebration of Target artwork that particularly appeared on the earlier novelisations. I own a great number of them now and I must say they really are tremendous. Some of the latter stories with the Sixth and Seventh Doctors don't have such an appealing cover but even they deserve to be celebrated. It was nice to hear how unexpected an impact the artwork for these novels has had on the lives of the artists and you can forgive them for thinking that! But the covers really are spectacular and just make a Target's place in a collection that little more special. The feature talking about immortality in Doctor Who was absolutely superb I must say! It must have been incredibly researched and involved an incredible attention to detail because I never realised just how many stories the concept played a major role in. Countless people have craved but very few have actually achieved it, and even then that is debatable. I must admit that if I was offered immortality I would jump at the chance and take it but the thoughts provided on it here were very interesting. I'm yet to read the Clare Higgings interview but I'm sure that will be great and I'm looking forward to seeing her theory on how Ohila could be the Doctor's mother. The Fact of Fiction feature on The Night of the Doctor was short but sweet and I wasn't surprised to learn that The Day of the Doctor will be the feature's subject in the landmark 500th issue later this month. It's bound to be good. I'm not so struck on the Doctor Who weddings feature but I guess I'll give it a read and I think I'll even get reading Fact of Fiction for what will be the first proper time. I think I should start reading it to further broaden my knowledge. Now, back to the comic strip itself and I thought it concluded excellently. Miss Chief was just as barmy as she was in the first half and despite her actually saving the Doctor and Clara from execution I was glad that continued. One thing I've been let down by from the Twelfth Doctor comic strip run so far is the lack of story arc. It seems to have been an ever present for nearly every Doctor in the pages of the magazine but I was really glad that a return for Miss Chief was hinted at. I now expect her return at some point in the near future and when it comes I really will be pleased. The characterisation of both the Twelfth Doctor and Clara was superb and even though I'm not a fan of Danny it was nice to see Clara get the little memorial she wanted along with a nice reference to Dark Water/Death in Heaven. The climax was very good and I just adored the Doctor's move with Mini Mischief. Genius. Overall, an excellent conclusion to what has been another tremendous story from Jacqueline Rayner. She really is one of my favourites. 

Rating: 9/10