The Dogs of Doom

"Be a good dog! Mustn't attack the Doctor!" 

Writers: Pat Mills & John Wagner 

Format: Comic Strip

Released: April-June 1980

Printed in: DWM 27-34

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Sharon, K9

Synopsis 

The Doctor, Sharon and K9 board the Spacehog ship in the New Earth System, only to find an invading army of Werelox. But their masters are known as the evil ones, and they're very familiar to the Doctor...

Verdict 

The Dogs of Doom was another excellent comic strip to continue along my reading of The Iron Legion graphic novel. I still can't believe that I paid less than a fiver for this gem of a collection and with the quality of story on display so far, it's absolutely been worth the price! Even if the story quality was poor, something I've found rare in a Classic comic strip adventure of this length, the purchase still would have been worth it because it would just add to my Doctor Who knowledge and would also be added to my collection of blog entries, something which is approaching four digits faster and faster by the day. The story itself almost seemed to be split into two with the first four parts painting the Werelox in the role of the enemies. They're where the story gets its name from and I liked how they seemed to be a hybrid of both dog and werewolf whilst also being humanoid. Brill really was a brilliant character and the changes he went through across the eight parts were marvellous. He went from villain to companion in a short space of time and that was all down to the Doctor hypnotising him. I thought the characterisation of Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor was once again excellent and that's something I've been impressed by in my reading of this graphic novel thus far. In saying that, this is the penultimate story in the collection and once I read the final comic strip I think it will be an excuse to buy a new graphic novel. Anyway, back to the story at hand and I thought the cliffhanger to part three was fantastic with the Doctor transforming into a Werelox and even though I saw it coming from an early stage, or at least suspected the possibility, I was still very glad to see it occur. After Sharon's arrival in The Star Beast, I was quite surprised by how little dialogue she had. Maybe things were a bit too eventful for her on her first trip in the TARDIS but even though she was put in danger and foolishly stowed away on a suicide ship, she enjoyed her time with the Doctor and didn't want things to end. The Doctor and K9 didn't seem too sure and despite clearly being young, I'm finding that I like her. Her relationship with Babe Ruth here was marvellous. Some of the names that cropped up in this story were rather humorous reading from my point in time, some 36 years since the comic strip was first printed in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine. The relationship between the Doctor and K9 was magnificent and was the only recognisable connection with the televised series really. Oh, and the returning Daleks of course. Their return was sadly not a surprise to me but even though I knew that they'd be showing up, the big reveal was still terrific. The story was suited very well for them and I loved that they were using the Werelox as their puppets as it were. The Daleks wanting to add evil qualities to their demeanour was intriguing, especially with them wanting an addition of slyness. Once the Daleks arrived, things got very action packed and that was tremendous. The Doctor defeating the Daleks by using their own time travel technology against them and trapping them in a time lock was superb. Overall, a brilliant story and I think the lack of Sharon playing a major role is why this doesn't get full marks. I can't really complain with a rating like this though.

Rating: 9/10