Doorway to Hell Part 1

"Oh, I can tell you everything about the Doctor..."

Writer: Mark Wright
Format: Comic Strip
Released: 12th January 2017
Printed in: DWM 508

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Jess

Synopsis

The Doctor is called in for an unusual case by Hayes as a man who has been turned to glass is discovered. Whilst the Doctor is away, the Collins family are all abducted and a very familiar foe will make his presence felt...

Verdict

Doorway to Hell started off in superb style with this excellent first part of the comic strip! This has been an issue of Doctor Who Magazine I have been looking forward to reading for some time but thanks to a relentless assignment schedule at university, I still haven't been able to read any of it until now and this comic strip was the first part of the issue that I have looked at that is not the contents page. The idea of a 1970s issue is a terrific one and I like that the pages, upon an initial look and flick through, are recognisably different and reminiscent of what I imagine the very first issues of DWM were like back in the 1970s. This is also a good promotion of the Third Doctor Adventures audios released by Big Finish and although I am yet to listen to them I have heard nothing but praise for them so I'm more than happy with the promotion. The issue does look a good one and I'm glad that with the recent price rise, that does have me questioning whether to continue buying the magazine, that we were given a bonus comic strip in the form of a retro Third Doctor comic strip adventure from Countdown for TV Action. I will be blogging that story when I can get around to it but I do hope that we get little bonuses like this for the extra £1 that I'm not at all convinced is justified. There does look to be some good features this month though with a Terrance Dicks interview standing out. I'm also intrigued by the Time Capsule feature and of course the Doctor Who in the 1970s feature which the issue is kind of based upon. It looks to be a good issue. I thought the comic strip itself was actually terrific and I'm not sure if it was planned or not with the whole Twelfth Doctor storyline that has been going on for the past few months, but the comic strip in the 1970s issue of DWM taking place in the 1970s was quite fitting. I'm liking the relationship between the Doctor and Jessica and it's good to see that she has filled the void of a lack of companion whilst the television series is currently off air. But it will soon be back and I would guess that this could be the last story before Bill and Nardole join the pages of DWM. The Doctor and Jess being separated was good and that allowed for two very different directions for the story to go in. We had the Doctor dealing with a man who'd been turned to glass whilst we had Jess get her house raided and her entire family kidnapped and taken aboard what seemed to be a ship. The Doctor dealing with a creature that seemed to be a mix of the Vespiform and a Zarbi was good but the story's highlight absolutely had to be the cliffhanger. The Master is my favourite villain in Doctor Who by quite some way but to see the original incarnation of Roger Delgado return was simply wonderful. I did not expect it and I really am overjoyed to see where this story goes. The prospect of a meeting between the Twelfth Doctor and the first Master makes me very excited. I look forward to the next part and I'll be sure to purchase the latest issue on the weekend!

The Long Con

"It's not always a contest to see who gets to the fighting the fastest!"

Writer: AJ
Format: Comic Strip
Released: 15th December 2016
Printed in: DWC: Tales from the TARDIS 14

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Eleventh Doctor, Alice, Tenth Doctor, Gabby, Cindy

Synopsis

The Twelfth Doctor is back at a convention and he is not best pleased. What has brought him here? And what is the connection with past adventures featuring his two immediate past selves? Words will soon reveal everything, and it won't be as bad as things first seem...

Verdict

The Long Con was another terrific little bonus comic strip in what is still the Christmas issue of Doctor Who Comic! I can't quite believe that it's taken me two months to the day to finish this issue but I guess that it is better late than never! Time really is flying by and with a busy university schedule there really are only so many hours in a day. I'm not quite sure how I managed the daily blogging to the extent that I did in 2016 but I am quite proud of it, and I already believe it is impossible for me to match my tally of last year in 2017. That's absolutely okay and I'm just glad that it is not long now until the brand new series. This bonus comic strip was another of the San Diego Comic-Con exclusives and I liked how we had an intertwined adventure featuring the latest three incarnations of the Doctor. I was quite impressed that considering we only had half the space of a usual comic strip from DWC there was still a detailed story told and it was pretty much three back-to-back original stories. I believe it is chronologically placed a little ahead of where we're at with DWC at the minute but other than the presence of some characters, there were no spoilers so Titan Comics were fine to include it as a Christmas bonus. The trio of the Tenth Doctor, Gabby and Cindy is excellent and I really liked them again here. The characterisation of David Tennant's Tenth Doctor was very good and I also thought that the Zoroniss was one weird creature. It almost looked to be an amalgamation of the Morbius Creature and a Titravore with the speech of an Ice Warrior! The way the Doctor challenged it was good and I liked how the Doctor was quite annoyed by it wanting destruction and death in similar ways to so many monsters before it. There were only a few pages featuring this trio before we headed to the rare pairing of just the Eleventh Doctor and Alice. With everything that has gone on with the Eleventh Doctor stories of DWC, it has been quite a rarity to have a story featuring just these two main characters so even if it was only just a few pages long, the brief showing was nice to say. I liked their conversation and the Doctor wanting to experience and admire history was fantastic. I really did like that and he was failing to understand why Alice didn't quite feel the same way about where they were. We then switched gears quickly to the Twelfth Doctor who was companionless, which probably helped for this story. I loved the reference to Selfie and he was rather disappointed to be back at another convention. It obviously wasn't a place he felt at home which is again rather ironic. The Doctor is perfect for comic-con and I did like the mention of the sonic screwdriver just being a fancy pen for his autographs. In this incarnation, I can't imagine the Doctor ever wanting to be seen getting an autograph. The Word-Rider that had been trapped inside him for over two regenerations was intriguing and I liked how it went some way to explaining the change in punctuation for the Doctor that we had seen in the previous pages of the story. It was just looking for a ride home and the Doctor was of course now able to provide that. It looked quite aggressive but that was not the case and we managed to have a happy ending which made a little change. Overall, a terrific little bonus comic adventure!

Rating: 9/10

Selfie

"Cosplayer? Photobombed? These words are just noise.'

Writers: George Mann & Cavan Scott
Format: Comic Strip
Released: 16th December 2016
Printed in: DWC: Tales from the TARDIS 14

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Clara

Synopsis

When the Twelfth Doctor and Clara turn up at San Diego Comic-Con, a quick selfie outside the TARDIS reveals an alien threat among the con-goers and cosplayers! The green-skinned Lady of Neverness can only be viewed through mirrors, photos and quantum snapshots, and has turned up in the background of photos all over the convention! But if enough people view her at the same time, she'll gain the power to breach into our dimension... to feed on the life-force of the whole planet! Can the Doctor and Clara defeat her and save the day?

Verdict

Selfie was an excellent little bonus comic strip story and it was very nice to be back doing something Doctor Who! I think it is safe to say that this is the longest break I have ever had from blogging since I started in late 2013 but it was absolutely necessary with a relentless run of assignments at university. Thankfully I now have a little gap of nothing much to do and with a much needed week at home I am able to slowly get back on track and Doctor Who Comic was the obvious place to start. It is now mid-February and I am only now blogging a story from December's issue which is just very unlike me. I'm hoping to get up to date relatively quickly as they don't take long to read and I'll soon be updated with two issues already released since this one, one of which I am yet to purchase. I am back for now but I expect to be taking another break later in the month as the assignments build up again. The placement of this story in the Twelfth Doctor's DWC run was a little sketchy but I guess it was released at Christmas so there was no real harm done. I am grateful to be able to read it as following my reading, I discovered it was originally a San Diego Comic-Con exclusive story and the odds of me ever going there are very slim I must say. The concept of the story surrounding a selfie was very good and I liked just how well it worked. At half the length of a usual comic strip adventure from DWC, it definitely didn't seem out of place which was a real positive. I thought the pace was exciting and I liked how in a 'bonus' story the plot was actually very good and made logical sense. The threat of the Lady of Neverness was brilliant and I liked the brief history that we got surrounding her. The characterisation of the Twelfth Doctor was superb with Peter Capaldi's likeness wonderfully captured. This is the first blog I have done since the announcement that he will be leaving the role following the next series and I must say that is a great shame but I am always excited for a new Doctor to debut. I look forward to seeing how that plays out and I'm sure that given time the Thirteenth Doctor will appear in this comic's pages. Clara was good in this story and I liked how she was delighted to be at the San Diego Comic-Con. The Doctor was, ironically, so out of place and he just couldn't grasp the concept of his surroundings which was terrific. He did though have enough mental stability to send the Lady of Neverness back to the other side of Time and keep the planet safe for another 1,021 years at least. Overall, a terrific little story and it's good to be back!

Rating: 9/10