Doorway to Hell Part 2

"The Doctor is a threat to you all..."

Writer: Mark Wright
Format: Comic Strip
Released: 9th February 2017
Printed in: DWM 509

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Jess

Synopsis

The Doctor is investigating strange accounts of men being turned into glass and he has found the culprits in the form of Bio-Tech Assassins. But they are merely pawns in a wider game being played by the Master, in his original form, and with the Collins family being subjected to his masterful experiment, can the Doctor cope with losing his TARDIS just as it is back within his reach?

Verdict

Doorway to Hell continued in sublime fashion with this simply superb second part of the story! This really is shaping up to be my favourite Twelfth Doctor comic strip adventure yet from the pages of Doctor Who Magazine as it really does have all of the ingredients for a spectacular story. Now, I'll get back to the comic strip itself but as per usual with my blog entries (no matter how late) I like to talk about the magazine itself and this does look to be another very interesting issue. I've already some of it with Steven Moffat's column always providing some good humour. I loved his response to a fan pointing out an error with The Husbands of River Song and his comments about Captain Jack were also well-humoured. I liked the little preview we got of the upcoming series but this week we have had an incredible trailer released and a publicity image of what to expect from the series finale and to say I'm excited about the return of the original Mondas Cyberman from The Tenth Planet would be an understatement. That story is one of my all time favourites and that first design of the great enemy has always been my favourite so to see them return after over fifty years will be an enormous treat. I'm also looking forward to seeing Missy's involvement in that finale after she will have already appeared in the series. I also seemed to spot the Classic design of the sonic screwdriver in the trailer which has only enhanced my excitement and I am very intrigued to see why that will make a return. Back to the issue itself and I'm looking forward to the interview with Rufus Hound which is very cleverly titled. The indefinable magic feature also looks set to be a very good read. The annual survey is something I love doing as well so I'm really looking forward to critiquing the past year of Doctor Who there. Now back to the comic strip itself and I am actually surprised it took me as long as it did to get reading this comic strip story after the cliffhanger of part one. However, I wanted to make that I read the previous issue before starting the next so as a reward for submitting an essay today I decided the time was right to finally see just what the original Master is up to! Roger Delgado's original incarnation of my favourite enemy returning in a Twelfth Doctor comic strip is just wonderful and it just highlights the beauty of this format. It truly is magnificent. We had brilliant references to the recent stories from DWM involving the Doctor's encounters with Jessica Collins and I liked how easily the Master convinced convinced the Collins family that he wasn't a bad guy in the slightest. He obviously knew all about the Doctor but was merely playing the family for some strange experiment. I do love though that the Master was up to something given the story was set in the 1970s. He could usually be found on Earth at this point! I'm looking forward to seeing him cross paths with the Twelfth rather than the Third Doctor though and I do hope that we get that in the next part. The Doctor certainly knows who he's up against now based on the cliffhanger with Gayle being subject to the tissue compression eliminator. The Doctor had fallen for the distraction of the Bio-Tech Assassins and with him out of the picture, the Master had pounced upon the TARDIS, just as it was back within the Doctor's reach. While all that had gone on though, it appeared that the Collins family, now separated from Max, had somehow arrived in hell. Overall, a terrific part and I can't wait for the third instalment!