Music Man

"Stamp your feet like your life depends on it! Because it does!"

Writer: Nick Abadzis
Format: Comic Strip
Released: 12th January 2017 
Printed in: DWC: Tales from the TARDIS 15

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Gabby, Cindy

Synopsis

In jazz era New Orleans, the Doctor, Gabby, and Cindy have found the cause of the mysterious illness stealing the ability from musicians and one musician in particular to Cindy, Roscoe, the Nocturne. Facing off against a foe that nearly destroyed another world, the struggle to keep it from getting a foothold on Earth is very real...

Verdict 

Music Man was a great conclusion to the story already started in The Jazz Monster! It seems like an eternity since I read that opening part of the story as it was actually my first blog entry of 2017. Fast forward three months and I have finally completed the adventure. It really has been a long time since my last Tenth Doctor story but I was glad to be reunited with him in Doctor Who Comic. His segment of the comic is probably my favourite when it comes to the characters as Gabby definitely has been my highlight of anything Titan Comics has produced (that I have read so far). She really is just a wonderful companion and I love the style of story that comes with her travelling in the TARDIS. The stories are often told through her which is brilliant and I love the little narration notes we get from her. We can really learn a lot about her character through those and now Cindy has joined the travels, we really can see her maturity. Gabby has come a long way since Revolutions of Terror and it's wonderful to see. She was beginning to understand why the Doctor left things so often unexplained and I think she's showing how much she knows about her Time Lord friend. The story continued from the cliffhanger of the previously part well and I liked how there was no real break in the action. The King Nocturne was a good monster and I loved the humour that the Doctor provided when it came to his questionnaire comment about the creature actually being a monster or a virus. The concept behind the King Nocturne was a little difficult to comprehend but I liked how much this story played with the idea of sound. Gabby used what she learned in The Singer Not the Song very well in dealing the with King Nocturne but it didn't actually end up working too well. The Doctor didn't seem too thrilled with her, even if it did provide his catalyst for the resolution, and wanted to go and solve things on his own. Gabby would not allow that though and she gave me another fantastic reason to love her as the companion. She pleaded with the Doctor to let her help him save the world and he couldn't refuse. He had to reassure that she was not to blame for the unfortunate events that happened and now they were going to stop them. The jump ahead in time to Chicago was good and I liked how we got to explore a bit of America in the story. It makes a change from the usual New York setting! I enjoyed the reference to Medicine Man/Arena of Fear and I do think that the emotional events of this comic strip will actually bring the TARDIS trio closer. Cindy is still relatively new and after getting emotionally attached to Roscoe, she was devastated to find that he was a casualty of defeating the King Nocturne. I thought his act was courageous but the explanation of just how it dealt with the threat was a little lacking in my opinion. Had there been some definitive and extended explanation I think the story would have scored a mark higher. That's not at all to say it wasn't good! I thoroughly enjoyed and I'm now intrigued to see where things go from here with the Tenth Doctor and co. Overall though, an emotional and quite action-packed story!

Rating: 8/10