The Scream

"I was so good at silence... that not even my own people could remember me."

Writer: Rob Williams
Format: Comic Strip
Released: 23rd November 2017
Printed in: DWC: Tales from the TARDIS 20

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Alice, Jones

Synopsis

The brand new day for the Eleventh Doctor and Alice continues as they head out into the galaxy in search of the amazing and the unknown! Who will join them aboard the TARDIS... and what will become of them? Plus - with all they've seen and done together, can the Doctor still surprise Alice? Oh, you bet!

Verdict

The Scream was a decent little comic strip adventure but I can't help thinking it could have been better. After the cliffhanger finish of the excellent Remembrance, I had high hopes for this comic strip adventure but just as the third year of the Eleventh Doctor adventures started with a bang, it has taken a little bump in the road. Now, I'm probably sounding like I hate it and that is far from the case as my rating reflects but anything below an 8 for me and I have some problems with it. I just thought it tried to do too much in one part and I know that this section of the comic predominantly leads with single parters, this felt a bit rushed. While a fast-paced story is usually a good thing, this one was actually too fast and that's what let it down in my estimation. I thought the concept of the Scream was excellent and he was, as thought, an original Silent. However, his abilities were so great that even his own species would forget who he was when they turned away. This was leading to some severe psychological torment as the Scream just wanted to be remembered. I actually felt quite sorry for our dear old Scream despite his whacky scheme to get remembered. To do so, he was actually going to die but live on in the memories of the Doctor and Alice. He was using those memories to power his own devised Memory Energy Engine which was in turn fuelling the organic virus that was the forest of the previous story. It was all very absurd and bonkers and that is actually pretty good but I think the pace meant that there was just much of a gap in the explanation of what exactly was going on. I liked the concept and the premise but it didn't quite work as well as I would have hoped. I did think though that the characterisation of Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor was superb and that is always a big bonus. I liked the glimpse into the Doctor's memories that we saw through the Scream and the images of the Master, K9, Rose and the Brigadier were wonderful little nods to the past. I always appreciate things like that and they can be done so easily in a comic strip which makes it such a fantastic format. Alice recalling her mum again was another nice recollection of days gone by in the first two years she has been travelling with the Doctor. I thought the ease in which Jones dispatched of the Scream was quite quick and instantly made it seem quite pathetic. Though, it did get me very interested in what exactly Jones was doing. I mean, he's already died but now here is he not remembering inviting his friends to his own funeral. Things are already getting timey-wimey and that just adds to my frustration that DWC has become a three-monthly release. I just don't understand why that is the case and it's such a long time between parts that remembering exactly what has happened is a rather difficult task. I guess there isn't much I can do except delve into the more expensive graphic novels, which I'm not yet willing to do. Not for Doctors 10-12 at least. Anyway, the Sapling was a very intriguing being and the power it possessed was quite mighty. A weapon containing the memories of the Doctor and Alice that was a genocide child but did not want to destroy worlds. The ending was quite abrupt and it seems like this mysterious being is joining us in the TARDIS for now. Overall, a decent comic strip but it could have been better!

Rating: 7/10