Once in a Lifetime

"I know a story when I see one. That blue box, for example. It wasn't there five minutes ago..."

Writer: John Freeman
Format: Comic Strip
Released: 7th October 1989
Printed in: The Incredible Hulk Presents 1

Featuring: Seventh Doctor

Synopsis

On the planet Galactica Minor, the Doctor teaches a nosy reporter a lesson about asking questions. It involves some humour, the Doctor having fun and a number of enemies all getting riled up by the presence of the Time Lord. Unfortunately, none of these events will make it to press...

Verdict

Once in a Lifetime was a great little story that continued my extremely sporadic reading of the Nemesis of the Daleks graphic novel. I’ve had this collection of comic strips for over a year now (it was a Christmas gift last year!) and I’m actually a little disappointed that I haven’t been able to read more than I have thus far. Now, some of that is down to forgetfulness and leaving it at home whilst I moved back to university but I didn’t make that mistake this holiday and ensured that it was one of the first things that I packed. This isn’t the most high profile of stories to end 2017 on but despite the drastic decrease in entries, I still feel like it’s been a hugely successful year. I saw my blog hit four figures in terms of entries and the traffic for my verdicts, which can vary quite drastically, has been at an all time high which I am delighted about. I must admit, I write the blog for my personal use but knowing that other people out there read my thoughts puts a smile on my face. I of course got to blog the new series featuring Peter Capaldi and I also got to write about a female Doctor, albeit somewhat briefly. Jodie Whittaker will fully grace my blog next year and I can’t wait to see what she brings to the word of Doctor Who. I’ve done plenty of audios including the fifth series of Torchwood and I’ve also kept up to date with Doctor Who Comic and DWM comic strips so I’d say it’s been a successful year, apart from the lack of novels. That’s one thing I do wish I was able to blog more. Anyway, back to the comic itself and with only five pages to play with, I was a little apprehensive prior to reading as to how good it could actually be. I was pleasantly surprised though as it was a great comedic little story! The idea of Doctor Who comic strips appearing in The Incredible Hulk Presents is intriguing and I was really interested to be reading a comic strip featuring the Seventh Doctor that wasn’t actually printed in DWM. That was really intriguing and you could definitely tell that they were aiming for a different kind of audience. It wasn’t a massive difference but there were noticeable alterations to the style of story. Even the presentation of the Doctor, whilst it was actually quite hilarious how he dealt with Miff, I can’t see him ever actually doing what he did. Although in saying that, if one incarnation was likely then I’d have to say it would be Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor. His characterisation was good and whilst not perfect, I really enjoyed the humorous element to it. He didn’t want to be interviewed by Miff and instead sent him to some old enemies of his, all of whom were riled up by just the mention of the Doctor. To be fair, the Doctor didn’t let the news reporter die and did give him a trip inside the TARDIS and the destination of that journey was terrific. Instead of just rescuing Miff and taking him on a little trip through time and space, he took him back to Solar City. The catch however was that it was twenty years after they had left which meant that Miff’s paper had gone out of business a decade ago! The Doctor seemed quite exuberant about his actions and was laughing at himself. That seemed a bit uncharacteristic but the barmy nature of the adventure just made me really enjoy it! Overall, a fantastic little comic strip story. 

Rating: 8/10