Pureblood

"We once held honour as the highest virtue."

Writer: Dan Abnett
Format: Comic Strip
Released: October 1992 - January 1993
Printed in: DWM 193-196

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Benny

Synopsis

The Sontaran homeworld has fallen. The Rutan have finally achieved their aim and victory in the everlasting war against the Sontarans is closer than ever. They have a secret weapon to wipe out the Sontarans completely. Something ancient...

Verdict

Pureblood was an excellent comic strip and a great way to begin my reading of the Emperor of the Daleks graphic novel! It really was superb and I was delighted to be doing a story featuring the Sontarans - it feels like an age since I did something featuring them. The story offering an explanation of how the Sontarans came to be a clone race and giving some details of how the war with the Rutan began was good and whilst it contrasts what occurred in The First Sontarans, it doesn't really matter - this was excellent. I was quite surprised to learn that this was Bernice's first appearance in the pages of DWM as there wasn't much at all to indicate her arrival and fans who hadn't read the New Adventures novels must have been quite stumped. I felt she didn't really do much in the story which was a shame given it was her first outing but that didn't really have an effect on the adventure. The Sontarans having their homeworld destroyed by the Rutan was quite the way to start and I was intrigued to see it named as Sontara. That was also the case in The Infinity Doctors but with The Betrothal of Sontar coming before their return on TV, I'm surprised that the homeworld got renamed in the pages of this magazine. Anyway, the Sontarans encountering the Doctor and Chief Lora was good and I found it very intriguing how before long, the Doctor was aiding the Sontarans. That obviously had something to do with the fact that Modine was a Rutan spy and the action sparked from that was terrific. The Rutan revealing how they breached the Sontaran defences and destroyed the planet was outstanding as they had discovered a lost colony of Sontarans, before the days of cloning. They had tricked them into believing that the Sontarans were no longer pure but the Doctor soon put that right. He and Benny executed a plan very nicely and the pureblood Sontarans could only offer their apologies. They were dutifully accepted and Stave was uncharacteristically going to uphold his side of the bargain with the Doctor and offer a favour. The Doctor saw that the human race information was wiped from the racepool. The Rutan Host were defeated and the Sontarans could now return to something of their past. Honour was restored to their race but there was still a war to win. The ending was brilliant and I loved how this comic strip ended up serving as a prequel for The Sontaran Experiment. I thought that was fantastic and it really did put a smile on my face when it was revealed. Overall, an excellent story!

Rating: 9/10