Ghosts of the Northern Line

"Anyone who ever died on the Northern Line - they're all here."

Writer: Dan McDaid
Format: Comic Strip
Released: November-December 2009
Printed in: DWM 414-415

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Majenta

Synopsis

In the London Underground people have been going missing since the nineteenth century. While the Tenth Doctor and Majenta Pryce go to see a play, they find the Underground filled with the ghosts of people from numerous eras...

Verdict

Ghosts of the Northern Line was a decent penultimate story in The Crimson Hand graphic novel! Now, I know that I have skipped over Onomatopoeia but that's because I blogged it some three or four years ago when I came across the issue of Doctor Who Magazine that it appeared in. That was my first experience of Majenta but I actually do remember it quite well because of its unique style so I felt no need to re-read, especially seeing as I need to return the book to the library before moving back home. I thought the story was pretty solid from start to finish but one thing I have noticed in this collection is that there have been numerous stories set on present day Earth. Considering the Doctor is trying to get Majenta to Panacea, I'm not sure why that has been the case. The reference to The Stolen Earth/Journey's End was very good but one thing I did like about the setting was that Majenta seems to be at home now with accepting that the Doctor just isn't going to get her to where she wants to go. The London Underground is obviously a famed setting for Doctor Who and I liked the Northern Line emphasis having travelled along it only a few months ago. The Doctor just stopping the train and getting off at an non-designated stop was great and I liked how Majenta just went and followed him even though you could tell she didn't want to do so. Putting ghosts into a story is always intriguing and I liked how the Doctor quickly picked up on the fact that the people came from different eras and were seemingly those that would be forgotten about or outcast. They were all part of something though and were following the same psychic signal that the Doctor was tracking. The Mnemosyne was a good villain and I quite liked how she had fallen in love with her master but these people were responsible for killing him and now wanted revenge. She tracked down people to kill them and make them part of her but the Doctor was horrified when he was blamed for the death of all those on the train that he escaped. That seemed to trigger something in the mind of the Doctor and once he was reminded that he had stopped caring for life, a neat foreshadowing of The End of Time, he wanted to put a stop to everything. The Mnemosyne was defeated quite easily once Majenta negotiated a turnaround and she promised she would remember all those who had died on the Northern Line. The Doctor wasn't in a good mood though and he had decided it was time to finish his job with Majenta. He seemed to indicate that she was no companion and now they would be going straight to Panacea to finish things. However, it seems that those tracking her had found her now and Earth was surrounded. It seems the graphic novel has quite the epic conclusion coming and I am looking forward to it! Overall, a decent comic strip adventure!

Rating: 7/10