Land of the Blind

"All actions made by sentient life must be accountable."

Writer: W. Scott Gray
Format: Comic Strip
Released: March-May 1994
Printed in: DWM 224-226

Featuring: Second Doctor, Jamie, Zoe

Synopsis

The Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe arrive in Denossus: an alien city in the thrall of the all-powerful Vortexians! Why are they so concerned with protecting the population from themselves? The Shroud's power will soon be recognised...

Verdict

Land of the Blind was an excellent comic strip adventure and definitely the best of the graphic novel for which it is the titular story! In terms of the run of past Doctor adventures, they certainly saved the best until last. I really liked this one and I thought it started strong and never seemed to fade in quality. The trio of the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe is a wonderful one and I thought the writing for them was very good here. The characterisation of the Second Doctor was particularly good and I loved how well the likeness of Patrick Troughton was captured on the page. The artwork was very good too which isn't always the case in the stories void of colour and I was quite intrigued to later find that the design for the Vortexians actually came from a DWM competition! That was really fascinating and I actually thought they were brilliant. Their whole structure and being based upon strict rules was very good and I liked how quick they were to respond to crime. In an instant they would just appear from out of nowhere. The Doctor was quick to get on their wrong side and was soon at the mercy of the Speculum, a deadly mind probe that showed the rest of the universe to its victim all at once. Luther hadn't managed to escape its effects and was basically a living vegetable because of it, but the Doctor's mind was stronger than your average so he wouldn't have such an adverse reaction. The cliffhangers were good and I really liked the horror in Jamie and Zoe's reactions to knowing that they were too late to save the Doctor from going under the Speculum's torment. The importance of the Shroud was intriguing and I loved how much pleasure the Doctor took in exposing its truth. He quite easily disrupted the Vortexians' teleport signal to engage them in conversation but the way Ronayne was able to bring about their defeat was incredibly clever. He'd earlier heard Jamie offer a potentially racist remark and that was just a scale-one chastisement which meant a quick stun of the central nervous system. But Ronayne was old and that invoked a heart attack. He knew what he was doing and was quick to tell the Doctor that this was against their prime code. The Doctor drove home that point and the only answer was for the Vortexians to be sentenced to the speculum and for the planet to be returned from the Vortex. I loved that. Overall, a very strong comic strip story!

Rating: 9/10