Hill of Beans

"This is no ordinary circus."

Writer: Richard Dinnick
Format: Comic Strip
Released: June-August 2018
Printed in: The Seventh Doctor #1-3

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Ace

Synopsis

The Doctor and Ace encountered Mags when she was part of the Psychic Circus, also known as the Greatest Show in the Galaxy. Mags is an alien werewolf from the planet Vulpana, and now it's time to know what she did next!

Verdict

Hill of Beans was sadly not the greatest of comic strip stories. Honestly, I just thought the writing was a bit lazy for this one and it didn't do much to capture my interest which was a real shame given that the Seventh Doctor and Ace were reunited with Mags. She's a long-favoured character amongst many Doctor Who fans, and whilst I'm not her biggest fan (that's not saying I dislike her in the slightest), I had hoped for their reunion to be a little better. I didn't like that she already knew he was coming to the one-millionth performance of the Psychic Circus and I think things would have fared better had she been surprised by his return. The elaboration on the Doctor's perfume spraying was quite poor in my opinion and we needed things to be a bit clearer about what he was actually doing. I know not knowing is something quite common to the Seventh Doctor but it just didn't quite feel right here. I had hoped for more of a reference to The Greatest Show in the Galaxy and some recollection of the first meeting between the Doctor and Mags but other than there actually being a performance, there was hardly a mention of their previous encounter which I just thought was wrong. Ace's desire to upset the locals was typical of her character and she wasn't having any of it when Targut was arrested. That seemed to happen awfully quickly after the Doctor enlisted her help and support. I thought the writing of Sylvester McCoy's seventh incarnation was pretty decent but the way he stopped Mags from being taken like the rest of her kind was a little lacklustre for me. I also thought the reunion between Mags and her sister was incredibly underwhelming. Surely there would be a lot of emotion there? Especially for Lodz too, even if she wasn't aware that the pair were now an item. I mean, she thought she was dead! I did like their sendoff though and I thought it was courageous of Mags to encourage Adele to go and live her life with Lodz. That was nice. Sadly, there just wasn't a great deal going on and with the issues stemming from the Moon being annexed, I expected a bit more oomph and some action. Things just never seemed to get going but I guess you can't expect a great deal more from a backup comic strip. The ending with Mags seemingly joining the Doctor and Ace on their travels was good though and that leaves some room for future Seventh Doctor comic strips. Overall, a bit of an average adventure!

Rating: 5/10