The Armageddon Gambit

"I love a good unwind after being chased for my life by murderous aliens."

Writer: John Freeman
Format: Comic Strip
Released: May 2018
Printed in: Free Comic Book Day 2018

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Ace

Synopsis

The Kla-Shi-Kel have been dominant throughout the universe, defeating the likes of the Draconians, Chimerons and Voord with absolute easy. How, then, have their warships been made inadequate in just three days? There is only one explanation...

Verdict

The Armageddon Gambit was a pretty good little story but as my rating will reflect, it was missing quite a lot of quality in order to be a story of significant good. It was a shame but I think the main problem here was simply the number of pages. Some stories manage to excel with just five pages to play with, take Hacked as an example from the Ninth Doctor's era, but this one was more of an introduction to the Seventh Doctor and Ace in Titan Comic's adventures. There was absolutely nothing wrong with that and it makes perfect sense to do that. One thing I will say though is that I really wish the placing of the stories within the graphic novel collecting these adventures with the Seventh Doctor was much better. This was so obviously a prelude into Operation Volcano and I found myself very confused to find it printed even after Hill of Beans! It just didn't make much sense at all to me given that it was the very first story for this TARDIS pairing from Titan. Surely it would make more sense to print the collection in its release order? It obviously didn't effect the story as I judge them as standalone where possible but it was just a little frustrating from a personal point of view. It was good to be able to finish the graphic novel though and I am once again hugely grateful to Libraries West for having this in their collection and for adhering to my first placed position in the reservation queue! The artwork was actually magnificent and I'm going to really try my best to get a copy of next year's Free Comic Book Day issue. The Doctor being labelled the Destroyer by the Kla-Shi-Kel was interesting and I liked how calm he was in wanting their surrender. The whole story was basically over in three pages which was a bit quick given the name droppings by this new race of aliens that they'd defeated. Of course, it was no surprise that the Doctor eradicated them though. I thought Gilmore calling in the Doctor following Remembrance of the Daleks was a nice lead in to what was the first 'proper' comic strip with the Seventh Doctor and this just served as a nice prelude and introduction. There wasn't much going on so I can't award a higher rating, but there just wasn't enough to make it great.

Rating: 6/10