They Think It's All Over

"A penalty shootout to the death!"

Writer: Tony Lee
Format: Comic Strip
Released: May 2011
Printed in: DW11 #5

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Amy, Rory

Synopsis

The Doctor, Amy and Rory try to travel to Wembley Stadium in 1966 to watch the World Cup Final between England and Germany. However, the TARDIS has other ideas and lands them in the right location, but misses out on the year by a millennium, plunging the Doctor and his companions in the Viking Age...

Verdict

They Think It's All Over was a brilliant comic strip adventure! A football and history based Doctor Who story is pretty much my idea of perfection given my love of the sport and my passion and Masters study for History so the mix here was very much welcomed! Now, I may be a big football fan but I am certainly not a fan of the English football team as I am very patriotically Welsh and follow my nation home and away but I could appreciate this story and the desire to see the 1966 World Cup Final. Seeing the Doctor in a football scarf was a great sight and I really liked how they had arrived at the right destination but the wrong time. They were actually a millennium off and encountered Vikings at Wemba's Lea rather than a grand footballing spectacle at Wembley. It was quite a contrast! The Doctor dealing with the Vikings and the defence of Wessex was excellent and I liked how he took charge of things quite quickly following his reputation with Alfred the Great. One of the best things about this comic strip was the relationship between Amy and Rory. Now, prior to Pond Life and Asylum of the Daleks it was always seen as being incredibly strong and that really was evident during this adventure. Rory standing up to Henghist was terrific when the latter was acting as a sore loser. He'd lost the penalty shootout fair and square but the very fact I can say that such an event occurred in the Viking era is simply magnificent and one of the great things about Doctor Who! It even made sense because Henghist's arrogance meant he agreed to any kind of duel. The Doctor put all the terms forward and quite clearly knew that all would be lost had he been defeated. Rory was not the best goalkeeper but the Doctor had some other tricks on his mind in the form of distractions. The moment it was used against him immediately after was absolutely brilliant though. I was a big fan of that. Rory talking their way to victory was really good and I loved how the Doctor claimed the tactics to be Rory getting the Viking leader to hate him so much that he would aim the penalty at him! I really liked that. The Doctor explaining to Rory how much Amy meant to him was also a terrific moment and it was really quite emotional. He really did hold the memory of The Eleventh Hour close to his hearts. Henghist killing his dad and Rory seeing that was good and the selling of his complete lack of honour was good. I think a little more about the Vikings was needed to propel this into perfection, but for me it was brilliant. Overall, a sublime comic strip!                                               

Rating: 9/10