Herald of Madness Part 4

"I can make a mess anywhere, me."

Writer: Scott Gray

Format: Comic Strip

Released: 2nd May 2019

Printed in: DWM 538

Featuring: Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Ryan, Graham

Synopsis

The Doctor has left Ryan helpless as she is talking gibberish, her mind full of an alien entity. Yaz and Graham are struggling to contend with the 'meeting of the minds' between the scientists at the gathering, just what are they up to? And what is breaking through from beneath the castle?

Verdict

Herald of Madness continued in somewhat decent fashion with this fourth part, but I will get to the comic strip itself shortly. I'm still not complete with last month's issue of Doctor Who Magazine but I am getting something close to catching up! It's progress. My university essays are due next week and a well-deserved break should see me catch up soon. Now, whilst I'm still reading about the Mission to the Unknown remake, I look forward to this month's issue which looks set to be a really good and intriguing one. One thing I'm really looking forward to is an interview with Steven Moffat as he always was an interesting person to read in an interview and I'd love to get his thoughts on Series 11, but I guess I'll have to wait and see regarding what he discusses. Eric Saward being the subject of an interview should also be fantastic and I'm assuming this will concern the upcoming releases of the Resurrection of the Daleks and Revelation of the Daleks novels - a pair of books I'm really hoping my local library stocks before I move from Bristol in September! Jacqueline King being the subject of the wonderful Out of the TARDIS feature should be lovely and I do hope she mentions her upcoming role in the next volume of the Tenth Doctor Adventures audios. I'm also really enjoying the Fact of Fiction lately and I'm sure Nightmare of Eden will be a fascinating read as its subject. The usuals of Galaxy Forum and the Gallifrey Guardian should also be as good as usual. Now, back onto the comic strip and I actually thought this was the weakest of the four parts so far but I'm not entirely sure why. It just didn't quite seem to flow as well as the previous instalments and I also thought the lack of a follow up regarding the cliffhanger was a bit poor. I don't think the lack of the Doctor being sane and talking sense helped but I did like how when her companion was in danger, in this case Ryan, it snapped her out of it and she was quick to save the day. Her playing of rock, paper, scissors with the guards in a more than literal sense was superb and the highlight of this part of the story. Yaz and Graham were also very good together and I did enjoy how they took initiative with the Doctor away and physically stopped the meeting of the minds between the scientists. I thought it was perhaps a little too easy but I guess they were entranced so weren't exactly going anywhere! The Baroness was decent as the villain once again and I really liked her encounter with the Doctor. I hope that gets extended in the next part, which I suspect will be the case given the nature of the cliffhanger. The pair having a mixup over who was actually freeing the monster beneath the castle was unexpected and I really didn't expect it to be something resembling a deranged version of the Thirteenth Doctor! I look forward to seeing where things go from here. Overall, a decent continuation.