Blood Invocation

"Who would want to deliberately resurrect a Vampire?"

Writer: Paul Cornell
Format: Comic Strip
Released: September 1994
Printed in: Doctor Who Yearbook 1995

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan

Synopsis

The Fifth Doctor is summoned to Gallifrey in a rather suspicious circumstances. He suspects that all is not well. Tegan falls ill immediately after arriving but she will find that the TARDIS is not the safe haven it is renowned for. Just what is going on?

Verdict

Blood Invocation was a somewhat average comic strip to continue my reading of The Clockwise War graphic novel. It probably had the most interesting setting yet out of the Doctor Who Yearbook stories but the plot itself just didn't live up to all of its potential. Sadly, I think the limitations of there just being eight pages was a prime reason for that but I couldn't help but be disappointed as I got very excited when I saw that Paul Cornell was penning the comic strip. He is a famed Doctor Who writer but sadly I think it's best that this one can somewhat try and stay hidden! I say that like it was awful but that actually was from the case. I think if this had the room of a four-part comic strip within DWM's usual pages then it would be a fantastic story but everything came very quickly and that made for a very dodgy resolution. I loved the fact that we were taken to Gallifrey again and seeing the Fifth Doctor there in comic strip form was delightful. I initially thought that he was travelling solo - just when that would be possible I don't know - but then Nyssa and Tegan exited the TARDIS and I really liked how interested the former was in Time Lord physiology. The fact that one Time Lord was all but dead but failed to regenerate was good, but surely they'd have been able to deduce a Vampire mark before the Doctor's arrival? Although, I guess it was all the plan of Cardinal Hemal. The flaw in his plan was glaringly obvious though! Why did he need the Doctor's TARDIS to have all of time and space at his mercy when he was literally on Gallifrey? Surely there would be several at his disposal - and ones more reliable! I didn't really understand that. I really liked the mentioning of the Vampire Wars and that's something I've come across a lot of lately following my reading of Myths & Legends. Cults still existing on Gallifrey during the Doctor's time was quite surprising given just how far in the future that is compared to the war itself, but I was very intrigued and it's definitely something I'd like to see more of in a future story. Tegan's imminent return to the TARDIS always filled me with scepticism and I was glad that she did have a role to play. She was taken over by the Vampire cults via Hemal who found his way into the Doctor's TARDIS but the Doctor was very stubborn in making sure that she returned to normalcy. It took Nyssa's doing though, and whilst I was a big fan of her saving the day rather than the Doctor, the way Hemal was defeated was awfully quick and not very clear at all. I can sort of work out what it meant by having him out of time but that seems like it would take an awful lot of calculation at an extremely quick pace and I just couldn't quite buy into it, despite how remarkable the Trakenite is. The pace of the story felt a little rushed given its length and I'm really not sure why these Yearbook comics have such big panels when there are only eight pages. Surely the space could be better filled in fleshing out the story? Regardless, it was still an interesting little tale but it certainly could have been improved.

Rating: 6/10