Mistress of Chaos Part 3

"She dies as she lived – in a state of blissful oblivion."

Writer: Scott Gray
Format: Comic Strip
Released: 14th November 2019
Printed in: DWM 545

Featuring: Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Ryan, Graham

Synopsis

The Doctor and Graham, along with Dogbolter, are trapped in the Catastrophia and are moments away from being consumed by the madness. A logic box is their only route of escape, but what lies waiting for them in the one glint of normality in a universe of pure chaos?

Verdict

Mistress of Chaos continued in decent fashion with another good instalment of the story, but first I will get to what looks set to be a great edition of Doctor Who Magazine! The front cover really is quite something with Davros holding up a red card and being a huge football fan myself, I am quite impressed with this one. It is splendid and just perfect for the edition that will tell all about the Twitter poll of 'The World Cup of the Daleks'. Unlike the similar event for the Third Doctor, I actually took part in the votes for this one but I was hoping that I would aid The Daleks' Master Plan to a little better than it did. I think that's an extraordinary tale! The magazine has a lot more to offer though with the Daleks and I will be very intrigued to see what is put in The Five Best Dalek... categories of audios, comic strips and the like. I do hope there is love for The Mutant Phase and The Apocalypse Element! The toys should also be an interesting element of that as I do love a nostalgia trip into Dalekmania, especially as I did a third year essay on it at university! An interview with Sophie Aldred should be terrific and I'm sure the focus will be on her upcoming novel that sees Ace meet the Thirteenth Doctor – something I really can't wait for! An interview with Andrew Cartmel is always good too so I look forward to that and Carnival of Monsters being the subject of The Fact of Fiction sounds like a positive to me! Now, onto the comic strip itself and I thought things continued very well and at quite a speed. The initial moments in the Catastrophia were not what I expected as I actually thought that it had been implied that Krizanthia had come from there in the first place. The fact that she withered away into nothingness because of the pure madness that was raging around would seem that was not so, although the abilities of the Doctor seem to constantly extend as I'm not sure I could buy her putting Graham and Dogbolter into unconsciousness through pure will. The logic cube was good though and I liked how there was some semblance of normality amidst pure chaos. Dogbolter refusing to help but expecting the Doctor to save her was very good and I think she is growing on me as a villain. Ryan and Yaz were left to the mercy of Sandola which isn't as bad as I made it sound there, but I could have done without the robot supposedly having a crush on the former. Yaz telling him that he'd pulled was a good moment though and exactly what would be said by people of their age. The Doctor not even recognising the equations in the sky of the logic cube was very interesting and I like it when even she doesn't know anything about what's going on. There's a tense atmosphere from thereon in and that's good in my estimations. The return of the Herald was unexpected but I'm a big fan of the continuity and the cliffhanger that came with it was superb. Instead of the Herald just being an imitation of the Doctor, she had her memories. The same memories. The Herald was the Doctor! The Doctor had no doubt about it and was genuinely petrified which was something we have barely seen. Overall, a good continuation of the story and thing have been set up very nicely for part four!