The Gift

"Most obey the call to Exile Island."

Writer: Jamie Delano
Format: Comic Strip
Released: April-July 1987
Printed in: DWM 123-126

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Peri, Frobisher

Synopsis

The Sixth Doctor attends the party of the Lorduke of Zazz at the behest of Peri and Frobisher. They deliver a package for Professional Strut, only to find a self-replicating robot within. Things start to go badly when it begins to plague the planet...

Verdict

The Gift was a decent comic strip adventure to continue my reading of The World Shapers graphic novel! It brings an end to yet another year of Doctor Who blogging and I was quite surprised with this one for some reason. Part two seemed very obscure in fitting with the rest of the comic strip adventure, but as a whole it was a pretty good little story. I mean, for a four parter there wasn't a huge amount going on which is why this doesn't quite score much higher but that doesn't mean it was bad at all. Speaking of bad though, I wasn't a fan of Frobisher yet again as the companion because he just didn't seem interested in anything. If he's not interested in the setting or the other characters then why should I be? It isn't a good move in my opinion. It was also quite strange to have an image, albeit drawn and in black and white, of the Sixth Doctor sitting topless at the beach with Peri in a one pice! It just didn't seem right for Doctor Who but I found myself finding it funny but probably not for the right reasons. There was something so strange about the Doctor flaunting his body in a graphic novel where stories that closely preceded this had mocked his weight. That is of course just ridiculous but it was quite the change. I thought the Zazz setting was pretty good and could be explored a bit further should it ever make a return, although I think the odds of that occurring are pretty slim. I was quite interested in the brotherly feud between the Lorduke and Strut and I just knew that there was going to be something dodgy or deadly in that present. I really didn't expect it to be a robotic spider though! It wasn't anything like the kind we would later see in The End of the World and New Earth, but the big difference here was that this spider was reproducing. Or rather, replicating itself. The Doctor going to see just how this was possible seemed a little odd with him just setting off and going away for a period of time, but it was really good and helpful to see the tale of that mechanical evolution. I loved that concept to be honest as it's just something I haven't seen in Doctor Who before. With the sheer scale of things on offer (just look, I'm catching up on comic strip stories from over thirty years ago!) that's quite the task. Monektoni was a decent little character as well which made for a nice addition to the more centred characters. The use of music in the story was quite interesting and made for some humorous moments which is always good. Frobisher seemed to revel in that. I thought the ending of the story was quite decent with the Doctor dealing with the spiders by having them take off in the volcanic-powered spaceship that Strut was so desperate to take off in! I thought the concept of volcanic power on that scale seemed a little unlikely, but it had enough to at least get it off the ground. I was a little surprised that the Doctor left happily without knowing if they did in fact get to the Moon, but that was some good continuity. As a whole, this was a comic strip adventure that was good but probably could have been improved by being cut down a part which would have made for more excitement. Overall though, a decent comic strip adventure!

Rating: 7/10