The Piggybackers Part 2

"Let's drop the facades."

Writer: Scott Gray
Format: Comic Strip
Released: 2nd April 2020
Printed in: DWM 550

Featuring: Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Ryan, Graham

Synopsis

It's the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the town of Brideport is on edge. Tensions are high and everyone is anticipating ducking and covering from the Atomic Bomb. There are mysteries more local going on though, as what is going on with Miss Harcourt and her mouthless child school trip? And who is Hank really behind the facade?

Verdict

The Piggybackers continued in decent style with this second part, but my firm focus for this blog entry will be on the issue of Doctor Who Magazine in which the next instalment of the comic strip adventure continues. I have to say, the inside cover (ie after opening the packaging and the cover of the physical magazine) might just be my favourite yet. It is absolutely incredible paying homage to The Talons of Weng-Chiang in a rather beautiful way. Even the feel of the magazine is literally different with it being considerably smoother. It's just a wonderful edition. To celebrate the milestone 550th issue, there are a bunch of freebies given to us with a quite glorious set of retro collector cards celebrating enemies from the era of the Fourth Doctor. They really are terrific. As if that wasn't enough, we've also got a classic-style poster magazine as well as the ability to recreate the Fourth Doctor's iconic wooden secondary control room! I'm no craftsman, but my girlfriend has already committed her willingness to try and put it together. I'm excited to see what she comes up with. There's also a free Big Finish audio from the ridiculously expensive Philip Hinchcliffe Presents boxset which is fantastic, but a little annoying that there may be no other way of listening to the first story without forking out big time. I'm really looking forward to this issue's focus on Season 14 with the upcoming Blu-Ray release inbound, with the End of Innocence and Season 14 Diary features looking like real highlights. I am delighted to see that the Apocrypha feature continues and in just the second edition, it's exploring a story that I have actually blogged in Exploration Earth. You'll have to go back to 2014 for my entry on it though! I look forward to revisiting it this issue. Another thing I am thrilled about with this issue of DWM is that they have reprinted an entire text story in the form of Dr Who and the Hell Planet. I really can't wait to read it as I really don't know where I would have known or even comes across a text story from the Daily Mirror. So thank you to DWM for this. A real treat. Expect a blog entry soon. Sadie Miller, the daughter of the late Liz Sladen, being interviewed about her mother's Sarah Jane Smith character should be a lovely read and one that I will look on fondly. Production Notes from Chris Chibnall are always exciting and I'm intrigued by the After Image feature looking back at Series 12. As a whole, this looks to be a pretty sensational issue of DWM! Now, onto the comic strip and I can't believe how little I care about it in this issue because of what else is going on! It's also a little difficult to have a lot to talk about when the second part was only six pages. I feel like that's shortchanging readers a little and I think eight is certainly the minimum it should be. Not a lot happened and I just feel that this will lead to another lengthy story. I'm not personally a fan of them going past the four-part mark. Hopefully that isn't the case here. Playing on the tensions of the Cuban Missile Crisis is fantastic though and I hope we get more of that. Yaz and Ryan being in the school is good, especially with the latter following the every word of Miss Harcourt and losing his mouth. Revealing how she does that will be good. Graham was also very unlucky in this one as he was just doing some questioning to ascertain the local scene and ended up tied up by a being who was not the Hank he thought he was. The Doctor's conversing with Mr Endicott continued to be good, if rather little of it, and I get the feeling he knows more than he's letting on. I look forward to seeing where things go from here, but hopefully it gets extended in the next issue allowing for more development.