No Signs of Life

"It had become death."

Writer: Alan Barnes

Format: Comic Strip

Released: March 2025

Printed in: DWM 615

Featuring: Fifteenth Doctor

Synopsis

The Fifteenth Doctor answers an SOS, only to find a hospital city seemingly abandoned with nobody left alive. That is until his life signs are detected and animated suits want to extract life in the name of Gothar...

Verdict

No Signs of Life was a great comic strip to continue the brief solo adventures of the Fifteenth Doctor! After a bit of a shaky disappointment in the form of Dance Till You Drop in the previous issue, this saw a welcomed return to form. I assume this will be the final singular issue comic strip with the Fifteenth Doctor travelling solo as b the time the next issue of Doctor Who Magazine is released The Robot Revolution will have been broadcast and we will have met new companion Belinda! I'm very excited for her to join the TARDIS in a reluctant manner and having her in the comic strip will be a delight. I hope they nail her likeness as much as they did for the Fifteenth Doctor here. The artwork was very impressive although I do think the characterisation was slightly off for the latest incarnation which was a little surprising as that has been a massively positive element of this Doctor's  comic strip run. I was also pleasantly stunned to see the word gravity appear in the strip! I think the whole mavity replacement has become a bit too much of a gag ever since Wild Blue Yonder and I've found it a tad tiresome with it appearing in all kinds of media! I'm sure this was just a glaring omission, but it was just great to read that word again! I thought the story itself was really strong and intriguing. There was a mysterious atmosphere right from the start which was impressive and that comes from the Doctor arriving to nothing. There's always something fascinating about that because despite appearances, he usually isn't actually alone. That was the case here as he was approached by the suits with nothing in them, but they wanted his life! Detecting signs of it for them set them into motion which was good fun and the Doctor's reaction to the goo in particular was rather fun. The concept behind it with the nanobots was good and there was a lot packed into the six pages! It didn't feel rushed either and I liked how this had a similar feel to Run with the Doctor alone. What I wasn't expecting in this comic strip run was for a prequel to one of the earliest stories within the magazine's run! But that's exactly what we got here with the ending telling us that the story would continue in the issues correlating to The Time Witch. I must admit, I don't have much of a memory of that particular tale but after reading my blog entry from nine years ago when I read the comic strip, I was delighted. It was a fascinating tale and this is a fun way to set things in motion there. The concept of a cure for death is excellent and getting a glimpse of how things came to be where life was also extracted as a taste for more death was really well done. It's absolutely horrifying and even the TARDIS was vulnerable as they could sense it was alive! That was a nice little element that added a good sense of threat to the Doctor, if extracting his life wasn't enough! I thought the resolution was pretty simple in the form of emitting a brainwave and whilst things weren't finalised, that's always the nature of a prequel! The Doctor recognising things as the Deathsmiths of Goth and what would become the Ultimate Weapon was a nice touch. Overall, a really strong little comic strip! I've enjoyed having singular issue stories for the last couple of months, but I'm now excited for Belinda to join the fun. Onwards!                                                                                    

Rating: 8/10