Minatorius

"Time Lords ain't supposed to interfere."

Writer: Maxwell Stockbridge (Alan Mackenzie)

Format: Comic Strip

Released: November 1981

Printed in: DWM Special Winter 1981

Featuring: Cargan

Synopsis

Cargan has recently graduated from the Academy and ventures to Minatorius on his first solo trip, where he finds out that an entire galaxy is in danger. Can he alter the course of history?

Verdict

Minatorius was a great little comic strip adventure to continue my reading through the Black Sun Rising graphic novel collecting the backup tales from the pages of Doctor Who Magazine! I continue to absolutely adore what is being done with this series of comic adventures and here we are with a completely isolated and independent Time Lord tales. There's no Doctor around and the only familiar element is the Time Lords as a species if which Cargan was one. I liked a lot showcasing the first journey in the TARDIS as a solo flyer for a Time Lord who had recently graduated and I imagine given the strict laws on non-interference this would actually be a pretty rare occasion. What need did the Time Lords have to send their people to other worlds and times? Sure, there are things that need investigating and that was clearly the case here on Minatorius which was a fascinating setting. I think the name alone is terrific and the depiction of a dead minotaur carcass at the start was superb artwork. It really set the scene for somewhere that ought to be desolate. Cargan was understandably cautious with this being his first solo outing and that puts him in a perilous position when he isn't entirely sure what to expect. I thought the arrival of the TARDIS in the city was great and I absolutely loved the detail in showing the form without the chameleon circuit active as matching what we saw in The War Games. That's really well done and something I very much admire. That serial is my all time favourite adventure so it makes sense why it hit a mark with me and I just loved everything about it. It was so simple but yet this is some twelve years after that story was broadcast and I doubt at ten parts it had ever been repeated! I really did get vibes of the Elders in The Savages with how Cargan was greeted because they knew about Time Lords and had heard tales of Gallifrey on their world. The Time Lords had built a reputation and it wasn't always a positive one. I enjoyed the urgency shown by Cargan when he realised what was happening to the world and the potential damage caused when they were literally drawing power from the ether itself. That shouldn't be possible and the result was the galaxy being on the verge of complete destruction. Orton realising what Cargan was then going to do and try and stop it but that resulting in the feedback loop to the TARDIS overloading and causing things to destruct was quite the image! I thought the six pages duration was really well utilised and paced here with a strong amount of action that didn't feel rushed at the same time. That's not easy to achieve so I appreciated that here. Just as with my blogging of Skywatch-7 a few days ago, I couldn't really understand the necessity of crediting the writer as Maxwell Stockbridge. It doesn't add anything (not that it takes away either) and just makes me question things when reading about it. He doesn't appear and I'm not sure if I'm then led to believe this is in-universe fiction? It's not really a bad thing it just seems a bit silly and pointless. It shouldn't become a talking point in what is a fantastic little adventure. This is the very definition of bonus which is just great. Overall, a really strong little read! 

Rating: 8/10