Blood on the Carpet

"You dare challenge me? You scrawny pawn!"

Writer: Alan Barnes

Format: Comic Strip

Released: October 2026

Printed in: DWM 635

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Rose

Synopsis

With Rose having been taken on a flying carpet, the Doctor is in a desperate rescue attempt across the cosmos.

Verdict

Blood on the Carpet was an average comic strip adventure in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine. I think the nostalgic appreciation of Bizarre Bazaar! wasn't quite replicated on the second go around which is a shame and I'm still uncertain as to whether this is supposed to be its own story or a part two to the previous issue. We got the cliffhanger finish last time around but that felt more like a lead into another adventure, especially with the next issue caption and question surrounding Rose's fate, but then this one had a definitive 'The End' so I think it is open to interpretation to be honest. I suspect the next issue's comic strip will visit a new era and Doctor altogether in another fun flashback – I'm hoping for the Eighth Doctor and Destrii – but for now this has been to hark back to Doctor Who Adventures. As I mentioned in yesterday's blog entry, I wasn't a collector of Doctor Who Adventures apart from a couple of issues during the Peter Capaldi era, but I fully appreciate the artistic style and how it pays homage to an important part of so many children's fandom. The flying carpet element of the cliffhanger was actually something that really excited me reading the end of the last issue, but it was hardly worth talking about here with Rose flying it and it being blasted with laser holes. That sounds problematic but I never quite bought that Rose was in much danger. The way she was saved was clever in having the Doctor tracking her phone as the coordinates, but it was also very much like what happened with River Song in The Angels Take Manhattan. It was almost a carbon copy to be honest, expect Rose safely arrived in the console room whereas the Doctor's wife went straight into the swimming pool! I thought the desperation of the Doctor when Rose was through the hole in space was excellent and something we needed to see more of in my opinion. I know there's only six pages to play with in each issue but more than a glimpse was needed because the way he countered as if those at the Garazone Bazaar didn't think a part of him was taken was brilliant. When the Tenth Doctor gets dark it can get quite exciting, but then it just turned out there was more than a singular Djinni on the shelf. That felt incredibly too easy and convenient for the Doctor to just get given three wishes again in order to save Rose. Why wasn't the first wish simply to bring Rose to him? Jeanie being with him in the TARDIS was fun but again it didn't really serve much of a purpose only for her to then reveal at the end that the wishes her kind granted were not permanent. They only last thirteen minutes? How random! I thought that was a bit naff to be honest and I wasn't a big fan of the Doctor just leaving the white proprietor to the mercy of the antiques once again. It was a little bit of a full circle as far as the Red and White factions were and it's honestly a shame the Doctor wasn't the former's King! Overall, another nice rush of nostalgia but the story didn't quite work for me in a big way.  

Rating: 6/10