From Doctor Who Magazine #228-230
A Review by Finn Clark 10/10/04
This was Martin Geraghty's second Peter Davison story, published exactly a year after his DWM debut with The Lunar Strangers, and the start of a marathon stint as the regular artist for the DWM strip. (It wouldn't be until 2002 that he took a serious break.) I quite liked his earlier work, but here he's improved in leaps and bounds. Ancient Egypt is always fun to draw and this looks lovely, with relics, hieroglyphics (even in the dialogue balloons!) and a big buzzing beetle-god. The setting of 1938 Hollywood just adds to the fun. In fact this may be Martin's best-looking story for DWM. I love the art of stories like Endgame (DWM 244-247), but he soon stopped inking his own pencils and the scratchier, detailed inks of this story really suit it.
The script is enjoyable without particularly imprinting itself on your memory, which in fairness is more than one might say about some of the other MA strips. It's not about anything beyond pleasant period flavour, a nostalgia buzz from Pyramids of Mars and another of those mad Egyptologists who's dedicated his life to resurrecting a monster that will immediately try to destroy the world. Mmmm, clever guy. However Alan Barnes and Martin Geraghty work well together to evoke Hollywood (1938 AD) and Ancient Egypt (2000 BC) and there's always another plot twist just around the corner. 21 pages pass smoothly enough.
There's a full-page splash cliffhanger, mind you. I wish they wouldn't do that. We're only talking about seven pages a month here.
Episode two contained the Threshold's first appearance, though 'twas left unexplained for many months afterwards. The Threshold kidnap Peri offscreen, but the 7th Doctor swiftly returns her before the readers or the 5th Doctor even know she's gone. The same would happen to Susan in Operation Proteus (DWM 231-233) and Sarah Jane in Black Destiny (DWM 235-237) before the Threshold saga kicked into high gear with Ground Zero (DWM 238-242). If one decides that the Threshold story arc really started here, then by the time it ended in Wormwood (DWM 266-271), it had run for four years with five-and-a-half Doctors.
Oh, and if you're counting the Osirians on Earth circa 2000 BC, this story's Kephri the Beetle-God is just another on the list. See also The Power of Thoueris (DWM 333) and The Sands of Time (Virgin MA).
There's not much to say about this story, really. It's hardly a tale that cried out to be told, but it's a lively patchwork of Mummy movie cliches (behind and in front of the camera) and I like the juxtaposition of placing it at the arse end of the Universal horror era. The closing quote even redeems a schlock-horror ending that would otherwise be cringeworthy. (It wouldn't be so bad if there was the slightest realistic chance of ever seeing Curse of the Scarab 2: Return of the Beetle. But there ain't.) It hardly bears comparison with Steve Parkhouse's run of Davison-era strips, being merely a one-read disposable bit of fun, but it's good enough for what it is. I enjoyed it.