A Review by Richard Radcliffe 28/6/03
After nearly 7 years of 7the Doctor stories, DWM decided to take the step to focus on previous incarnations of the Time Lord. Thus the 4th Doctor was followed by the rest of the Doctors. The deal was the same as the Missing Adventures - companions intact from the TV Show. Artists and writers mixed and matched again, some succeeding at the past likenesses, others not. Very few captured the essence of the show, when the Doctor was in it. It was a bold, but not hugely successful experiment for a few years - Spring 1994 to Autumn 1996.
Victims (212-214)
Jumping on the bandwagon of Missing Adventures DWM started their own Past Doctor stories with this 4th Doctor and 2nd Romana tale. Coming in mid 1994 when the MAs were just about to emerge onto our bookshelves, it does seem a bit of a copycat - and also at the time, an acknowledgement that the 7th Doctor had been around long enough.
I welcomed the idea, there was much entertainment to be had from the past Doctors, and 3-4 part stories, alternating between Doctors promised to give us that. Kind of like when the Missing Adventures were announced actually - it is was nice to know we would be spending some more time with the other Doctors, and the show was mining its rich vein of history.
The first, Victims, strives to be typical of the 4th Dr/2nd Romana phase of the show. At times it succeeds, particularly in the dialogue between characters. Dan Abnett deserves credit for that. The artwork is mixed though. Colin Andrew isn't as good as Dave Gibbons, few people are - and that's the 4th Doctor comic version I was used to. To be fair though the artwork is not the worst I have ever seen, far from it - and it must be mighty difficult to recreate an established image in different poses than photographs available. So the artwork has to be considered a limited success, but still pretty good.
The story, by Abnett, concerns fashion. The TARDIS lands in Kolpasha - the fashion centre of the galaxy. They are there to see Dara Clayd, the ultimate fashion designer. Frankly fashion bores me silly, and this wasn't exactly the most interesting subject matter in the world for me. What follows though sees the fashion world as just the backdrop, allowing Andrew to create some marvellous creations and stunning futuristic locales. The main thrust of the story is a murder investigation, with aliens included, of course.
The aliens - the Quoll - are suitably gruesome, as befits a race intent to benefit from peoples vanity. Their human helpers all have a grudge against some form of fashion or beauty treatment or organization. I really would like to have seen what was behind that Holomask though!
At 3 parts the strip has enough scope for a reasonably substantial story, and it maintains interest pretty well overall. 3 parts was seen to be the ideal way to tell these Missing Adventures. The 1st, whilst not being the best, or most original, showed us how an era can be pretty well recreated - exactly what they were supposed to do. 6/10
Are You Listening/Younger and Wiser (Summer Special '94)
The Summer Special of DWM had a trendy backflip cover. One side featured the 1st Doctor and Susan, the other side the 7th Doctor and Ace. The magazine was about the genesis and conclusion of Doctor Who on TV, and is an excellent insight into both. The comic strip reflects that beginning and end by having a 4 page 1st Dr story, being concluded in the other half, by a 4 page 7th Dr story. They are really the same story, and can therefore be seen as a dual Doctor story, without them meeting.
The 1st half - the Are You Listening part - sees the 1st Doctor, Vicki and Steven arrive on Xenith. This appears to be a massive city. The TARDIS travellers explore briefly the "city" before a strange robot appears. Vicki is quite frightened by this, and the 1st Doctor quickly whisks them back into the TARDIS and away.
It turns out that Xenith is a massive computer and is in need of some assistance. The robot was to ask for help, but the Doctor didn't listen to it - hence the title. Realizing his mistake the Doctor returns to Xenith in his 7th body - this is the Younger and Wiser segment. This time he is with Benny. The Doctor provides the much needed help and apologizes for his initial abruptness in his 1st incarnation.
It's quite a quaint story overall showing the Doctor making up for a past mistake many years, in his lifetime, after the event. The 2 parts, the different Doctors, are very different. The 1st part just has Xenith, the master computer, commenting on the Doctor and companions. We never hear the Doctor speaking, and this commentary angle is a nice way of telling the tale. The 7th Dr part is much more traditional comic strip fare, with bubbles for the speaking.
Warwick Scott Gray gives us a perfect complement to the Beginning and End TV Special, and Colin Andrew gives us pretty good artwork too. The 2 Doctors are good likenesses, as is Vicki. Steven isn't quite right though, and Benny has since been superseded by other likenesses. It is interesting to see the comic writers embrace the New Adventures in 1994, only to dismiss them later in 1996 in Ground Zero - the final 7th Doctor strip.
A nice little Special strip, and worthy of your attention - you also get an excellent magazine with it! 7/10
The Lunar Strangers (215-217)
The 5th Doctor had a different life amongst the comic strips. I am a big fan of Tides of Time and stories that followed it. For me that was the best 5th Doctor stories that anybody has produced. I was thus excited about the return to previous Doctors in 1994, and especially looking forward to the 5th Doctor entries. There were 2 such diversions in the end and they show the best and worst of 5th Doctor comic strips. Curse of the Scarab is the best, by a long long way. Lunar Strangers is the worst, and it is very difficult to like anything about it at all.
Written by Gareth Roberts you expect more, but his books are far better than his comics. Drawn by Martin Geraghty it recreates the TARDIS team of 5th Dr, Turlough and Tegan pretty well. There we go, something positive - the artwork is great! Therefore the blame must lie with the author - and this story is diabolically bad.
Any story that features 2 cows as the main villains is asking to be ridiculed. When these turn into intelligent cows then the ridicule has to be doubled. The problem is that this may have worked for and out and out comedy, but this is done largely as a typical comic strip story, with the odd bit of humour. Talking cows and treasure made of cheese is not the odd bit of humour though - it's stupid, and should never ever have seen light of day. Martin Geraghty, to his credit, can draw cows very well. His depiction of the moonbase is similarly very good - talk about a talent wasted!
The story around the cows is not that interesting either. The Dryth (cows) coming back to reclaim their treasure just doesn't convince at all. The discovery of a container in the rock gives Tegan and Turlough something to do, at least. As for the Doctor, I seem to have blocked all trace of him in this story out of my mind, this cannot be a 5th Doctor story. This cannot be the same Doctor that was in Tides of Time - it just can't. 3/10
Food for Thought (218-220)
From space cows we move onto space slugs. If this is DWM's answer to the Missing Adventures, then that series of books has just gone up massively in my estimation (it's pretty good anyway actually). Surely the strip could get no worse than the rubbish that was Lunar Strangers? Well it did, but it wasn't this one thank goodness. 2 such stories together could very well have killed off my liking for the strip for good.
That said, mind you, this is not one of the best at all. Enter Nick Briggs into the arena for great future authors contributing not so good stories for the strip. This is one of those stories about seemingly deserted planets, then inhabited by all kinds of creatures - Humans, molluscs and robots included. The TARDIS gets eaten by one of these giant space slugs - a striking image from Colin Andrew. Andrew doesn't really capture this TARDIS crew very well at all though. This is the 1st Doctor, Ben and Polly. Polly is depicted well, and Ben gets the most to do, but the Doctor is just too active for the Hartnell incarnation.
There's lots of running around corridors, from Ben - and lots of eating, of the TARDIS and the Doctor by the slug. It's a story that doesn't really stick in the memory all that well, and I only read it yesterday! Not the greatest endorsement for this story - sorry Nick! You really can do a lot better than this story, and this Missing Adventure season by DWM is threatening to fall flat. 5/10
Plastic Millennium (Winter Special '94)
I note with interest than DWM survey readers were not that struck on the comic strips in 1994-95. It wasn't until Aug 1995 and the very impressive Curse of the Scarab - the start of an ongoing story, and more focus for the writers - that the strip re-emerged as a credible way of telling the best kind of DW stories.
Plastic Millennium is part of the Robert Holmes Winter Special of 1994. It is written by Gareth Roberts, who seems totally incapable of producing a good comic strip story - so different from his Virgin MA exploits. As part of a Special it must needs be a 1 part story, of only 8 pages. It features the 7th Doctor and Mel, a nice change to be honest from a certain Perivale resident.
The striking thing is that it is Mel who saves the day, not the Doctor. A nice role reversal and part of the upward surge in the second half of the 90s and early 00s to reassess Mel as a companion. The Autons are the aggressor she defeats, with the help of the Doctor. It is a Robert Holmes special after all. Martin Geraghty is one of the better artists to have graced the comic strip medium, and his depictions are pretty good. The Autons and 7th Doctor are very good, Mel needs a little work admittedly.
As a one-off it's nice to see a tie-in with the subject matter of the Special - but the Autons deserve a bigger story, and a better story. And why is Alicia Hammerson, an Auton, in charge of a Plastics Factory? - I thought the Doctor had got rid of that threat in the TV Auton stories. Not great, not nasty, just run of the mill. 6/10
Change of Mind (221-223)
And finally, after a glut of decidedly bad Missing Adventures from the comic strip of DWM - we have a winner!
It's back to the 3rd Doctor era here. He's on his way by plane to a PSI conference - mind reading, spoon bending and all that kind of psychaedaelic stuff. His companion is Liz Shaw, and it is made clear this is after she left UNIT, just after. There's a bit of clearing of the air - always welcome this character stuff - and the plane suddenly loses half its wing!
This brilliant comic panel by Barrie Mitchell grabs your attention better than any I have seen for ages. There is something well weird going on. Combine the broken aircraft with someone kneeling and meditating and you just know some mind power is at work somewhere. Triple this effect by bringing forward another psychokinetic, who is on the plane, who saves the day at considerable cost - and this is comic strip that hits you squarely between the eyes and captures your attention.
The Doctor must get to the heart of the problem, and with Liz that's exactly what he does. Travelling to Cambridge to see Professor Hardin, who experiments on minds, psychokinetic girl on plane the connection, the Doctor is rebuffed at every turn. Enter the cavalry in the form of UNIT and a guest spot from Brigadier and Benton to save the day, and employ tactics too extreme for the Doctor.
This story, written by Kate Orman, perfectly evokes the 7th and 8th Season of the TV programme. The 3rd Doctor is very much in exile, he'd never get on a plane otherwise, and UNIT is featured heavily. The subject matter is serious, not too many laughs here. Early 70s issues also get an airing, there's even a student demo.
This truly is a Missing Adventure worthy of the name, and a very interesting and entertaining story to boot. A great comic strip story. 8/10
Land of the Blind (224-225)
From a Change of Mind to Land of the Blind, there's a connection evident not just in the rhyming slang department. This could have been called Land of the Mind quite easily. The Planet Denossus is controlled by the Vortexians, beings from the Time Vortex. They control the populace by stripping away their minds, when they do something wrong.
The TARDIS arrives (or does it?) at Denossus and the crew join with Anna, who has just lost her partner Luther to the Speculum - the mind altering machine. It's great to see the 2nd Doctor involved, and risking himself to get to the truth. That cliffhanger at the end of Episode 2 is a fabulous one.
This is story by Warwick Scott Gray about humanity, and one group's strive for freedom against the odds. It's about one families determination to fight the oppressors. The Doctor is the eternal supporter of lost causes and he is wonderfully depicted here. It is rather ironic then that the resolution does not come from the Doctor, but Luther's father. He does turn the negative situation into a positive - turning the Vortexian rules against them - though, thus helping to put things back on the right course.
Jamie and Zoe are largely redundant overall - the Doctor getting the lion's share of the action. The family of Luther are rather more characterized than usual comic strip characters too, so Jamie and Zoe feature fleetingly, tending to follow everybody else.
The comic strip is a good one though for its heroic Doctor and imaginative story. A note too on Lee Sullivan. He's the Death Comes to Time fellow, and is also the artist here - and he's excellent too. Another good strip. 7/10
The 7th Segment (Summer Special '95)
The Key to Time DWM Special was a great idea. We have been denied a Trial of the Time Lord Special, thank goodness, and those 2 provide the only major continuous story thread for TV DW seasons. Packed full of fascinating facts and insights into a pretty good season, Gary Gillatt decided to continue the trend he began with previous Summer and Winter Specials, and tie in the strip to the subject matter of the mag.
The 7th Segment title is a hook. We know there is only 6 segments, so this must be a red herring, and indeed it turns out to be so. Featuring the 4th Dr, 1st Romana and K9 this strip is nothing more than an elaborate runaround. Gareth Roberts gives us a fun, if rather lightweight, romp where a suitcase could contain the next segment.
The trouble is in the depiction of the Doctor. The 4th was often manic and over the top. But he was never boneheadingly stupid, and he is in this strip. The strip constantly emphasizes that the Doctor is desperate to open the case, having no thought for what is in it (which proves pretty horrendous, as it turns out). A Chicago style group of mobsters are involved, pretty dull and dumb they are too, and the Doctor realizes right at the end the case contains a weapon.
It's all a bit silly really, and doesn't make you laugh like Roberts does so well in his books. It's hard work trying to uncover a Gareth Roberts great comic strip story - and whilst this is nowhere near his worst, it's not that good either. The art is all over the place too here, Paul Peart only stayed for a guest appearance though. Discardable. 5/10
Up Above the Gods (227)
Now this is rather peculiar. This one-off story features an interlude from another comic strip story - Emperor of the Daleks. The weird thing is that was over 2 years ago - and you really have to return to that strip to get the most from this story.
During Emperor of the Daleks, a 7th and 6th Doctor story, the 6th Doctor takes Davros aboard the TARDIS. This strip outlines how he then tries to persuade Davros to reprogramme a group of dormant Daleks (the ones from Planet of the Daleks maybe?), so they can become a force for good. Richard Alan presents us with an interesting conversation between the Doctor and Davros. It is full of issues that previous Dalek stories have raised.
I remember reading that someone wanted to put a Dalek and the Doctor in one room, and see what they had to say to one another - well this does almost that - and it provides a fascinating insight into both characters. The 6th Doctor had been absent from the Past Doctor Stories that DWM had been presenting thus far, and for a Doctor who excelled in that medium (in the very pages of DWM), that was a real shame. We only have 1 part here, 8 pages, but it's a darn sight better than most of the other PDAs - it seems the 6th Doctor was becoming more and more interesting even back in 1995.
A good comic strip then, even if you need a library of past issues to put things into perspective. 7/10
Curse of the Scarab (228-230)
I picked up a back issue of DWM I missed the other day. It was issue 259. In there Gary Gillatt, editor supreme of DWM for many years, tells us how good the comic strip has been recently (a few years ago now). How Izzy has become almost as popular as the 8th Doctor. Bearing in mind this editorial was written only a year or two after the 8th Doctor began in the comic medium, it is interesting now to look back and reflect.
Being a big fan of the comic strips, I didn't need any incentive to read them, but I was interested to note where he suggested those coming to the strip start from. Issue 228 - that is Curse of the Scarab, a 3-part story right in the middle of the run where DWM was doing lots of Doctors alternately.
I've taken up the challenge, fully expecting the run of comic strips to be brilliant from 228 right through to 259, the time of that Gillatt Editorial. I can fully see why he said start with this story - Curse of the Scarab - it's a corker!
Written by Alan Barnes, who has since become something of an expert on the 8th Doctor (Storm Warning, NeverLand), it is set in Hollywood's golden years. A production of The Mummy is taking place, but the props are not fakes. They are the original treasures, taken from Egypt by the film's director - Rakoff. The 5th Doctor and Peri arrive on cue, and get caught up in the attempted resurrection of the God Kephri.
It's wonderful stuff too, full of all the wonders that ancient Egyptian inspiration can bring. It's rather coincidental too that the 3 stories in Doctor Who, since the TV series finished, that have been about ancient Egyptian treasures have all featured the 5th Doctor. Curse of the Scarab was the first. It was followed shortly after by Sands of Time, book. And then recently Eye of the Scorpion, audio. That's every medium which has used the ancient Egyptian inspiration - and every one of those 4 stories is brilliant.
When you see a comic strip like Curse of the Scarab, you can really see how The Mummy took previous films and created the definitive version - panels in this strip are like story boards for that film. Bearing in mind the strip was before the film that's pretty impressive. The storyboard analogy is a compliment for Martin Geraghty, whose superb artwork enhances this story massively. It is marvelous to see the Mummies again from Pyramids of Mars, but this is not a sequel to that story, like Sands of Time for example.
The 5th Doctor and Peri are perfectly in character. They are swept along (like Caves of Androzani) by events. As Rakoff strives to restore Kephri, and Raschid strives to stop him, the Doctor is powerless at times. It is only in the resolution that the Doctor becomes heroic, even if it is a quick end to the story. At only 21 pages I suppose that's inevitable.
Overall with brilliant artwork and an excellent script this is one of the best strips I have read and seen. 9/10
Operation Proteus (231-233)
DWM got tired of doing 7th Doctor stories by 1994. They started a run of stories that featured most of the past Doctors. One of the last of these "Past Doctor Adventures" was this one, a 3 part story featuring the 1st Doctor and Susan. I had thought that Time and Relative, the very good book by Kim Newman, was the first story to feature just this partnership, before Ian and Barbara went to that junkyard - but it wasn't. Gareth Roberts beat him to it, 7 years before in the DWM comic strip.
That's the last time I will mention the 2 pre-TV-show stories in the same breath though. They are like chalk and cheese, especially in quality. Susan is there in this story, but she has very little to do at all. After encountering the changing human, she reports back to her grandfather, who then explores tunnels in London, encountering an alien presence intent on getting home.
The 1st Doctor is portrayed accurately in character. He's brash, and driven in purpose. He is serious, but with a quiet air of justice. Unfortunately the portrayal artwise is not so good. Martin Geraghty was superb in the previous Curse of the Scarab, but he hasn't got the 1st Doctor and Susan at all. A lot of the panels seem rushed and messy. The artwork is not that good overall.
But what of the script, the story? Gareth Roberts is now recognized as one of the best original fiction writers of Doctor Who, thanks mostly to his 3 4th Dr and 2nd Romana books. This early effort is okay, there's a pretty good alien invasion story in there, but it is not up to his books' standard.
The alien infestation is presented very strangely. We have a massive gruesome head, and a business-suited body. It's a very strange mix, and looks very silly. His motivation, to convert someone to his own kind, is very extreme - and bearing in mind the technology at his disposal, a bit suspect.
Not the best comic strip story, and something of a letdown after the excellent Scarab story that preceded it. 5/10
Target Practice (234)
Gareth Roberts is an excellent writer, and he seems to understand the comic medium better than most too. This is a one-off strip, drawn by Adrian Salmon - now famous for his illustrations in DWM (Time Team) and Benny audios and novels. It features the 3rd Doctor and Jo Grant. They have been summoned to a deserted airbase, where they find Colonel Ashe. He tries to persuade the Doctor to leave UNIT and come and work for him - he's a Russian you see, and they want the Doctor on their side.
This is a perfect throwback to the comic strips of the 50s and 60s, complete with Cold War suspicion. The quick-fire writing technique is also evident, and the rather predictable double bluff of the Doctor and cavalry charge of UNIT to save the day at the end. This is a perfect style of story, and quite nostalgic too, to be a one-parter. We are immediately pulled in to this little strip too by the appearance of a whole load of monsters and villains. That they prove to be cardboard cutouts is irrelevant - it's drawn us in, and fulfilled its purpose.
The artwork is the stories notable feature. Adrian Salmon's bold, silhouetted style is evident right from the start. It lacks detail, and the likenesses are a bit hazy, but it really is quite unique and striking. This is one of his earlier efforts, and he has got better. A recent strip in DWM, Character Assassin, with the Master, shows this quite clearly, but his unique style makes him instantly recognized. A real talent.
A nice little story this one, bringing back memories of simpler Strips. 7/10
Black Destiny (235-237)
Gary Russell takes over the writing helm of this story, the artwork is Martin Geraghty again. It's amazing how many of these Comic Strip Writers from this era, now are established book writers. Unfortunately this is not one of Gary Russell's best.
It takes an Ecological theme, in an attempt to show how dangerous Nuclear Power Plants really are. It's a subject that has been done to death, and there's some quite heavy moralizing going on, which is at odds with its Comic Strip presentation. The artwork is okay, but Geraghty seems to have descended gradually from his excellent work on Curse of the Scarab. His likenesses of the 4th Dr, Sarah and Harry are not that good. The characteristics of each are okay though.
Putting the story 100 years hence allows the Artist some Creative influence on the sets, but the Cultural Centre doesn't look that much different from elaborate buildings now though. Arkady is a run-of-the-mill villain. This business of 1st Son of 1st Son of 1st Son etc, is an attempt to add some kind of mythologic angle on things - and there's a certain logic to an equivalent good person being the antithesis of Arkady's Evil. Ivan, the good 1st Son, is not in the Strip that much though, and again the resolution is spoiled by being too quick and convenient.
Setting the Strip in another country is a good idea, the Chernobyl Power Plant being the catalyst for the resulting power for Arkady. The last few pages set in Moscow are well done too, with Geraghty much better in the city. The strip story though is not one of the best of DWM's long run. Bit of a shame when the characters used (4th Dr, Sarah and Harry) are so good, and it is set just before Terror of the Zygons - a golden era for the TV programme.
There is a unique advert after the conclusion of this story though in DWM. There's an advert for the next comic strip, and 3 pictures of Peri, Susan and Sarah-Jane - taken from the Curse of the Scarab, Operation Proteus and Black Destiny respectively. It becomes apparent that there is something greater at work than at first sight, in the above stories. The next strip - Ground Zero promises to tell us what. I immediately went back to these recent stories, and discovered for myself the 3 anomalies in the stories, where each companion sees something off-strip, and then nothing is made of it - suddenly I was looking forward to Ground Zero a lot. 5/10
Ground Zero (238-242)
The decision was taken in DWM to return to the 7th Doctor, after a 2 year break with Past Doctor stories. The PDAs hadn't really dazzled with their imagination (with the notable exceptions of Change of Mind and Curse of the Scarab). It was time to return to the 7th, if only (it turned out) for a little while.
Following on from the 3 previous PD stories, the 7th Doctor and Ace return (and this is the post Survival Ace, forget the NA's). They arrive at Notting Hill Carnival in the later years of the 21st Century. Quite quickly though Ace is transported into another dimension, where she joins Peri and Sarah-Jane. The Doctor meanwhile spies Susan in the distance. The little hints of a continuous story, and the involvement of some super-villains, has finally come to fruition.
Apparently DWM were always planning to move back to the 7th Doctor in the Comic Strip, after a few years of doing Past Doctor stories. They created the Threshold - the super-villain at work behind the scenes - to this effect, to bring back the 7th Dr with a bang. They made sure the 3 previous stories:- Curse of the Scarab (5th Dr and Peri), Operation Proteus (1st Dr and Susan) and Black Destiny (4th Dr, Sarah-Jane and Harry), all had 1 panel where Peri, Susan and Sarah-Jane encountered a foe clearly not really part of that Comic Strip. The whole idea was to put the 7th Dr and Ace with them, restarting the 7th Dr's adventures in Comic Strip form with style, starting a continuous run of stories all featuring the 7th Dr. However this was around the time the TV movie was happening. And so the plans were changed. The Doctor is very much alone at the end of the story. The story is the same as envisaged originally, but thanks to a Gary Gillatt spy mission the 7th Doctor's clothes and look were changed to fit in with the Movie. The effect is highly effective, and provides a straight run-in right into the film. It became the Comic Strip's 8th Dr therefore, not the 7th, who was to carry on the battle against the Threshold.
Ground Zero in its own right is a monumental story. Featuring 4 of the best Companions to grace the series, it was always going to be special. The above run-in to the TV Movie gave it an added weight. The big surprise is the way the Comic Strip gave its own version as the legitimate follow up to the TV show. The later New Adventures (which were happening at the same time) seem to have been disregarded completely and there's a startling shock in store for the reader.
As always, it is up to the reader to decide how important the strips are, but I suspect that they have a pretty confined fanbase, and most will stick to the NA Lungbarrow run-in to the movie, rather than Ground Zero. It remains one of the biggest anomalies between respective DW stories in different mediums, ie Comics to Books. But I like them both, even though they will never be reconciled.
Ground Zero is a brilliant story in its own right. Geraghty is back to form with the artwork and Warwick Scott Gray perfectly captures the 5 major characters he has under his wing. The Threshold is a wonderfully mysterious, dark creation. Hovering between realities, thriving in the subconscious of the human mind - the place of dreaming, the place of uncertainty. The way they use the Doctor, to horrific effect, makes them a real threat to the universe, let alone the Doctor's sanity. There's also the Lobri, spider-like tormentors, the monster of the story, and a good one too.
The Comic Strip is memorable for its stark and violent images. Peri's torture is very graphic, and it is wonderful to see the companions sticking together to help each other. The TARDIS materializing within one of the Lobri has to be one of the most gruesome images in all DW, full stop. This is most definitely the dark 7th Doctor at his most black - and eventually at his most vengeful. Emotion is shown that is more profound than usual, especially for the Comics, and both Artist and Writer are equal to the task. It's brought across well and realistically.
At 5 parts this is also a story that demands you spend more time with it. It takes longer than most though, not because of the length (over 40 pages) but because of what is going on, and the impact on the Doctor and his Companions. Ace and Peri both get pulled through the mill, and not everyone gets out in 1 piece. What a wonderful device is that Memory Eraser the Doctor uses.
A very good Comic Strip overall, and well worthy of any fans attention, regardless of mismatched continuity. 9/10
The Fangs of Time (243)
It comes as rather a surprise to find this little one-off strip amongst the drama of the 7th Doctor's final fling, and the 8th Doctor's introduction. Nonetheless it's one of those "fannish" type stories that are chock-full of memories for so many DW readers.
The story is about Sean. Bearing in mind the script and artwork is by a fellow named Sean Longcroft, I have to presume it is self-referential. He is writing a Missing Adventure, and the 4th Doctor pops in for a chat to help him along. Sean is a relapsed fan, and his story is full of references to every monster, villain and previous story he can think of. It is the nostalgia that this strip provokes which make it so good - and the main reason why it was voted the best comic strip of the year in DWM.
The strip is full of not just DW monsters and references, there's also some programmes that were on just before DW, like Basil Brush - and a typical Brush gag starts the nostalgia off. In a way I was transported back to the 70s. I worked out that Sean was born in about 1969, I was 1968, so my memories were similar, and hence I loved it.
The monster gallery included most of the enemies of the Doctor, from the 3rd Dr's time on. I spied Wirrn, Sontarans, Daemon, Axon, Vogan, Silurian, Zygon, Sea Devil, Dalek, Cyberman. But there are so many more, including a Mandrel when Sean's interest waned, as did mine, around Season 17.
The presentation of the Doctor is magical in this strip. Hovering between factual and fictional, Longcroft successfully gives us an amalgam of all the best characteristics of the Doctor. He puts into Pictures and Words so much of the magic of DW, and the way it influenced and benefitted so much of our lives.
A nostalgia fest for sure - a run through my DW influences of childhood and early teens? That too. The ending is quite funny aswell, and the whole cliffhanger ethos is given a nice spin. This 7 pages crammed full of DW nostalgia certainly brought a lot of smiles to my face. 9/10