No Moore? by Tim Roll-Pickering 5/10/98
Spider-God is one of the best one part Doctor Who strips--a simple, but well told and drawn story with a strong message behind it. On this occasion, the message behind it is how ‘civilised’ people don't always know best, and how beautiful customs and cultures have been destroyed by colonisation, whether strategic as with European expansion in the 19th Century or cultural as with Americanisation in the 20th Century.
The story’s main guest character, Commander Louis B. Frederic, is a total cliché, with lines like ‘We’re going to make this planet safe for decent folks to live on!’, but that’s precisely what this story requires. The rest of the Excelsior’s crew are just as clichéd, and could have come straight out of an episode Star Trek, but again they are precisely what is required. K9 is mysteriously absent from this story, but given the strip’s attempts to link it’s continuity to the TV series, no explanation is needed, and it would spoil the plot if the Doctor could easily find out the truth about the villagers and the spiders.
As ever, Dave Gibbons provides brilliant artwork, especially on the final page where he is required to draw ‘the most beautiful life-form in the galaxy", as well as drawing spiders that look menacing to our eyes and a spaceship that actually looks like a spaceship. The natives and their village are reminiscent of precolonised, ‘uncivilised’ Africa, whilst his likeness of the Doctor is spot on as usual. Steve Moore provides an excellent final strip, ensuring his run goes out on a high that is remembered nearly two decades later, primarily due to it’s reprint in Doctor Who Magazine #182. 10/10