From TV Comic #693-698
Published: 1965
A Review by Finn Clark 27/1/05
Yet again Doctor Who proves the law of diminishing returns, with the disappointing results we've come to expect from continuity-heavy sequels. It looks good. Neville Main draws the Zarbi and Menoptera with care, detail and plenty of photo-reference, producing monsters that not only look authentic but work well on the page. They're certainly better-looking than his original aliens, the Skirkons. However the story is a bit bleah.
Apparently The Web Planet's last episode aired only a week before this strip began. Many TV monsters would appear in TV Comic in later years (Daleks, Cybermen, Quarks), usually with negligible respect for TV continuity and characterisation, but this ain't that. This is different. Neville Main appears to have been given not only photoreference but copies of the TV story's script. Unfortunately the wildly inaccurate stories of later years would prove more entertaining than this tale, which is a bland runaround on Vortis without much plot. Some goofy-looking Skirkons pop up late in the day to go "bwahahaha" and boast about their ambition to conquer the universe, but even they're a bit crap.
Dr Who fires a gun! "Got it! That's one less to deal with!" he says afterwards, though we later discover that his victim was only stunned. However it's still a shame; I expected better from Neville Main. (Let John do all the violence; he's good at it. Or better yet Gillian, who's because she's a girl has been given little to do in these stories so far.)
We learn that Vortis's rocks contain Glavinium X, the rarest mineral in the universe and a powerful explosive. Perplexingly, Dr Who claims that: "An evil power that controlled large amounts of it could cause disaster throughout the solar system!" What, just the solar system? Don't worry, the Skirkons soon put him right on that one (though their ambition of ruling the entire universe is even more ludicrous).
We can date this story fairly closely. It's many years since the TV story (dated 20,000 AD in Bill Strutton's novelisation), possibly as much as two or three centuries. "Doctor Who, your name has been passed from generation to generation! You are very welcome here, for once more we are in danger!" However if we take into account Bulis's Twilight of the Gods, it's probably no more than about 150-180 years or so, since in 20,191 AD the opposing Rhumon forces brought their civil war to Vortis and started subjugating the natives.
Overall, this is a classic example of putting continuity above story. The links with the TV show are strong, but everything else is lacklustre. Half the story is devoted to what's essentially a big battle scene, the hidden villains are rubbish and the story's final resolution is lame. TV Comic had strengths, believe it or not, and one of their greatest was imagination. Many of their stories were so dementedly imaginative that you'd think their authors' brains were in the process of squirting out of their ears. On The Web Planet (reprinted in DWCC 13) drags itself down by shackling itself to another medium's budget-strapped imagination and the results are disappointing.