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Published: 1994 Acquired: November 2012 Read: March 2021 |
Words: Colin Baker
Pencils: John M. Burns and Barrie Mitchell
Colours: Steve Whitaker
Letters: Jane Smale and Amer Anwar
Letters: Jane Smale and Amer Anwar
Why yes, I am cheating a bit, reading this in chronological order between The World Shapers and A Cold Day in Hell! rather than publication order between Emperor of the Daleks and Land of the Blind. But I bought this a decade ago, and by the time I get to Emperor of the Daleks/Land of the Blind, the new Age of Chaos
collection will likely be out, so why would I read this then? If I
don't read it now, I don't have a reason to read it ever because it will
be superseded!
It works pretty well here. When we last saw the Doctor, Peri, and Frobisher, they were travelling together having fought the Cybermen on Planet 14; evidently in the interim, The Trial of a Time Lord happened (without Frobisher, maybe he went fishing), and now Frobisher and the Doctor periodically check in on Peri on Krontep, the planet where she settled down with King Yrcanos after Trial. Assume the Doctor regenerates off-panel (as he always does in DWM-land), and this leads right into A Cold Day in Hell!
It works pretty well here. When we last saw the Doctor, Peri, and Frobisher, they were travelling together having fought the Cybermen on Planet 14; evidently in the interim, The Trial of a Time Lord happened (without Frobisher, maybe he went fishing), and now Frobisher and the Doctor periodically check in on Peri on Krontep, the planet where she settled down with King Yrcanos after Trial. Assume the Doctor regenerates off-panel (as he always does in DWM-land), and this leads right into A Cold Day in Hell!
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| C'mon, Cerf is awesome. (art by Barrie Mitchell) |
So how's the story-- written by none other than Colin Baker (the first Doctor to write licensed fiction; Tom Baker became the second twenty-five years later with Scratchman)? Well, it's
fun. None too deep, but fun. Krontep is in a time of crisis when a solo
Doctor visits; Peri's granddaughter Actis asks the Doctor to get
Frobisher and help. The Doctor, Frobisher, and Carf (a Krontep warrior)
go on a quest to figure out what ails the land, then they go on another
to find Actis when she goes missing. There's a bit too much gubbins at
times-- what is up with the alien the Doctor meets?-- but if your idea
of a good time is a quest story where the participants are the Doctor, a
talking penguin, and a giant bearded warrior who shouts "VROOMNIK" a
lot, then you will have one. Mine is, and I particularly enjoyed their
forays into the underground cult. The Doctor's ultimate foe being a hallucination that he is on This Is Your Life is delightfully bonkers.
The first quarter is drawn by John M. Burns; the remaining parts by Barrie Mitchell. Both are good artists, working well with the story's epic nature. I did have the impression, though, that Barrie Mitchell wasn't drawing Colin Baker so much as the steel-jawed hero of a men's 1950s adventure comic wearing a Colin Baker wig. And of course the sixth Doctor was made for color!
It's not all good. Somehow though the Doctor and Frobisher have visited Krontep and Peri's family a lot over the years, Actis knows them but her older brothers don't! The resolution of the political subplot is rushed and sudden, too. But on the whole, I enjoyed this, a weird slice of Doctor Who history that plugs a hole in the tv show but does something uniquely DWM at the same time.
Stray Observations:
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| We get a VWORP VWRORP (either Colin paid attention or his editor did), but this is not one of DWM's better time vortex renditions. (art by John M. Burns) |
The first quarter is drawn by John M. Burns; the remaining parts by Barrie Mitchell. Both are good artists, working well with the story's epic nature. I did have the impression, though, that Barrie Mitchell wasn't drawing Colin Baker so much as the steel-jawed hero of a men's 1950s adventure comic wearing a Colin Baker wig. And of course the sixth Doctor was made for color!
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| Maybe Ptou is the best new character here, actually. (art by Barrie Mitchell) |
It's not all good. Somehow though the Doctor and Frobisher have visited Krontep and Peri's family a lot over the years, Actis knows them but her older brothers don't! The resolution of the political subplot is rushed and sudden, too. But on the whole, I enjoyed this, a weird slice of Doctor Who history that plugs a hole in the tv show but does something uniquely DWM at the same time.
Stray Observations:
- I like the idea that the Doctor periodically drops in on Peri and her family and gives them odd presents. I didn't like that part 14 of Trial undid Peri's death, but if she was to live, I don't like the idea that the Doctor never looked in on her, and I find this take on her future preferable to that offered by Nev Fountain over in the audio dramas.
- Speaking of which, this would be a good one for Big Finish's stillborn range of audio adaptations of DWM comics. Colin Baker and Robert Jezek would crush this!
- It's rather nice and unexpected that upon getting to write a Doctor Who story, Colin Baker picks as his Doctor's companion a character he never actually appeared opposite on screen! I guess he likes Steven Parkhouse and John Ridgway as much as the rest of us. It is a bit odd that a black-and-white companion was chosen for DWM's first (I think) full-length color endeavor, however!
- I didn't need to read the Tardis wiki to know that this was originally written and drawn as a four-issue miniseries; it was obvious when on the 22nd page, there was suddenly a splash panel on a dramatic moment, and then the 23rd page was the same moment again, and this repeated two more times.
- On the other hand, the Tardis wiki claims this volume "nearly doubled the number of comic panels that had been devoted to [Baker's] incarnation of the Doctor." There are 88 story pages here; the two DWM graphic novels of sixth Doctor strips total about 350 pages. For Age of Chaos to nearly double the number of panels those 350 pages contained, this would have to have over three times as many panels per page! It doesn't seem likely.
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