The Return of the Daleks (From Stockbridge to Beyond Segonus: A Doctor Who Magazine Comics Marathon, Part 53)

The Return of the Daleks: The Complete Doctor Who Back-Up Tales, Volume 1
by Steve Dillon, David Lloyd, Steve Moore, and Paul Neary

Collection published: 2024
Contents originally published: 1979-80
Acquired and read: July 2024

This is an exciting volume. Well, it should be. At long last, having (largely) collected the main strip, DWM is turning its attention to the (largely) Doctor-free back-up tales. The only problem is that, for some of these stories (the Abslom Daak and Kroton ones) it's my third time paying for them to be collected! This isn't so much a knock against this book, I suppose (it would probably be silly to do a volume containing all back-ups except those ones), as against the now utterly redundant Dalek and Cybermen "ultimate comic strip collections." Or, perhaps, a knock against me for buying them. But then, I kind of suspect that if those books hadn't sold well, this book probably wouldn't exist.

As always, I only read the new-to-me stories.

The Final Quest, from Doctor Who Weekly #8 (Dec. 1979)
written by Steve Moore, art by Paul Neary

A Sontaran warrior, shamed by his sole defeat (which he has kept hidden from all others), goes on a quest to find the ultimate weapon. If you've read any other Steve Moore story, you won't be surprised there's a dark comeuppance awaiting him. Decent enough, let down by the fact the the usually dependable Paul Neary seems to struggle to draw Sontarans.

The Stolen TARDIS: A Tale of the Time Lords, from Doctor Who Weekly #9-11 (Dec. 1979)
written by Steve Moore, art by Steve Dillon

Set on Gallifrey (seemingly in the distant past), this one begins badly: a traveling circus materializes, and the Time Lords are just like, "Wow, let's watch! This isn't suspicious at all!" It's very kiddie. But it soon becomes a cat-and-mouse time-travel game between Sillarc (an alien trying to steal a TARDIS) and the TARDIS technician Plutar (a failed Time Lord), with some clever four-dimensional thinking of the kind we never got on screen until The Curse of the Fatal Death. Fun stuff.

K-9's Finest Hour, from Doctor Who Weekly #12 (Jan. 1980)
written by Steve Moore, art by Paul Neary

The idea of a K-9-focused tale is a fun one; unfortunately, in this one, he saves the day thanks to the incompetence of his opponents more than anything else. I would have liked to have spent more time on him doing something, rather than being carried around!

Warlord of the Ogrons, from Doctor Who Weekly #13-14 (Jan. 1980)
written by Steve Moore, art by Steve Dillon

Despite the efforts of Doctor Who tie-in authors everywhere, nothing will ever be interesting about the Ogrons.

Twilight of the Silurians, from Doctor Who Weekly #21-22 (Mar. 1980)
written by Steve Moore, art by David Lloyd

This is a pretty decent story about the last days of the Silurians (or Eocenes). Another decent Steve Moore "dark comeuppance" story; its real strength is how David Lloyd draws the lithe, lizard-like bodies Silurians, without the restriction of having to fit a suit around a person.

The Outsider, from Doctor Who Weekly #25-26 (Apr. 1980)
written by Steve Moore, art by David Lloyd

I found this kind of dull, a story about an astrologer collaborating with an invading Sontaran to subjugate his own planet, who of course gets his comeuppance. David Lloyd, at least, draws better Sontarans than Paul Neary.

Stray Observations:

• Other included stories and what previous collections to find them in: (see below for links to my reviews)
• The Return of the Daleks (in Daleks: The Ultimate Comic Strip Collection, Volume 1)
• Throwback: The Soul of a Cyberman and Ship of Fools (in The Glorious Dead)
• Abslom Daak... Dalek-Killer and Star Tigers (in Nemesis of the Daleks)
  
• Most of the stories are narrated by Tom Baker's Doctor. In Throwback, he says the story comes from "this tape I found in the Time-Lords' records..." He seems to be speaking directly to the reader; in The Final Quest, he says, "You may remember my battles with a Sontaran called Lynx," and in Twlight of the Silurians, he mentions, "your own world, Earth." K-9's Finest Hour makes this clear, because he tells that story in response to people wondering why K-9 wasn't in the main strip! (The story doesn't really answer that question, though.)
• DWM's famous materialization sound effect, "VWORP VWORP" first appeared in issue #46's The Collector (Nov. 1980), but a predecessor, "VR-A-A-W-P! VR-A-A-A-W-P!", appears in part one of The Stolen TARDIS. Not quite as striking.
• I was surprised to learn from the commentary on The Outsider that the Sontarans weren't established as clones until The Invasion of Time. Is that really true? I had never noticed if so. Hard to imagine how such a bad showing for the Sontarans established such a now-definitive piece of lore.

This post is the fifty-third in a series about the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip and Marvel UK. The next installment covers Black Sun Rising. Previous installments are listed below:

1. The Iron Legion
2. Dragon's Claw 
3. The Transformers Classics UK, Volume One
4. The Tides of Time
5. The Transformers Classics UK, Volume Two
6. Voyager
7. The Transformers Classics UK, Volume Three
8. The World Shapers
9. The Transformers Classics UK, Volume Four
10. The Age of Chaos
11. The Transformers Classics UK, Volume Five
12. A Cold Day in Hell!
13. Death's Head: Freelance Peacekeeping Agent (part 1)
14. Nemesis of the Daleks
15. Death's Head: Freelance Peacekeeping Agent (part 2)
16. The Good Soldier
17. The Incomplete Death's Head
18. Evening's Empire
19. The Daleks
20. Emperor of the Daleks
21. The Sleeze Brothers File
22. The Age of Chaos
23. Land of the Blind
24. Ground Zero
25. End Game
26. The Glorious Dead
27. Oblivion
28. Transformers: Time Wars and Other Stories
29. The Flood
30. The Cruel Sea 
31. The Betrothal of Sontar
32. The Widow's Curse
33. The Crimson Hand
34. The Child of Time
35. The Chains of Olympus
36. Hunters of the Burning Stone
37. The Blood of Azrael
38. The Eye of Torment
39. The Highgate Horror
40. Doorway to Hell
41. Daleks: The Ultimate Comic Strip Collection, Volume 1
42. The Phantom Piper
43. Daleks: The Ultimate Comic Strip Collection, Volume 2
44. The Clockwise War
45. Death's Head: Clone Drive / Revolutionary War
46. Skywatch-7
47. Mistress of Chaos
48. Transformers: Aspects of Evil! and Other Stories
49. Transformers: ...Perchance to Dream and Other Stories
50. Cybermen: The Ultimate Comic Strip Collection
51. Liberation of the Daleks
52. The White Dragon