Issue two of Titan’s new Paul Cornell-scripted Third
Doctor romp now establishes the series not as a serious attempt to properly
evoke the storytelling style and motifs of the Pertwee era – there are no
brainy boffins or pompous politicians for the Doctor to deflate or, indeed, any
new supporting characters at all –
but a chance for us to be remind ourselves just why the 1970s era of Doctor Who is still so fondly regarded.
This second edition revels in its cast
of TV-familiar faces and Cornell continues his pleasingly-authentic recreations
of them all as they now stand squarely centre-stage with even the ‘Earth
invasion’ conceit of the first episode shunted aside somewhat to allow us to
spend more quality time with the third Doctor and his UNIT ‘family’ and his old
enemy The Master (actor Roger Delgado’s likeness nicely captured by Jones).
Readers of the first issue will recall that the second Doctor (as played on TV
by Patrick Troughton) has also turned up, sent by the Time Lords (the story is
set after tenth anniversary TV yarn ‘The Three Doctors’) to help the third
Doctor combat his latest enemy.
As the Doctors combine their titanic
intellects to try to work out what the new alien arrivals want with planet Earth, the Brigadier, still
out in the field where the aliens are attempting to establish a foothold in a
quiet suburban street (as 1970s Doctor
Who aliens were often inclined to do), receives a visit from UNIT high-up General
Mayhew. But the Brigadier quickly realizes this isn’t the general, it’s the fiendish
Master wearing one of his convincing replica face-masks which, Cornell cleverly
explains, are a part of his living TARDIS. He uses the expanding mask to effect
a spectacular escape from the UNIT chopper ferrying him back to UNIT HQ which
allows the Brigadier to inform the Doctor that “the Master got away using his
face as a parachute” which is a glorious, cherishable line of dialogue by any
reasonable standard.
Back at the Doctor’s UNIT lab Jo Grant
has been attacked and infected by the ‘transforming’ alien interloper and the
third Doctor takes a trip into her psyche, which is as fab, groovy and far-out
psychedelic as we might have expected. But the alien intruder already has a
firm grip on Jo and, as another quality cliffhanger suggests, it isn’t about to
let go without a fight. Richly imaginative, ‘Heralds of Destruction’ is shaping
up into a warm, witty and wonderfully nostalgic little comic strip which
doesn’t concern itself with being dark, brooding and menacing and is just happy
having some good old-fashioned fun.
REVIEW: DOCTOR
WHO – THE HERALDS OF DESTRUCTION ISSUE TWO / PUBLISHED BY TITAN COMICS / WRITTEN BY
PAUL CORNELL / ART BY CHRISTOPHER JONES / OUT NOW
