The Sixth incarnation of The Doctor is once again travelling alone in The Hunting Ground, our last main range audio drama story of 2018, and boy… it’s not very interesting. It gives off a vibe of the writer having a core concept but not knowing how to either spread it across two hours, nor how to write cliffhangers. Still, it’s not all bad! Let’s take a look in more detail…
The first of two Main Range releases this month, neither of which are directly linked to anything. Muse of Fire is definitely the most interesting though, as not only is it a new Doctor / Ace / Hex story, but it sees the return of Iris Wildthyme, and even her panda teddy bear companion… Panda. All this plus 1920s Paris and Paul Magrs at the helm of the script? You know its going to be something to behold…
The last half of the first War Master set won my pick for best Doctor Who story of 2017, and Master of Callous, which is one big story across four parts, might be pretty damn close to topping the list again! While once again David Jacobi’s Master is grin-inducingly brilliant, the new characters and world introduced here are really great too, and they’re given proper room to breathe thanks to the long runtime. It’s not perfect, but it’s damn good! Let’s take a deeper look then…
We reach the titular story of the Phantom Piper graphic novel, and the story doesn’t disappoint, well unless you’re not familiar with some past DWM stories, then it might… but I was fine! So let’s take a look at what the hell I’m going on about, shall we?
Series 11 / Season 37 comes to an end with the unnecessarily annoying to say “Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos”. Sadly, once again, the limits of Chris Chibnall’s script writing rears its ugly head, as while the story wasn’t bad by any means, it was once again lacking in tension or interesting new characters. So, let’s take a look then, as the Thirteenth Doctor’s final outing until New Year’s… in a couple of weeks?!
The Twelfth Doctor DWM comics continues with the old three-part strip followed by a single part adventure (with far worse artwork) that has become a common occurrence for these comics. Parliament of Fear was quite good, where as Matildus, even given its short length, was not as good… Want more detail?! Read on!
It Takes You Away is right up there with the best this series. It was cleverly written, used the companions well and had a really interesting, unique sci-fi plot at its centre. It’s getting rather worrying that the only stories I’m particularly thrilled with come from writers who aren’t showrunner Chris Chibnall, but hey-ho! Let’s take a look at “It Takes You Away”.
I start my read through of the collected Graphic Novel “The Phantom Piper” with, well, the first story in the collection! The Soul Garden is a fine story, full of nice dream-like imagery and good artwork, so it’s a nice way to kick off the final run of Twelfth Doctor DWM comic stories (though his actual final story is in a final GN out next year…) Let’s take a closer look!
Well, the Thirteenth Doctor’s run of really strong historically set stories has now come to an end. While The Witchfinders wasn’t terrible, it was let down by some poor acting and some extremely over-the-top scenery-chewing, which while funny, hurt the tone to the point of making it a comedy, despite all the killing and stuff… Let’s have a look!
The last half of the first volume of the New Adventures contains what I feel is the best story of the bunch, and possibly the worst. Well, worst is harsh because it’s still perfectly good, just more generic and predictable than the other three… Want to know what I’m going on about? Read on!
Hogan Reviews 