I look at the period between Ground Zero and this story as the golden age of the Magazine Comics, more specifically just the entire run of Eighth Doctor comics, it was some of the most consistently great material to ever come out of the magazine range and it comes to an end with one hell of a finale.

The most fascinating part of The Flood is that it was originally meant to be the Eighth Doctor’s regeneration story. With the revival of the show just under two months away, the Eighth Doctor’s time in the Magazine Comics had come to an end, so the idea proposed which was even approved by the BBC was to have Eight regenerate into the Ninth Doctor, in fact if you look at the behind the scenes in the omnibus you’ll actually see a drawing of Destrii looking over the newly regenerated Ninth Doctor. This in turn would’ve made Destrii the Ninth Doctor’s very first companion in any medium, which was the main reason this idea was abandoned. Although approving the idea, the BBC and Russell T. Davies imposed a condition that the Ninth Doctor could not be seen travelling with any other companion other than Rose. Because of this, the Eighth Doctor bows out of the Magazine Comics with an open ending for him and Destrii, similar to how Classic Who ended for Seven and Ace. In fact, Destrii herself wouldn’t appear again for eleven years. They did however sneak in a little in-joke where Destrii suggests a leather jacket following the damage to Eighth’s iconic velvet coat. It’s just amazing that the comics were nearly given the honour of depicting the end of a Doctor’s life and the beginning of a new one.

In a lot of ways The Flood feels like it sets the groundwork for a lot of Modern Who finales; present day setting, familiar monster, big world/universe ending event, deus ex machina climax, and speaking of which, for what was originally going to be the Eighth Doctor's regeneration it's eerie how similar the finale mirrors the ending of The Parting of the Ways, how the Eighth Doctor absorbs the time vortex and basically becomes a god, a vengeful god even (see what I did there). It's like Cat Concerto vs Rhapsody Rabbit, I've no idea who's ripping off who!

Our companion of the story is Destrii, the Eighth Doctor's last Magazine companion and one of the few who never gets her own exit, it's her first time travelling in the TARDIS, but not her first appearance as she initially started off as something of a recurring villain, but changed enough over her appearances for the Doctor to invite her onboard. Her true form is mainly that of a fish-like being, but for this story she takes on a human form to blend in, badly though as if it's your first time reading a Destrii story, boy are you in for a terrible first impression! Now a companion who started off as a villain is hardly the most encouraging first impression, but her behaviour in The Flood is somehow even worse as she's just flat out racist to a Chinese stallholder, and she never even gets a strong word of condemnation from the Doctor, if anything the stallholder is the one who ends up apologising! You should probably read a few of her prior appearances before getting to this one but man talk about starting on the wrong foot!

The Cybermen have one of their strongest depictions of all time, the design of which is the most far removed since the original Mondasian look and much closer to alien than human with their taller frames, slender looks, longer limbs and almost skeletal faces, it's a great way of showcasing just how advanced the Cybermen have become in their own future, probably the most advanced version the Doctor's ever encountered. Their plan is to use a chemical that heightens people's emotional state to such an extreme degree that they become hysterical, and they plan to carry it via the rain, so think Death in Heaven but done earlier and better! And the Cybermen demonstrate this in such a chilling cliffhanger and one of the most iconic panels in the comic's history where they reduce the entirety of MI6 to emotional wrecks and have them begging the Cybermen to take the pain away as they're on their knees crawling towards the Cybermen towering over them. Such a gorgeous image!

In fact as per usual for the Magazine Comics, especially the Eighth Doctor ones, the artistry is top notch and for this finale to the Eighth Doctor's comic adventures they went all out on this one. In a lot of ways it's the perfect ending to the Eighth Doctor's comic adventures, even having cameos from his previous friends and companions in the range such as Izzy, Max Edision and Grace. I cannot recommend this comic enough, but you have the patience, I'd say start from the first volume of Eighth Doctor comics and work your way through, it really is the golden age of the Magazine Comics, though there'll still be plenty of great stories in the years ahead for the Magazine.