The art's a little wonky, but I love this Game of Thrones-esque two-parter. Something I've noticed is that a lot of non-Earth planets in the Whoniverse feel flat, like they don't have a history. We visit a planet at a certain point and that's just how that planet has always been. Meanwhile, we go to all different eras of Earth's history.

Here we get a glimpse of Mars' feudal era. How wonderful. I love how much intrigue is crammed into so few panels.

A story that continues the previous one. The Doctor and Isachsril (the same young nobleman) go to rescue Stacey and Ssard from the hands of his uncle. However, the latter has an additional motivation - since Isaxryl has not completed the ritual, he cannot take over his father's possessions and they will go to his uncle (Artix), for the same purpose, Luass wants to kill his husband as soon as possible. That's pretty much the whole plot. Almost all of the 10 parts of the story are about the Doctor and Icarus making their way to Artix's base and rescuing Stacey and Ssad. The only exceptions are the last three parts, which expose the betrayal of Ixachryl's mother (by the way, I'll say that his father is very sorry in this situation, he doesn't deserve this).

In general, it's a good story, quite action-packed, but it doesn't work in isolation from the previous one.

This review is a translation of a part of my Ukrainian-language text, the original can be found here: https://www.mzut-podcast.com/post/eighth-doctor-radio-time-comic-strip

RADIO TIMES COMICS: STORY 5 (Eighth Doctor: Story 3)

Yay, more Ice Warrior politics! Such fun! (Please make it stop)

It’s time to continue the Eight Doctor Radio Times comics with Ascendence, which follows directly on from the last story, Descendance, a comic I, well, let’s just say, didn’t enjoy that much.

I didn’t have high hopes for this one after the abysmal efforts of the previous stories, and it is just as bad.

Everything I complained about in my Descendance review happens here as well.

The only highlight is the Doctor wishing us all a merry Christmas at the end, but even that is annoying, not funny.

Hopefully the strips will eventually get better.

As if!