Like many DWA comic strips, it is a short tale with many unanswered questions.

The 11th Doctor, Amy and Rory (kitted out in 18th century garb) are travelling in a carriage when the driver refuses to go any further for fear of the ghost of Carole Rose, a feared highwayman (or woman to be exact).  They are attacked by the ghost and discover it is a defence system for a crashed alien spaceship.  They rescue the alien and set off to return it home.The plot of this story is very similar to many DWA strips.  The regulars arrive in a time and place, find a mystery and discover an alien (sometimes nasty, sometimes nice) is behind it.  It’s basically the same plot as Dog of War, another DWA strip, except in that the dog-like alien was malevolent and here the monkey-like alien is benevolent.

Oddly, we never find out why the Doctor and friends are travelling in the carriage or why they are decked out in 18th century clothes (aside from blending in, obviously) and bearing in mind Amy has gone the whole hog with powdered wig and all, I can only assume they were having another ‘adventure’ before and after this brief sidestep down Malthill Way.  And that’s odd too.  The story is called Malthill Way but not a single character or frame makes any reference to it.  I assume the road the carriage driver won’t venture down because of Carole Rose’s ghost is called Malthill Way.  As far as I can tell it isn’t a famous place and Google doesn’t highlight any links with York, which is where the first frame of the strip states it is set.

The illustrations give the characters some nice 18th century garb, I particularly like the Doctor’s red coat, and Carole Rose’s ghost is presented in traditional highwayman gear – cloak, tricorn hat, britches etc.

Other than that, there isn’t a lot to say about the story.  There’s another odd bit where they decide to surrender their jewellery to Carole Rose and Rory, for some reason, is shown holding a sandwich and an apple which the ghost grabs and eats ravenously (something to do with the defence program searching out food).  Quite why Rory has a packed lunch or why a defence program needs to eat is beyond me.

A fun little diversion, and as I’ve said before I have to applaud DWA for setting it’s comic strips in a range of historical times and places.  Exposing its target audience to even the most surreptitious of historical education can’t be a bad thing.