The Black Hole Gang

The 10th Doctor and Donnna are aboard a train enjoying the ambience and the food when the train is attacked by robotic cowboys on flying robotic horses.  They are after an alien power source which looks like a small, green ball.  In turns out, however, that these two robots (called Butch and Sundance) are actually law enforcers attempting to prevent the power source falling into the hands of the Black Hole Gang, who promptly turn up.

The Black Hole Gang send the train careering off a bridge and into a matter transporter which brings the train on to their ship.  They demand the power source which, surprisingly, the Doctor is more than glad to give them.  It turns out that the power source is notoriously unstable and promptly drains all its energy and starts sapping the energy of the alien ship, eventually causing it to explode (after the Doctor, Donna, Butch, Sundance and an entire train of passengers have managed to escape in 47 seconds….!)

This isn’t the greatest of DWA comic strips.  It is very action-focussed with the usual DWA strange looking monsters.  It has the usual – scary aliens turn out to be good actually trope but this time alongside the scary aliens who actually are bad but are blown up/sent packing in the usual cursory manner trope.  DWA usually sticks to one or other of these tropes, but here they are combined in one, slightly disappointing package.

The one thing that really struck me was how generically Donna is portrayed.  She could be replaced by any companion and is barely recognisable as the gobby temp from Chiswick.  The 10th Doctor is also fairly bland and there was one frame that reminded me far more of Capaldi or Smith in the dialogue given to the Doctor than it did Tennant.

Historically we are on a train in the American West of the 19th Century.  All the local inhabitants are frozen a few frames into the story, so the only interaction is between the Doctor, Donna, the alien police and the Black Hole Gang.  Butch and Sundance are an odd pair.  The strip portrays them as the baddies but then switches to them being goodies with hardly any reasoning or explanation.  The Doctor and Donna just sort of accept it and the readers are clearly just supposed to go along with it.
The Black Hole Gang are a reptilian race (again) with no background or development and its all rather inconsequential.

Not one of DWA’s greatest stories and what’s odd is that it is a two parter and these usually, with more room to breath, are slightly better than their one part counterparts.