Richard Jennings leaves halfway through this story, and it's a pity because (with no disrespect to successor Ron Turner), Jennings' art turned the Daleks comic from a mild curiosity into something utterly captivating. Even in his last few panels here we get pure imagination - Daleks constructing a vast spaceship at 0G-appropriate angles, the complex inner machinery of futuristic weaponry, and far-flung cosmic vistas that form the backdrop to a brewing war.

The monstrons choose an unassuming, backwater planet in hyperspace to invade with their nifty engibrain robots. Unfortunately, they happen to choose Skaro, home of what will become the most bloodthirsty species in existence. President Zoy never saw it coming.

Aww, I'll miss you too, Decky!

This run gave me a real appreciation for John Ross' illustrations, and how well-tuned they are for DWA specifically. He has a perfect handle on that 2000s/early 2010s Saturday morning cartoon look, which doesn't always get to flourish in other corners of the Doctor Who world.

The bad actors who interfere with a culture to foster xenophobia and economic insecurity are a metaphor for Russia, by the way.

🎵 TRANSFORMERS! 🎵

🗣️ more than meets the eye

🎵 TRANSFORMERS! 🎵

🤖 ʀᴏʙᴏᴛs ɪɴ ᴅɪsɢᴜɪsᴇ

The Doctor purchases some pets for Flamboon. They're "space bugs" that turn out to be a little time-sensitive, so a trip in the TARDIS grows them to skyscraper size; unfortunately, the Doctor has landed next to the Burj Khalifa.

This story is kind of fascinating because the entire plot arises and resolves itself essentially without intervention from the Doctor. It transpires that the bugs aren't merely growing, but evolving, so after a brief apology, they teleport away to "other worlds where we are less frightening to the inhabitants. Cute, but odd, and ultimately not very good.

Worse, though, this comic messes up any reasonable timeline placement for the Flamboon run. The TARDIS has changed over to the Snowmen interior; this means that the Doctor had his adventures with Flamboon between Amy's departure and meeting Victorian Clara. In other words, the Doctor lost Amy and Rory, had some chirpy adventures with a giant lizard, and only then decided to get sad. DO BETTER, comic for literal four-year-olds, because I, an adult man, am OUTRAGED.

Gonna be honest, Strigidae Leader, I don't think your species is the most hunted in the entire universe.

Always find myself smiling when a Doctor Who Adventures strip ends with "and then the Doctor made the monster/machine/building blow up".

The Doctor destroys a hopsital and shows no remorse for its staff or patients. Tune in next week for more Epic Doctor Who Adventures!

You can tell this is a 2013/onwards release because it's immediately filled with unnecessary allusions to previous Doctors.

Hey, this was fun! The whole Flanboom run is strangled by its four page length, but this one manages to add a little bit of worldbuilding about Decky's home planet, and the tiniest strand of connective tissue between this issue and the last (I was wondering why Sirus would have Christmas cards). And it's impossible to dislike a Christmas story where the villain has a machine called the "Scrooge 3000".

The monster in this story is called an "Edger" 🤨

Do you reckon Simon Guerrier remembers that he wrote this? Do you think he's proud?

Apparently there was a model of the "Maritimus Carcharias" at the Doctor Who Experience; I wonder if it still exists? 🤔

The Cobaltikar 45 robots ("started off as factory workers and evolved into a new species") are very cool. We'll never seem them again I imagine but they live on in my heart.

It's always odd to me when people beg for alien companions from TV Doctor Who, when that's so clearly a bad idea. But it's possibly even stranger when comics, prose and audio don't take that opportunity, given that these are stories read by fans, without the constraints of a TV budget.

Anyway, point is, I am very pro-Flamboon. Nice job Mitchell.

The Doctor arrives on a mysterious tribal planet where the last humans look like caricatures of Native American people. The monster they fear has (sort of) come to life from a video game manual, and the Doctor defeats it by throwing fruit at its face. The tribes-people are ever so grateful and offer the wise visitor some fruit. Hmm...

Making a fan-wanky connection between these robots and the nigh-identical ones from The Germ War (DWA #4) as we speak.

Jenny and Vastra are cool. Strax is very funny. When they join forces, the former becomes less cool, and the latter becomes much less funny. I'm not sure I could articulate exactly why. Alas, I am convinced that the Paternoster gang should probably have remained the Paternoster duo. Ah well.

Categorical monster Neil Gaiman uses his lockdown episode as an opportunity to revisit Amy and Rory, undo their character development and have them recap the episode he happened to write. A whole load of absolute nothing.

I admire the boldness of at least one take in the reviews here, which argued that it was good that this wasn't filmed. But I disagree for a key reason - it doesn't only resolve Brian's story, but gives Rory a proper send-off too. He is done so dirty in that final episode, and this story reaffirms that fierce dignity which he develops towards latter Series 6/early Series 7.

The least interesting alien species ever conceived meet an alien Elvis tribute act.

It's a little strange to me that "Amy and Rory should have left in Series 6" is the received wisdom in fan circles these days, because a lot of their best stuff is nestled within Series 7's fun little quintet. I'll miss them a lot!

The Ponds visit a planet were the ponds (i.e. the bodies of water) show you possible futures. Honestly a little moving with context; this came out the same week as their final episode, so seeing Rory flinch from one unseen future is quite foreboding.

If you wouldn't help the Arr'Chors film their soap you're a bigot btw 🤷‍♀️