I think it’s fair to say that the TV Comics stories are unlikely to blow anyone’s mind.  These are, after all, fairly simple straightforward stories written for a young audience.  Yet, it’s hard to not be impressed by the ambition in this story. In the space of just twelve pages, the Doctor and his grandchildren visit three different planets, meet two alien races, fight two different monsters and help cure a serious illness plaguing a world. In modern comic terms, a story of this scale would probably take at least three times as many pages to tell the story.

Right from the start, the story subverts the reader’s expectations.  You assume that Grig, the squat bald-headed alien who points a gun at our heroes is going to be villain only to discover that he’s on a urgent mission to save his entire planet from a illness that is sweeping through the population. It’s actually the inhabitants of the ice planet Ixos that are the real villains as they look to exploit the Theorvians plight for their own ends.

Characterisation in this story is fairly one-note.  Once it’s been established that the Ixons are the villains they slip into cliched villain mode.  John and Gillian feel very much like background extras in this, doing nothing of note.  The Doctor, however, comes out of this surprisingly well.  I do feel that the unknown writer of this story has really managed to capture his character.  Most impressively, the Doctor escapes from the villains by using his brain rather than resorting to violence or relying on someone with a gun to save him.

One final thing that I’ve only just realised: the TARDIS spins as it flies through time and space. Nothing particularly noteworthy about that, you might think, except that I don’t believe we see the TARDIS spinning on screen until the 1970s.  So it’s nice to see TV Comic getting ahead of the game in that respect.  Who knows, maybe TV Comic was the inspiration for how the TARDIS’ travelling through the vortex would later appear on screen.

All things considered, this isn’t a bad first attempt at a Doctor Who comic strip.  The story is basic but - with a few tweaks - I could imagine it as a televised story from the First Doctor’s era. Indeed, I can see a few similarities with the first Dalek story.

The artwork is also fairly basic - at least compared to what would come later but it has a certain charm to it. The design of the Klepton city and, indeed, of the Kleptons themselves is quite impressive. The more humanoid looking Thain people are somewhat less so.

The dialogue is fairly functional and non-descript so none of the characters really stand out, including the Doctor and his grandchildren. Gillian in particular does nothing of note. John, on the other hand seems quite bloodthirsty. He’s more than willing to punch out a Klepton or gun them down if necessary.

Overall, it’s hardly an auspicious debut for what will become over 60 years worth of Doctor Who comics.  But then the same could probably be said for the first televised story and look at how that turned out. As with the TV series, the best is yet to come.

After the somewhat lacklustre ending to the Fifth Doctor’s comic strip run, this story - despite being a continuation of what has gone before - feels like a breath of fresh air.

I think this can be attributed to two things. The first thing is the debut of John Ridgeway as artist. For me Ridgeway is synonymous with the Sixth Doctor’s comic strip adventures as he illustrated virtually all of ‘Ol’ Sixie’s’ DWM stories. It’s a personal thing but I much prefer his art style to that of Mick Austin.

Secondly, this story introduces the character of Frobisher, the shape-changing private eye who ends up tagging along with the Doctor at the end of the story. To a certain section of fandom Frobisher is a truly iconic character. He’s a lot of fun here and, in the short time they spend together, he and the Doctor have excellent chemistry.

And what of the Doctor himself? Considering that this was written before the Sixth Doctor’s on-screen debut, I think that Steve Parkhouse manages to get the Doctor’s character pretty much spot-on. Possibly I’m projecting slightly but I can definitely hear the Sixth Doctor’s voice in my head when I read his part. There seems to be an air of tetchiness to his dialogue that I didn’t get from the Fifth Doctor.

All in all an enjoyable, if somewhat slight story. It ties up the previous era quite neatly and nicely sets up what’s to come.