Doctor Who: The Iron Legion

It was great to see these comic strips again, and so wonderfully cleaned up for this printed vision. It took me right back and suddenly I was seven years old and reading them for the first time in the pages of Doctor Who weekly. Lovely artwork from Dave Gibbons, and some fantastically imagined scripts from Pat Mills and John Wagner. Not entirely like Doctor Who on the TV at the time, but great fun nonetheless.(For some reason the 3rd story from DW Weekly, “Timeslip,“ isn’t included in this collection).

This is a compendium of several comic strips from the earliest issues of Doctor Who Weekly/Magazine. As such they inevitably possess quite a nostalgic value for some, myself included. Thankfully the stories and artwork are as good as I remembered and still enjoyable over three decades or so later.They feature the Fourth Doctor who for the first couple of strips has no regular companion. This lack of companions opens the way for the first stories to include their own ‘honorary’ companion for their duration. This practice continues to some extent when the Doctor obtains regular companions. The Doctor is then assisted by some unique and memorable individuals that could never be fully realised on screen at the time.After a couple of strips he is accompanied by K-9, but not by any of his other onscreen companions. This allows for the introduction of Sharon, the first companion of the Doctor to be created for Doctor Who Weekly/Magazine.‘The Iron Legion’ remains one of my favourite comic strips, Doctor Who or otherwise. It establishes a scenario where the Roman Empire is taken over by alien gods and thus, with their direction and technology, it never falls and goes on to conquer galaxies with its robot legions. It is an idea that has been usedmultiple times in science fiction and fantasy but it is a good premise that is very well utilised in this story. The artwork goes to town in creating a futuristic Rome with numerous legions, dramatic architecture and a vast amphitheatre. The Malevilus are fantastic aliens and opponents for the Doctor and the droid Vesuvius and the cybernetic Morris make for great sidekicks.‘The City of the Damned’ takes an Orwellian style approach in being concerned with a dystopian society where all emotion has been outlawed by its leaders. Those that show emotion are altered, killed or rendered outcasts. At the bequest of those that rebel against the system the Doctor soon assumes the role of a prophesised legendary saviour known as the Great Emoter. This easily allows him to play the familiar role of liberator.At its core ‘The Star Beast’ is a lesson about prejudice and not judging by appearances. Having a cute, fluffy alien as a power hungry, mass-murdering dictator is a great idea and makes for quite a memorable story. Beep the Meep has gone on to feature in several other Doctor Who comic strips since. This strip also introduces Sharon who goes on to become the Fourth Doctor’s comic strip companion.The Daleks make their first appearance in Doctor Who Weekly/Magazine in the ‘The Dogs of Doom’. This story sees them employ a species of werewolf type creature, known as Wereloks, in much the same way they utilise other species, such as Ogrons. It involves masses of lycanthropic transformations and whole armies of werewolves that could never have been realised on screen. It also exhibits a quite entertaining team up between the Doctor and Brill, one of the Wereloks.‘The Time Witch’ is quite a lot shorter than the others with only a few characters. The eponymous Brimo is a strong character, however and the story is based around quite an entertaining premise that bears similarities to Omega’s situation in ‘The Three Doctors’.

Collected from the pages of Doctor Who weekly the few stories were written by 2000ad alumni Pat Mills and John Wagner. Originally they had pitched them as scripts for the TV show so its interesting to see stories that never were. Printed in black and white the artwork by legend Dave Gibbons is crisp and clean.The item itself arrived on time and in excellent condition. Great buy, even if you don't want to relive your childhood like me.

Do you like Doctor Who? Because if you do this graphic novel/comic is amazing for everyone. Even though it is in black and white it does not change the amazing story and artwork from the creators.

I grew up reading these strips; I remember them as being brilliant. However I still thought I was taking a gamble when I bought them for my seven year old son. Sure I was seven when I read them, but we're always being told that kids have different expectations these days; after all these strips are in black and white, not full blown colour, and they're full length stories with lots of parts.I needn't of worried; these strips certainly do stand the test of time and appeal just as well to the current generation - my seven year old son sat up reading the strip avidly way past his bedtime, and as soon as he was asleep the eleven year old was in to steal the book to read it himself, and they both agreed it was a great story and they liked the "skeleton guy" (the cyborg gladiator Morris) and was sad when he died. So if your younger who-fans are curious enough about the old series to care for the adventures of the fourth doctor, this is a great purchase; or if like me, you're an aging Doctor Who fan who's a nostalgia junky, you might just want it for yourself.