I’m glad to see that this book is finally getting on track. As a lifelong Who fan it would’ve pained me to drop it, and I was planning to if this issue wasn’t a huge improvement on the first two. Fortunately it is. Granted it’s still not as good as it could be but it does at least hit the notes of a Who story instead of just coming across as peripherally licensed kiddie fare.

While Gary Russell wouldn’t have been my first choice to write the comic, he HAS at least had 15 years experience of writing Who stories spanning several different Doctors for both the Virgin New Adventures and the BBC New Adventures. Some good (Spiral Scratch, Scales of Injustice), some not so much (Legacy, Divided Loyalties).

I think the shakeyness of the first two issues was primarily because of an inexperience with the medium. The stories were waaay off in both tone and structure. The first had a lame story, the second had a better story but it didn’t make much sense and had irritating dialogue. This third installment seems to be more traditional Who. The Doctor and Martha show up and become embroiled in a story that is already in motion with ambuguous results.

Hopefully there’ll be more of this kind of storytelling in the rest of the series. Only for the love of Rassilon can we please get rid of the sonic screwdriver? I don’t mind it on occasion, but it’s used so often these days (mostly on the show) that I cringe every time it get whipped out.