Writer: Scott Gray, Art: Martin Geraghty (pencils), Bambos Georgiou (inks), Editor: Gary Gillatt
The 7th Doctor and Ace are enjoying the Notting Hill Carnival in London in the year 2092...
Or Ace is, anyway...
...unaware that they are being observed by the mysterious figures who abducted Peri in The Curse of the Scarab, Susan in Operation Proteus and Sarah Jane Smith in Black Destiny.
Ace too, is soon spirited away...
...while the Doctor is distracted by a glimpse of his granddaughter Susan.
He gives chase and is lured into a meeting with the mysterious Isaac, who is obviously more than just a DJ...
Ace finds herself in an unsettling, deserted version of Notting Hill...
...where she meets Sarah and Peri.
Isaac finally reveals "The Threshold" to the Doctor...
...explaining that they they operate as a business, opening gates through dimensions for paying clients.
They've opened a gate to humanity's collective unconsciousness for their latest clients, and this is where the captured companions find themselves...
...in a nightmarish world inhabited by parasitic creatures.
These are the Lobri, creatures who feed on negative emotions, fear in particular, and the Doctor's companions have been chosen as suitable sacrifices because they are humans who already used to inter-dimensional travel.
Isaac explains that the Threshold discovered Susan by accident, but once they realised she was a time traveller they made plans to snatch other companions of the Doctor wherever they could find them.
The Doctor rails at Isaac, though this is partially a front to steal Isaac's ring and escape back to the TARDIS.
...and as the carnival turns nasty...
...he's prepared to tear the TARDIS apart to reach his captured friends.
Although he warns Ace to keep back, she doesn't listen, as the Lobri move in around her...
Ace herself is mortally wounded, and dies in the Doctor's arms.
The Doctor realizes he has been used...
...and swears to put a stop to the Threshold's meddling, but Isaac simply responds that when they do cross paths again, the Threshold will be ready for him.
THE END
And so we reach the finale to the first major story arc of the 90s DWM strip, as the 7th Doctor returns (in his TV Movie outfit, no less) to bow out in the shadow of the by-then incumbent 8th...
As if that didn't give rise to mixed feelings in and of itself, this is of course the story that unequivocally de-coupled the DWM strip from Virgin's New Adventures, effectively canning many of DWM's own previous strips, and that's not something that was welcomed in all quarters, as inevitable, necessary and practical a step as it was in the circumstances.
Whilst what we have here isn't remotely as epic as the later arc-finales of the 8th, 10th (and to a lesser extent the 11th) Doctor's strip runs, it carries a dramatic heft and an emotional weight that few strips before it ever did.
Of course, this partly comes due to the death of Ace, a well-liked companion, and such an event is not something that could have been done lightly or arbitrarily, so there's a deceptive ease on show here in Scott Gray's handling of both plot and script. No doubt DWM could have felt confident that Ace's fate would be unlikely to ever be touched on in any US-led McGann-starring TV run, and therefore free to go as far as this.
Ace's death aside, we also have an interesting conceptual threat in the Lobri and the Human Unconsciousness, and a thrilling and intriguing new enemy in the form of the Threshold. While Isaac himself never returned, here he's a very effective mouthpiece for this new adversary, and gives a sharp contrast to the 7th Doctor, a thoroughly modern villain in the face of an older, slightly more grizzled version of the incarnation last seen on TV or even in the New Adventures or more recent strips. The Threshold as an organisation feel fresh and different from any previous Doctor Who villains, and the kind of opposition that would invigorate any current run of the show on TV.
It's a satisfying end to the mystery threaded through The Curse of the Scarab, Operation Proteus and Black Destiny, though you do rather wonder why it's this specific line-up of companions that's made it...
...especially when no-one other than Susan really has much involvement, other than to have atypical moan-at-each-other scene that everyone thinks RTD invented.
...but Peri in particular is very badly served, although to be fair that in itself is not perhaps out of keeping with her TV appearances.
After some shaky likenesses in the preceding strips, given some original characters, a crowd scene (one of his strengths, I always feel), a surreal alternative dimension (another) and a new monster to play with, Martin Geraghty hits his stride with some style. His McCoy isn't always spot on, and Isaac suffers from Hulk-hands in at least one panel, but there's a muscular and detailed vibrancy on offer here that's to a high bar of quality and consistency not seen in DWM since John Ridgeway's run and only really reached in the interim by Lee Sullivan.
An unforgettable strip, one that's overlooked by virtue of capping off that criminally ignored 'rotating Doctors' period of the mid-nineties, but one that's pulsating with great ideas, meaty action and striking, near-iconic artwork.
9/10
TTFN! K.
Coming Soon... Doctor Who Movie Do's and Don'ts!
I started this strip off inking the first three episodes, I think, then Robin Smith took over. I couldn't commit to Dr Who unfortunately. I would have loved to have done more. I remember Martin provided very full pencils.
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