Writer: Steve Moore, Artist: Dave Gibbons, Editor: Paul Neary
The 4th Doctor, Sharon and K9 arrive in a village in China in the year 1522 AD, where the Doctor is disturbed when faced with evidence that advanced alien weaponry has been used..
There they find they're in the midst of a fierce battle between warrior monks and marauding pirates...
They're taken back to the monastery by Abbot Yueh...
...and the Doctor learns from the novice Chang that the Shaolin monks have been practising martial arts for centuries...
...but that ever since Yueh became Abbot the monks' skills have been subject to the gruelling tests of the “bronze men”.
No sooner have they arrived at the monastery...
...than the Doctor seeks to leave, in order to speak to the former Abbot, Hsiang, who is living as a hermit.
Hsiang tells him that a "star" fell to Earth, and when Yueh was the one who went to investigate.
Yueh crippled Hsiang, leaving him for dead on the mountain.
The Doctor is detected as he returns to the monastery, and Yueh chases him...
...right into the hall of the "bronze men", who are in reality Sontarans!
The Doctor is able to escape and Chang comes to the aid of he and his companions.
Hsiang points them towards the site of the fallen "star", which is of course a Sontaran scout ship.
The ship's transmitter is damaged and requires quartz crystals.
Chang tells the Doctor that the Emperor owns just such a crystal.
The Doctor realizes that the Sontarans have been controlling the monks through hypnotism.
Yueh has been invited to the Emperor's court to demonstrate the skills of his warriors. He plans to
order the hypnotized monks to slaughter the imperial family so that he can become the new Emperor.
Yueh hasn't reckoned with the true plan of the Sontarans; they will seize the Emperor's crystal and send for reinforcements to attack Earth.
The Doctor and his friends return to the monastery to expose Yueh...
...and when Yueh tries to give the hypnotic command to have them killed, K9 breaks his spell over the monks by playing back a recording of his voice.
Chang does not hear the cancellation, and in his murderous frenzy wipes out the Sontarans.
With Hsiang made Abbot once more, the Doctor, Sharon and K9 leave in the TARDIS...
Dragon’s Claw is enormous fun; an epic of the highest quality with sumptous detail in its setting and characters that gives us locations of cinematic scope, intrigue, and plenty of action.
Add to that some great material for both Sharon and K9 and a 4th Doctor in imperial phase and you know you've got a winner on your hands.
Just when you think it can't get any better, that's when Moore and Gibbons deliver a twist worthy of the name with the revelation of the Sontarans.
It's polished, confident stuff, that delivers much in the way of faithful continuations of Sontaran continuity (the arming of a technologically backwards era homaging The Time Warrior, the tests of the Bronze Men echoing the Sontaran Expeiment and the surprise revelation successfully repeating the trick of The Invasion of Time), whilst feeling completely fresh at the same time.
A rip-roaring adventuring tale that sings, and doesn't put a foot wrong. Top notch.
9/10
(N.B. This strip was originally published in black and white, but the snapshots presented here are from the sympathetically coloured reprints by IDW)
Coming Soon... The World Shapers
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