Metamorphosis

2 parts (Doctor Who Yearbook 1993)  September 1992

Writer: Paul Cornell, Art: Lee Sullivan, Colour: Louise Cassell, Editor: John Freeman

Deep space, in the future, a cargo ship is on en route to Earth, carrying genetically blank human embryos.

When one of the crew meets a grisly end at the hands of an unseen killer...

...new arrivals the 7th Doctor and Ace are immediately suspected.

The ship's medic has already been imprisoned, suspected pf planning to sell blank embryos on the black market...

...but the Doctor realizes that he's been traumatized by what he has seen...

...and that the vital clue the Captain has missed is that the glass of the embryos' containers was broken from the inside. 

The Doctor realizes that his tissues are mutating, and that the source is a signal being beamed at the ship.

When he tries to block the signal with a distress beacon...

...this forces the hand of the real enemy: the Daleks!

Although Ace is able to take down one of the Dalek marauders...

...their attack squad soon has the ship and its' crew captive.

The Daleks plan to transmit their signal to all the blank embryos on Earth to mutate them into Dalek hybrids.

The Doctor's regenerative tissues are also prone to the signal's effect, but he's able to make a psychic link with a hybrid embryo... 

...and persuade it to take the Dalek casing damaged by Ace on a suicide mission...

...to destroy the Dalek ship transmitting the signal.

The Doctor and Ace are soon on their way, living to pun another day!

It's an odd beast, is Metamorphosis. Hailing from that early nineties era that supposedly sits within the same continuity as the Virgin Books' New Adventures as it does, it betrays that era's misplaced fear of placing Doctor Who in recognisable real world settings, retreating as it does to the safety of a standard gritty Aliens-cum-Earthshock sci-fi future. 

In fairness, it has much to do in a very short pagecount, including cramming in a cliffhanger and resolution across its' two parts. Both parts are contained within the 1993 DWM Yearbook, the "annual" of its time, and it's easily the best of the original stories that appeared in the Yearbooks. 

Writer Paul Cornell innovates in some respects, such as the "Eggs... Stir..." motif that was taken to the next step by Steven Moffat in Asylum of the Daleks, but also riffs off a tried (or rather tired) and tested denouement of the Daleks' scheme being foiled by a suicide bombing to get the job done.

The plot is serviceable, the script pedestrian by necessity and it's left to Lee Sullivan to entertain the reader with some considerable style over substance; his Daleks are always without parallel, his 7th Doctor broods pleasingly, and there's some flair amongst the supporting cast - the Renfield-like Dr. Harding being a highlight - but there's not much he can do being saddled with the New Adventures' version of Ace, who ends up with a fairly respectable facial likeness but a generic figure-hugging catsuit complete with extremely silly bumbag. 

The colouring does bring the story to life but it has to be said that it's not entirely sympathetic, being a little too flat. Nevertheless there are some great action panels and satisfying Dalek carnage. 

The mutant embryos are a standout, grotesque and enjoyable, but somehow it's hard to imagine them ever making it on screen, which is a bit of a shame.

Overall then a fair effort, but one that rates higher than it would in the hands of a lesser artist.  

7/10

TTFN! K.

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