Writer: Andrew Cartmel

Artist: Christopher Jones

Titan Comics, out now

The Doctor and Ace assist the Counter-Measures team in Australia in 1967… while six decades later, a mysterious figure is found in space…

Titan’s first foray into the era of the Seventh Doctor comes from the era’s script editor, with Counter-Measures creator Ben Aaronovitch getting an Executive Producer credit. (Quite what that means in terms of a comic which already has an editor in McCoy era DWM editor John Freeman, I’m not sure – is Aaronovitch the Barry Letts to Cartmel’s JNT?!)

As with Cartmel’s previous comics – and indeed his New Adventures novels – this means that it feels authentic to the period, with the Doctor being mysterious, Ace getting a chance to deal with things physically, and the Counter-Measures team being a proto-UNIT. It feels almost too familiar at times (another nuclear testing site!) and I’m hoping that the rest of the story will take things in a new direction – there’s plenty of potential.

Christopher Jones’ artwork is strong throughout, with good resemblances and well-depicted action sequences that constantly break up the page layout. Marco Lesko’s colours emphasise the differences in locations (look at the sky coloration especially).

The back-up strip, Hill of Beans, by Richard Dinnick and Jessica Martin, is very different in style both in terms of the writing and the illustration. With a much smaller page count to work with, Dinnick gets to the heart of the story quickly, and captures the essence of McCoy and Sophie Aldred’s portrayals, as well as expanding the story of Martin’s character, Mags. Martin’s art and Charlie Kirchoff’s colours blend well together, and there’s a very enjoyable vibrancy to it all.

Verdict: A strong pair of tales, well-told. 8/10

Paul Simpson