Doctor Who review: The Heralds of Destruction (Third Doctor comic)

As we say goodbye to the Third Doctor on Twitch today, we look at last year’s Doctor Who comic story The Heralds of Destruction, and see how well it captures the era.

The Heralds of Destruction is a wonderfully nostalgic Third Doctor story by Paul Cornell. An absolute veteran of all things Doctor Who, including writing for books, comics, and even the television series, he’s the perfect writer for such a story.

There are several reasons for this. One is that, like many of us, he’s a huge fan of the Classic Series. He knows his Doctor Who mythology inside and out. So he knows how to stay faithful in terms of continuity.

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But far more importantly is that he knows how to respect the feel of certain eras. This is especially true of the Third Doctor’s, judging from The Heralds of Destruction. He knows what many fans love about many of Jon Pertwee’s stories.

These include the really fun things, like UNIT fighting off alien invasions, or the Third Doctor’s mastery of Venusian Aikido.

And of course, what many people (including myself) really love: Roger Delgado’s evil but charming Master being up to no good. But is he the villain of this particular story?

But even better is that Cornell goes even deeper than the surface-level fun and excitement. There’s a great deal of focus on the Doctor’s relationship with Jo, for example. Throughout their time together, the two clearly shared a very close relationship, and worked incredibly well together.

Paul Cornell captures that level of closeness rather brilliantly. Throughout the comic, we get moments of real tenderness between the two. It’s fantastic that Cornell was able to capture that level of emotion, while never going too far with it. But then, what do you expect from the writer of Father’s Day and Human Nature?

Image credit: Doctor Who/Titan Comics.

Image obtained from: https://titan-comics.com/c/868-doctor-who-the-third-doctor-softcover/

Continuity and development

It’s brilliant how well Paul Cornell uses continuity in this story. Not just for the sake of the fans, but also for the sake of character exploration and development.

For example, he takes real advantage of the placement of the story (ie early on in season ten). As a result of this setting, he really gets to explore and develop the regular characters at key moments.

For example, he explores how the Third Doctor feels about living on Earth for so long, and how attached he’s become to one particular setting.

Even better is that it’s not just the Third Doctor that he explores, either. We also get some exploration of Mike Yates, and how it’s subtly building towards his betrayal in Invasion of the Dinosaurs.

More than that, he also uses continuity in rather surprising ways. Particularly with the old enemy he brought back, which was, quite frankly, nothing short of genius.

The artwork is also gorgeous. Christopher Jones gets all of the key characters really well, especially the Master. Combined with the wonderfully bright colors of Hi-Fi, the artwork captures the pure fun of the era wonderfully well.

For anyone and everyone who’s enjoyed the Third Doctor era, The Heralds of Destruction is highly recommended. Not just because it’s a wonderfully nostalgic look back at a great era. But it’s also very fresh and modern, too. A highly recommended comic story.

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Have you read Heralds of Destruction? Did you enjoy it? What are your favorite moments from it? Let us know in the comments below.

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