“Echoes
of the Mogor!” is written by: Dan Abnett with
art by: John Ridgway, and lettering by: Annie Halfacree. It was released in Doctor Who Magazine issues
143-144 (November-December 1988) and is reprinted in its original form
in Doctor Who: A Cold Day in Hell! by
Panini Books.
It’s incredibly
refreshing to see John Ridgway return to the art for Doctor Who Magazine,
entering the rotation of artists until 1992 which is quite surprising. His use of shadows on “Echoes of the Mogor!” are
of particular note, giving the strip back a lot of atmosphere and a tone that it
had moved away from since he left the strip.
He is also doing his own inks for this story which is a particular
interest because they are quite heavy.
This is a story taking place on a base that has been under siege for
some time and from the first panel there really is a sense of isolation. The shadows are closing on a lone survivor on
the planet Mekrom. Those first few pages
are brilliant, the best material for the Seventh Doctor comic strip even
sustaining it when the Doctor enters the narrative. Dan Abnett’s script characterizes the Doctor as
inherently curious about what he’s doing.
There’s a dead body and no signs of life, the reader also lacking
information because we don’t quite see what kills this man, mostly. Some of it is a bit too obvious of an almost
reptilian monster, but it is a fantastic opening. It builds until the emergency relief team
arrives and the story immediately has this sense of being compressed. Dan Abnett has two issues to tell his story,
but is clearly framing it to be a typical four part Doctor Who story
with the tone shifting at the halfway point from horror science fiction to
military science fiction.
The genre shift of “Echoes
of the Mogor!” becomes apparent that Abnett is using his influences, mainly Alien
and Aliens on his sleeve, naming so many of his characters after
actors, characters, and crew of those films that it almost becomes
distracting. While the relief team is in
¾ of the story, the biggest problem is the fact they are all references, not
characters. They are short hand for
archetype and given no real understanding because we are moving at a breakneck
pace to get to the big twist of the story.
The twist is in the title, the monsters are phantom echoes given form because they are the dead native inhabitants,
the sheer numbers and time since their deaths has amplified what they are. It’s psychic warfare, which Abnett almost
feels as if there’s going to be something more but he’s run out of time so the
emergency team leaves since there wasn’t a murder and nobody to help. The Doctor follows suit. That’s where the story becomes a letdown
because with even a third issue there could be a little more depth to the
characters and a little more plot to explore to get something great. Abnett does show promise, it is his early
work and he does return to both the strip and to books and audio drama so it
isn’t the last we’ll see of him.
Overall, “Echoes of the
Mogor!” isn’t bad, it’s just a story that doesn’t quite reach its potential. John Ridgway’s art does a lot of the heavy lifting
to paste over how quickly the story actually goes which is the biggest problem.
The characters are weak while Dan Abnett
is playing with some fantastic ideas, there just isn’t enough time to stop holding
the story back from being great. 6/10.
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