Story: Alan Barnes Pencils: Martin Geraghty
Inks: Robin Smith (Page 1: Robin Riggs) Lettering: Elitta Fell
Editors: Gary Gillatt & Scott Gray

The Butcher: Here comes a chopper to chop off your head!

The Baker and The Old Woman: Chip! Chop! Chip! Chop!

The Doctor: Look, I only wanted directions...

Synopsis:
A group of horseback fox hunters chases a man named Felix across a meadow. Felix's leg is caught in an animal trap and one of the hunters, Marwood, orders him to hand over the Focus. Felix insists he doesn't have the Focus and that it must be far away by now. Marwood, realizing he's been diverted, puts Felix out of his misery with an Acme zap gun and leads the hunters away towards the sound of the Doctor's TARDIS materializing nearby.

The Doctor leaves the TARDIS and muses about his new location, Stockbridge. Unbeknownst to him, a man observes his arrival and writes "Doctor" as an answer in his crossword puzzle. The Doctor begins to notice that the town seems to be arranged backwards and fears he is lost.

Watching the Doctor from inside a bookstore are a young woman and an older man. The woman asks if the man thinks the Doctor is one of Marwood's and he says he's not sure. Although the woman isn't sure either, she says they'll need a hostage to escape Stockbridge and primes her zap gun.

The Doctor hails an old woman, hoping for directions, but she pulls out a gun and summons the butcher, the baker and the candlestick-maker, all of them intent on killing the Doctor. Meanwhile, the crossword man writes "ensnared" in his puzzle.

From behind the Doctor, the young woman bursts through the bookstore window and melts the attackers with her zap gun. The Doctor bemoans the death, but the woman assures him they were not alive and aims the gun at him. The older man, Maxwell Edison, appears and the Doctor recognizes him. Max introduces the Doctor and says the Time Lord (in a previous incarnation) helped him make alien contact. The young woman, who introduces herself as Izzy S., seems to hesitantly believe the story. She explains that she and Max form the Bureau for Interplanetary Liason (Stockbridge Division) and that it's their job to believe. Max goes on to annouce that Stockbridge has been invaded by aliens.

Marwood appears with his hunters and says that's not exactly the case. Izzy displays a pendant to Marwood, who says it's the Focus that was stolen from him and offers that she can leave if she gives it back. Izzy tells Marwood to forget it and aims her gun, but the Doctor decries the action and knocks the weapon from her hand. Marwood orders his hunters, who turn out to be humanoid foxes named Rufus, Reynard, Basil and Grum, to attack. With Max lagging behind, the Doctor and Izzy run for the TARDIS. As this is happening, the crossword puzzle clue is for a villain's name of eight letters. Before the hunted can reach the TARDIS, the Doctor's old foe The Toymaker appears before them and reveals that they are part of his games.

Comments:
The 8th Doctor enters the DWM strips with a surreal and suspenseful tale. The familiar, yet grossly altered, Stockbridge provides a fascinating level of creepiness and the climatic appearance of The Celestial Toymaker (first seen in the televised 1st Doctor serial of the same name) is a jaw-dropper.

The Doctor's expressions and remarks in this part are quite close to the character presented in the telefilm and he retains other Doctor-like traits, such as abhorring firearms.

Izzy makes a startling debut, firing away with her zap gun, and the image that leaps to mind is the adult, commando Ace from the Virgin New Adventures novels and the DWM strips. However, she quickly shows herself to be a more trusting soul and a normal person placed in a very unusual situation. She is interested in worlds beyond hers, as evidenced by the organization she has started with Max and the continual sci-fi references she makes in later installments.

The pencils in this issue are nice, although body parts sometimes seem out of proportion or drawn improperly, as if the work was a bit rushed. The inks cast wonderful contrast and never for a moment seem muddled.
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This part of the story contains a boxed literary quote from William Cowper's The Winter Morning Walk.

Other Features This Issue:
Cybermen; Archive: Silver Nemesis; conventions; time travel in the Doctor Who universe, Part 2.