With an unwilling passenger on board the TARDIS, the Doctor tries to get Sharon back home, but ends up in the middle of a war zone, where one side is fighting by using humans turned dogs, Wereloks! Can the Doctor help out and still get Sharon home safe, or will the Doctor end up becoming just like the other Wereloks?
This was first published in Doctor Who Weekly #27-34.
Rate and review below:
The Dogs of Doom pits the Fourth Doctor, Sharon, and K9 against Wereloks—humans turned into feral dog-soldiers—only to reveal the Daleks are behind it all. The werewolf-style infection is underused, Sharon is sidelined, and Babe Roth goes from “super mom” to wasted potential. A great twist sees the Doctor briefly become a Werelok, but it’s resolved too quickly. The Daleks’ arrival is exciting but reduces the Wereloks to furry Ogrons, and the Daleks themselves achieve very little. Great action art and a few standout moments can’t save this from feeling like wasted potential.
Here’s my spoilery review for those who fancy a read. Thanks!
I must admit, looking back, I like this one a lot less than I first thought. While the Dalek Reveal halfway through the Story is fun, there is much to chew on it here. There are a few Things, I like, but I am mostly bothered by how it goes about a lot of Things, in particular of not really using Sharon. The first Dud of the Range, which is a shame, since before that, it was holding itself quite well.
The Doctor vs. werewolves. And without me needing to escape into my own navel about the lore of the whole thing. It’s an alright story, but not much more than that.
Just finished this and am relieved to find the responses in the thread marry up more or less with my thoughts.
This is a really odd story. A lot of the characters are irritating, especially the trucker who speaks in a weird lingo. Brill, the hypnotised Werelok, is an odd choice for a temporary companion. Not only does it mean Sharon, who has only just joined the strip, gets sidelined and does absolutely nothing, we also have the Doctor quite happily watching a vicious alien ripping apart others of its kind and making no comment except telling him to kill more things (and the image of blood dripping from Brill’s knife is unexpected in a Doctor Who strip). And then Brill stays on the planet with the humans? I thought he was just hypnotised to be ‘good’. What happens if the hypnosis wears off?
The Daleks are weirdly characterised and the fact K9’s blaster can finish them off in a single shot and Brill can rip them apart Abslom Daak style makes their threat rather neutered.
The whole thing around Babe Roth being a super mum is just weird.
There seem to be some attempts at world building with all the New Earth stuff but lots is left hanging and unexplained - the Wereloks are apparently from the past, the Daleks are waiting for a time to attack with lots and lots of Daleks, the Doctor just leaves the Daleks and Werelok mercenaries in a time bubble.
The colour version of this also gives the Daleks some glorious colour schemes. Red and white is very popular but there is even green and gold one.
I’m also not sure I ever actually properly read this before. I vaguely remember bits but there was a huge amount I felt like I was reading for the first time. I only have a physical copy of the second half so maybe I’ve only read that bit and not the first half.
Lowered my rating from 3/5 to 2.5/5.
It’s a solid comic, if a bit forgettable. The fact that I’d forgotten the Daleks were a part of this story should tell you its impact on me. However, I love a werewolf-adjacent story so that aspect really worked for me.
Honestly didn’t expect them to pop up here but they did kind of a baller move
I’m found a few comments here kinda were similar to my own thoughts. I was taken by surprise when the Doctor was temporary turned into a were creature by the virus but that was the only thing that really jumped out at me. Especially because it was sorted so quickly.
Gotta say this is the first 4th Doctor DWM magazine thus far that I’ve not really enjoyed. None of the side characters are developed all that much compared to previous stories, which didn’t work in its favour. The reveal was cool, but on the whole it didn’t do anything revolutionary and could’ve maybe done without it? Sharon felt sidelined too which isn’t great on her first outing.
I have been making notes as I read these to avoid spamming the topics, and this is what I wrote:
I was not that impressed by this. I felt like it left a lot of stuff untold and the setting did not work for me. I also feel like I did not really understand the Daleks’ plan. Yeah, this was not for me.
I totally agree that this was the worst one yet.
My review from last year is further up the thread, but this is basically a comic of a lot of ideas where none of them come together very well. The worst thing is probably how Sharon is given nothing to do considering that she’s the new companion and how Babe Roth is pretty wasted as a supporting character.
I agree with basically everything said in this thread, it just kinda feels all over the place and I didn’t really connect with it at all
Read this today and found it to be pretty overwhelming. I’ve previously praised the older magazine comics for their fast pacing and well managed action but there was simply just too much going on in each panel here. The story was pretty good however and I really enjoyed K9, 6/10
