The Doctor and Donna arrive in ancient China at the time of the first Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, discover he’s part terracotta automaton and being controlled by an alien, defeat the alien, Meng, and leave.

Unlike many of the stories I’ve watched, listened to and read in this marathon, this was the first time I had read this short comic strip from the 2009 Storybook.

Like many of these one shot strips, the substance of the strip is fairly shallow. However, the backdrop of ancient China and the familiar terracotta army immediately provide a vibrant and exciting tone. The artwork is not great in capturing the likenesses of Tennant or Tate, but depicts Ancient China believably, particularly the massive terracotta army.

It’s a shame that the intriguing image of the terracotta army is slightly squandered on a short comic strip like this. It’s a subject which is surely worthy of a full length novel or audio, but then previously used ideas have never been off limits to future writers so who knows.

The plot device of using Donna’s phone (presumably ramped up Time Lord style ala Rose’s and Martha’s) to phone Wilf and block the signal controlling the terracotta robots is a little too simple, but in a short story like this, it probably needed to be.

Historically we see the Great Wall of China (which is not finished much to Donna’s chagrin) and the Emperor’s palace, although I’m not sure whether it’s particularly accurate to portray the first Emperor as half terracotta robot! However, a bit of wikipedia reveals that the Emperor’s references to assassination attempts and his desire to discover the Elixir of Life are historical facts. Oddly, though, the Doctor’s comment about his unexplained disappearance doesn’t seem to be supported by the same article.

This strip was a fun little diversion and I’m going to follow it up with a DWA comic strip set in ‘Ancient China’ (which is as specific as it gets) to round off this brief trip to a period of history and a part of the world which Doctor Who rarely ventures into in any of its mediums.