When first preparing this marathon, I had no more specific a placement for The Road to Hell than ‘17th Century Japan’.  After reading it I can be a smidge more specific…early 17th Century Japan.  Ha!  It seems that when it comes to Japan-set stories that the authors are loathe to put specific dates on – this is of course based on the fact that the two – yes a whole two – stories I have experience for my marathon having been no more specific in dating than the century (the other being the 16th century set, The Jade Pyramid).  A History places this story c1600.


The Road to Hell features many of the same motifs as The Jade Pyramid – we have samurai, honour, fighting and mentions of the Shogun and Shogunate.  This is apparently the Tokugawa Shogunate who (according to Wikipedia) ruled from 1600 to 1868.  This suggests this is a different ruling elite from that referred to in The Jade Pyramid which is set, vaguely, in the 16th century i.e. before 1600.  Japanese history is very confusing though and it would seem that prior to 1600 there wasn’t a Shogun, seeing as various factions were battling for control of the country.  It is distinctly possible that The Jade Pyramid is actually set at a similar time to The Road to Hell i.e. the beginning of the 17th century.  The Doctor does comment that the Tokugawa Shogunate should rule for ‘another 250 years’ possibly placing The Road to Hell at around 1618 – of course he’s probably rounding up or down particularly as he doesn’t know when exactly they have arrived, aiming as he was for the 10th century rather than the 17th.  It will be interesting to see when Lance Parkin sets this story in his new 3rd edition of Ahistory (which is most definitely on my Christmas list after its release in November).
The advantage that The Road to Hell has over The Jade Pyramid is in the visuals.  The artwork from Martin Geraghty is striking and evokes feudal Japan well.  The samurai warriors are dressed authentically and the surroundings, both natural and manmade make atmospheric settings.  The alien Gaijin are an intriguing alien extrapolation of Japanese and samurai stylings.  Also a lot of fun are the legendary and modern monsters conjured up by the insane Lady Asami – dragons, demons and comic book robots galore.


The comic book robots and manga-inspired enemies are thanks to Izzy, the Eighth Doctor’s girl-geek companion.  Izzy is a great companion, particularly in the age she was written.  The Wilderness Years saw fans making Doctor Who for fans and so to have a self-confessed sci-fi and comic book geek as a companion made complete sense.  Izzy was the female version of us – or probably for some fans, the ultimate ideal girl (the fact she turned out to be gay, notwithstanding).  I really like Izzy.  Her joy at travelling with the Doctor is infectious (I’ve always loved her ‘cool robot monsters’ bit in Fire and Brimstone) but it is tempered by a real sense of loyalty and deeper emotion as evidenced in her relationship in this comic strip with Sato, the disgraced samurai.  Furthermore, her guilt at causing many of the problems faced in the latter part of the story through Lady Asami witnessing the horror of Hiroshima in her mind is palpable.  The Eighth Doctor, on the other hand, is a bit harder to get a handle on.  Without Paul McGann’s performance, the Eighth Doctor of the comic strips can come over a little generic.


The main threat in the comic strip is the Lady Asami, an insane Japanese matriarch who has been given godlike powers (thanks to the sci-fi staple of nanobots) by the Gaijin.  ‘Gaijin’ means ‘foreigner’ (the Doctor and Izzy are called it at the beginning of the story) and it’s a nice touch to have the aliens named it by the locals as they are the ultimate foreigners and it sounds suitably alien.  The Gaijin are observers who are basically watching what Asami does with the power they have given her.  They want to understand honour although this isn’t a theme I felt was fully explored within the strip.  Most of the characters are simply out for revenge.

Sato, the disgraced samurai, is an interesting character.  Although wanting revenge for his master’s murder, he is still relatively honourable, for example when rescuing Izzy.  He is made immortal at the story’s conclusion and this is a thread which is picked up in later strips.  He blames the Doctor for not allowing him an honourable death and it is only his respect for Izzy which stops him from killing the Doctor.


This is a fun strip with some serious undertones.  The cliffhangers are great (if a bit repetitive on a couple of occasions) and it is part of a strong run of comic strips in DWM around this time.