Bad Deal? by Tim Roll-Pickering 6/10/98
With his debut Doctor Who strip, Steve Parkhouse begins to lay the foundations of the great tapestry in which all of his stories take place, though this doesn’t become noticeable until midway through The Tides of Time when the origin of the Millennium Wars is explained. And, quite frankly, those two facts are about all The Deal is worth remembering for. Otherwise, it’s best forgotten.
Steve Parkhouse’s work has been compared to Robert Holmes’ on several occasions. Whilst this is highly disputable, in the case of The Deal, the comparison is very appropriate. It’s about as pointless and time wasting as The Krotons, Holmes’ first story. Nothing significant happens: there are no interesting characters beyond the Doctor himself, and the story is a typical one parter--a time waster. Marvel’s misguided policy that readers could not follow stories that lasted longer than a month led to poinyless clunkers like this and Doctor Who and The Free Fall Warriors.
The trooper is nameless (we only learn his number-1000AX/76 Corporal 3rd class of the 12th Trouble ‘Chuters) and completely clichéd, but unlike other clichéd characters in strips such as Spider-God: this time there’s no real reason for the character to be so clichéd.
The whole strip is just a rambling mess, and a poor debut for Parkhouse, especially considering his later excellent work including End of the Line, The Neutron Knights, The Tides of Time and Voyager. The only redeeming feature of The Deal is Dave Gibbons’ artwork, which is up to his usual standard. 2/10