Written by Simon Furman.Artwork by John Ridgeway.
When the Doctor and Frobisher arrive on the paradise planet A-Lux, they expect a relaxing break. What they get instead is a frozen planet, rebellious natives and some of the Doctor's oldest foes. What do the Ice Warriors want with A-Lux? And will the Doctor and Frobisher be able to stop their grand plans?
A Cold Day In Hell comes during a very transitional period for the Doctor Who Magazine comic. After the very successful strips for Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor, the comic (like the show) was transitioning into Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor, during a period when both show and magazine were close to cancellation. It was also during this period that regular artist John Ridgeway (who had been responsible for the strip since the dying days of Peter Davison's reign) was preparing to leave, as was the Doctor's penguin-shaped companion Frobisher. And A Cold Day In Hell is a strip that is transitional in a number of ways. It features a relatively new writer in Simon Furman, and, of course, was the first strip to feature the Seventh Doctor, but is the last regular strip drawn by Ridgeway, and features the final travelling appearance of Frobisher. And, while this is a very solidly enjoyable story, it doesn't quite work as well as I think the team of DWM were hoping for, mostly because of the unusual pairing of the Seventh Doctor and Frobisher, as well as some poor characterisation choices and some slightly disappointing artwork from John Ridgeway in his final drawings for the strip.
The basic plot of this story is fairly standard Doctor Who fair - the Doctor and companion arrive on a planet expecting a holiday, and instead find themselves facing an alien invasion. It's a simple, but strong, basis for a Doctor Who story, however you need to try and sell the hell out of it if you want make is a success, or try to do something very different with the idea. However, I feel that Furman doesn't really do either of these things, leaving the story to try and sell itself on it's own merits. For the most part, the strip is a bog-standard, typical Doctor Who story, and doesn't attempt any flair or pomp. Sure, it's interesting, but, at only four parts long, it's not one I'm really going to remember. Plot wise, it's like a summer breeze. Sure, it's notable for featuring the Ice Warriors, but I suspect they're presence is more to do with feeding people's nostalgia more than anything else. They're presented as little more than generic bad guys, and while there are some interesting lines tying this story into the Ice Warriors seen in the two Jon Pertwee Peladon stories on TV, they don't really go anywhere. The characterisation of the rest of the characters feels rather shoddy too: they're merely cyphers to sound the plot against. Sure, we have a group of rebels, and a collaborator who ends up seeing the folly of his ways, but these are all stereotypical Doctor Who characters and little is done with them. And, as for Olla the Heat Vampire... well, she's the most bland and generic creation one could ever hope to come up with. She has no real, discernable personality traits to speak of, and yet, at the end of the story, for some reason that I cannot fathom, she ends up travelling with the Doctor. What? She's not given any kind of introduction, and the Doctor even comments upon the suddenness of her choice. So why did the team at DWM decide that she'd be a good choice? Apparently, some interesting things happen in the next story regarding her character, but this story doesn't inspire me to check out those changes. 
As for the lead characters, the Seventh Doctor at least feels like the Seventh Doctor from Season 24. It's a pity John Ridgeway's likeness of McCoy is so variable, because the script actually makes the Doctor feel like the Doctor, something which, with stories set in the immediate aftermath of a regeneration (A Cold Day In Hell was written before Time And The Rani aired on TV) can be a rarity. He acts like a fool, but has those moments of seriousness that punctuates the character in that particular season. And you can just hear Sylvester McCoy saying those lines - his characterisation comes through perfectly. Frobisher fairs fairly well, but Furman does have a tendency to write him a little cowardly, which seems a little wrong to me. Sure, he doesn't like to be put into dangerous situations, but there are moments where his cowardice just seems out of place. The main issue with the Doctor and Frobisher, however, is the combination of them. Something just doesn't feel right with having the Seventh Doctor and Frobisher together, and that might just be because there wasn't sufficient time to write his character out in The World Shapers, but something just feels wrong about it, mostly because it's their only appearance together. It's a shame, really, but the Seventh Doctor and Frobisher have no real connection between them, so it ends up just feeling like a standard Doctor/companion dynamic. It actually takes away from Frobisher's departure, which is actually quite nice and touching. As for the rest of Ridgeway's artwork, well it's not his best sadly. Because of the standard nature of the storytelling, Ridgeway isn't really allowed to let rip with the kind of artwork he was providing for Voyager and some of the more avant-garde Sixth Doctor strips. It's a shame, really, because some elements are quite nice. His larger panels look lovely, and he captures the look of the Ice Warriors really well. The whole thing does look amazing, and I suspect it's the limitations of the script that let Ridgeway down, rather than any of his work.
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