Written by John Freeman & Paul Cornell.
Art by Gerry Dolan.
When the TARDIS takes a wrong turn, the Doctor finds himself on a very strange world. The inhabitants appear to be building a massive staircase, leading into the sky - made from bones. What exactly is going on here? And what will the Doctor find when he reaches the top?
Coming hot off the heels of the mammoth Nemesis Of The Daleks, Stairway To Heaven is a slight breather from huge, epic space opera. It is, however, a notable strip for one reason: this is the first cannon Doctor Who story written by Paul Cornell, who would later go onto becoming a mainstay of the Virgin New Adventures and would write for the TV show when it returned in 2005. Sadly, however, Stairway To Heaven shows little of Cornell's future excellence, as, for the most part, it's utterly forgettable, featuring little incident, plot or character to speak of. It ends up just feeling like filler material, and not very interesting filler at that.
The basic plot involves the Doctor investigating a mysterious staircase on a planet that a race of creatures are building. Now, one thing that instantly limits this strip is its 'one-shot' nature. While, for some stories, keeping them down to one part can be beneficial, this really isn't the case here. There's no build-up: we're just launched straight into the narrative and forced to try and keep up. Most of the details of this story are barely sketched out (if you'll pardon the pun), so it feels like a load of important information has been skipped over. The plot is barely functional as one, since nothing really happens. The Doctor doesn't really influence the story in any case: aside from preventing a suicide, he's mostly a passive observer to events. Sure, it's a role that suits McCoy's Doctor, but, more often than not, he usually has a tiny little influence upon the story that has a massive impact upon the characters. Here, however, he just acts like any other Doctor would in the scenario, and it leads to the deaths of two other characters. There's also no real reflection upon this either: the Doctor just sort of rushes off back to the TARDIS and leaves. Normally, Doctor Who stories usually take a moment to reflect upon events like this, how one person can have a massive impact upon events. But here, it seems to have been totally brushed off, and the end result feels empty and hollow as a result. I will say that there are some interesting musings on the nature of suffering and art, that at least give the story a point in existing. However, these discussions merely form a few panels, and once again, there is little post-reflection afterwards. For the most part, though, it's stuff we've seen before, and in much more interesting ways than here.
As for the characters, well not one of them makes an impression. The creature that the Doctor follows isn't given any time at all to develop, and we don't really get to see the artist in anything other than an evil light. Everyone else is there simply to chip in lines for the Doctor to bounce off. The characters made so little impression on me that I don't remember any of their names, just their plot function. I will say that the characterisation of the Seventh Doctor is fairly decent. At the start, Cornell and Freeman have him simply fooling and wondering around, very much like the Doctor of Season 24, albeit to a slightly absurd degree. However, when he is confronting the artist at the end of the story, he's very much like the Doctor of Seasons 25 and 26 - dark, menacing and with an intensity in his words that compels you to listen. It's not the most revolutionary or even evocative portrayals of McCoy's Doctor, but since the Doctor carries a lot of this story, it's a good sign that the writers have got a handle on this incarnation of the Time Lord. The artwork, by strip newbie Gerry Dolan, is fairly good, on the whole, with some interesting vistas and use of very tightly focused artwork to indicate action. His likeness of Sylvester McCoy are a little variable, however. Sometimes, he gets McCoy down to a tee, while, in other panels, something just looks a bit off about the likeness. However, for the most part, the artwork is pretty impressive, though not up to the standard of DWM greats like John Ridgeway or Lee Sullivan.
Overall, Stairway To Heaven is a bit of a non-entity. It has too much plot for the eight or so pages it attempts to fill, the guest characters are seriously underdeveloped and the Doctor's characterisation is a little inconsistent. It does have some good elements: namely the ideas it's got to work with, and some strong artwork from Gerry Dolan. Stairway To Heaven does show a little promise for Cornell, however, and I'm glad that he was able to fulfil that promise in other ways. As it is, Stairway To Heaven just feels a little too bland for my tastes.
Art by Gerry Dolan.
When the TARDIS takes a wrong turn, the Doctor finds himself on a very strange world. The inhabitants appear to be building a massive staircase, leading into the sky - made from bones. What exactly is going on here? And what will the Doctor find when he reaches the top?
Coming hot off the heels of the mammoth Nemesis Of The Daleks, Stairway To Heaven is a slight breather from huge, epic space opera. It is, however, a notable strip for one reason: this is the first cannon Doctor Who story written by Paul Cornell, who would later go onto becoming a mainstay of the Virgin New Adventures and would write for the TV show when it returned in 2005. Sadly, however, Stairway To Heaven shows little of Cornell's future excellence, as, for the most part, it's utterly forgettable, featuring little incident, plot or character to speak of. It ends up just feeling like filler material, and not very interesting filler at that.
The basic plot involves the Doctor investigating a mysterious staircase on a planet that a race of creatures are building. Now, one thing that instantly limits this strip is its 'one-shot' nature. While, for some stories, keeping them down to one part can be beneficial, this really isn't the case here. There's no build-up: we're just launched straight into the narrative and forced to try and keep up. Most of the details of this story are barely sketched out (if you'll pardon the pun), so it feels like a load of important information has been skipped over. The plot is barely functional as one, since nothing really happens. The Doctor doesn't really influence the story in any case: aside from preventing a suicide, he's mostly a passive observer to events. Sure, it's a role that suits McCoy's Doctor, but, more often than not, he usually has a tiny little influence upon the story that has a massive impact upon the characters. Here, however, he just acts like any other Doctor would in the scenario, and it leads to the deaths of two other characters. There's also no real reflection upon this either: the Doctor just sort of rushes off back to the TARDIS and leaves. Normally, Doctor Who stories usually take a moment to reflect upon events like this, how one person can have a massive impact upon events. But here, it seems to have been totally brushed off, and the end result feels empty and hollow as a result. I will say that there are some interesting musings on the nature of suffering and art, that at least give the story a point in existing. However, these discussions merely form a few panels, and once again, there is little post-reflection afterwards. For the most part, though, it's stuff we've seen before, and in much more interesting ways than here.As for the characters, well not one of them makes an impression. The creature that the Doctor follows isn't given any time at all to develop, and we don't really get to see the artist in anything other than an evil light. Everyone else is there simply to chip in lines for the Doctor to bounce off. The characters made so little impression on me that I don't remember any of their names, just their plot function. I will say that the characterisation of the Seventh Doctor is fairly decent. At the start, Cornell and Freeman have him simply fooling and wondering around, very much like the Doctor of Season 24, albeit to a slightly absurd degree. However, when he is confronting the artist at the end of the story, he's very much like the Doctor of Seasons 25 and 26 - dark, menacing and with an intensity in his words that compels you to listen. It's not the most revolutionary or even evocative portrayals of McCoy's Doctor, but since the Doctor carries a lot of this story, it's a good sign that the writers have got a handle on this incarnation of the Time Lord. The artwork, by strip newbie Gerry Dolan, is fairly good, on the whole, with some interesting vistas and use of very tightly focused artwork to indicate action. His likeness of Sylvester McCoy are a little variable, however. Sometimes, he gets McCoy down to a tee, while, in other panels, something just looks a bit off about the likeness. However, for the most part, the artwork is pretty impressive, though not up to the standard of DWM greats like John Ridgeway or Lee Sullivan.
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