‘A RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Seetar with the First Doctor and Ian

‘A Religious Experience’ is by Tim Quinn and was drawn by John Ridgway. It was featured in the ‘Doctor Who Yearbook’ of 1994. In the story, the First Doctor and Ian enjoy an evening stroll along the beach on the planet Seetar in the Malachi System whilst Barbara and Vicki sleep in the TARDIS. 🙂

I like the references to previous ‘Doctor Who’ stories to establish where our heroes are at in their travels including ‘The Aztecs’, ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’, ‘The Crusade’, etc. It’s also interesting how the First Doctor and Ian get approached by a group of savages before they defeat a giant worm.

Ian uses a cricket ball of all things to knock out the giant worm, given to him by the Doctor. Foreshadowing of the Fifth Doctor to come perhaps? The natives soon celebrate the Doctor and Ian’s victory of tackling the monster, offering them fruit and worshipping them as gods in the end. 😐

But it goes too far when the savages prepare a human sacrifice. Ian stops the sacrifice, punching one of the savages out and soon the Doctor and Ian make a quick return to the TARDIS. They reunite with Barbara in the TARDIS who is already awake whilst Vicki is still sleeping. But that’s not all, folks!

At the end of the story, we get a cameo appearance of the Seventh Doctor visiting the planet Seetar to end the human sacrifices once and for all, whilst also seeing the natives worshipping images of the First Doctor, Ian and the TARDIS. Overall, ‘A Religious Experience’ is an entertaining comic tale. 🙂

‘A Religious Experience’ rating – 7/10