Modern-day San Francisco sees the Doctor, Jack and Rose pulled into a city-wide civil war between strangely empowered citizens. But when they start mutating into horrendous monsters, the Doctor and friends find themselves out of their depth! Fighting side-by-side with a face from his future, can the Doctor restore normality to the city before it’s completely overrun? The two men must put aside their differences to save the ones they love – and avoid Rose crossing paths with an out-of-time Mickey…!

The second and final part of The Transformed sees the return of artist Adriana Melo and colourist Matheus Lopes, so we get to see their versions of all the characters and creatures that had been handled by the stand-in art and colour team of Cris Bolson and Marco Lesko last issue. I appreciate that Melo and Lopes are this title’s regular team, but it might have made for a more consistent result if Bolson and Lesko had stayed on to see the whole story through.

Still, I shouldn’t grumble, because Melo gives us a very dynamic Ninth Doctor and Mickey, and a very sexy Rose – whose t-shirt seems to have shrunk a bit since last month! Melo also tackles a certain tentacled individual that we last saw rendered by Blair Shedd…

In another blast from the past, writer Cavan Scott has Mickey briefly refer to the Forge alongside UNIT and Torchwood. A black-ops organisation (similar to Torchwood but predating it) that has appeared in several Doctor Who audio plays released by Big Finish, the Forge was co-created by Scott himself (with Mark Wright).

The Doctor’s business in San Francisco is wrapped up rather hastily in this episode. I think the story could have run for longer, but that would have complicated matters for the eventual graphic novel compilation.

Fortunately, there are still a few loose ends left dangling. Not only has Jack yet to track down his missing memories (as a muttered aside from him reminds us), but a dimensional anomaly means that we can expect another excitingly anachronistic get-together next time…!

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Richard McGinlay