WRITER: GARY RUSSELL
ARTIST: NICK ROCHE
PUBLISHER: IDW
PRICE: $3.99
The history of Doctor Who in comics goes back almost as far as the show itself. In fact, the comics adventures of the Doctor continued throughout the time that the show itself was off the air. For the last 28 years his thrilling adventures in time and space have been serialised in Doctor Who Weekly/Monthly/Magazine, and have been worked on by some fairly well known creators, including Grant Morrison, Steve Dillon, Simon Furman, Bryan Hitch, Dave Gibbons, Alan Grant, Pat Mills, John Ridgeway, Paul Cornell and Dan Abnett. Now, in addition to those stories (and the TV series, the books, the audio adventures…), IDW are publishing the first ever all-new full-length Doctor Who comic.
Quite frankly it’s doubtful you’ll be reading this review if you don’t already have some interest in Doctor Who, so there’s not much point in filling in you in on the history of the show. IDW’s adventures take place at an as-yet-unspecified time in the show’s most recently transmitted season and features the tenth incarnation of the Doctor (as played onscreen by David Tennant) and his companion Martha Jones (as portrayed onscreen by Freema Agyeman).
We start the story with a brief introduction of the most basic back-story (Time Lords, Doctor, TARDIS), including the first visual depictions of anything relating to the Time War and the destruction of Gallifrey, and then we’re off into the story proper. The Doctor and Martha are engaged in a quest to find the most perfect chocolate milkshake in the cosmos, as one might do if one had access to a time machine. A stopover at a diner on a space station leads to an encounter with a shape-shifter, and then to an encounter with one of the Doctor’s recent foes – a Sycorax (from The Christmas Invasion).
To say that Gary Russell has previous experience with the Doctor is an understatement – he’s written for the DWM comic strip, the Virgin Publishing New and Missing Adventures ranges, the BBC publishing Past and Eighth Doctor ranges, has written several behind-the–scenes books on the series, edited Doctor Who Magazine between 1992 and 1995, produced the audio dramas from Big Finish productions from 1998-2006 and is the current Script editor on the show itself. The man knows his Who. As such, the Doctor and Martha remain perfectly in character throughout, from the better moments, such as his usually overly talkative nature coming to the fore in a confrontation with the Sycorax, all the way down to the lesser moments, such as his gurning opening splash-page appearance which recalls cringe-inducing moments such as the Doctor’s singing of the Ghostbusters theme in season two’s Army of Ghosts. Right and wrong, this is the Doctor we’ve been watching onscreen.
Nick Roche is probably best known for his Transformers work, so seeing him drawing wall-to-wall humanoids is a bit of a change. His Doctor captures both the lively energy and enthusiasm of David Tennant and his more thoughtful side. It isn’t always perfect but it’s pretty good – Tennant appears to have a face that translates well into comics, as most artists that have tried seem to have nailed him pretty much straight away. His Martha Jones is not quite as strong, although again that seems to be in keeping with the attempts of others to translate her into artwork – even the makers of the recent animated Doctor Who episode The Infinite Quest couldn’t quite master that. Although much of the earliest online opinion on the art seems divided, overall Roche has done some very strong work here.
The weakest aspect of the entire issue (apart from the gurning, which is at least in character) is the ending. There’s no final page reveal, no shocking cliff-hanger designed to induce the sound of the closing theme in your mind, it just seems to stop.
An interesting first issue, and definitely worth picking up if you’re a fan of the show – although those of you outside the USA are going to have to find your own way of getting hold of it due to the wonderful world of licensing issues.
Happy times and places.
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Russell Hillman was born in London but now lives in Coventry. His hobbies include precious little. He doesn’t get out much, but thinks reading a lot of comics makes up for it. He’s wrong.