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I’m going to make a statement upfront: I love Doctor Who. No joke. So when given the opportunity by my friend Brian Isaacs to review the latest issue of the Doctor Who series from IDW I jumped at the chance.
See, here in the States, Doctor Who material isn’t always easy to find, so a comic book series, especially one that’s released monthly is a godsend. I went into Doctor Who #5 with an open mind and a willing heart.
The issue is part three of a four part story line, as per usual, has the Doctor stuck between a rock and a hard place.
The Doctor(resembling his David Tennant regeneration) has been put on trial by The Shadow Proclamation (think Green Lantern Corps), for changing the future by altering the past. The Doctor, along with a few alien colleagues have crash landed on an alien planet while trying to escape a life sentence on the prison planet Volag-Noc.
To a casual reader, the issue SHOULD leave you feeling a bit...meh. To an avid Doctor Who fan, the issue should leave you feeling more than a bit disappointed.
Yes its’ got space ships, aliens, a main characters with a quirky fashion sense, but it lacks the most important part of any Doctor Who story. There’s no companion.
Since its inception the Doctor has always had a companion, sometimes even more than one. The companion is who the reader identifies with. They’re the one who pulls the viewer/reader in. Kitty Pryde in Uncanny X-Men is a great example of this.
A good companion can make the viewer/reader fall in love with them. A good companion is always missed when they leave, and is always welcomed back with open arms. Not having a companion in a Doctor Who story makes it just another science fiction piece. Sadly, this is the case here. The issue is a sub standard piece of science fiction.
Another big problem with the issue is there’s no sense of foreshadowing here. Doctor Who is known for its deep sub plots and over arcing story lines. Nothing is ever mentioned casually. Everything has a point. (Bad Wolf, Face of Boe anyone?) If there’s anything like that in this issue I missed it.
On a technical level writer Tony Lee (X-Men Unlimited, The Amazing Spider-Man Family) and artist Matthew Dow (Day of Judgement, Hellboy: Box Full of Evil) don’t seem to have the chemistry needed to keep this series going.
Lee is among the new wave of British comic book writer but he’s got a long way to go before he’s up there with the likes of Alan Moore (Watchmen), Grant Morrison (Final Crisis) or Bill Willilngham (Fables). To be fair to Lee, who has most likely grown up with the material, might be a little scarred handling the icon known as Doctor Who.
As for Dow, someone I’ve followed since Day of Judgement, he seems to be really trying here, but for someone who’s made a name for himself using shadows and darkness to tell a story, everything looks washed out.
Sometimes comics are a hit, sometimes they’re a miss. Lee and Dow might be working together on this series but they are most certainly not working on the same page. This isn’t Doctor Who, no matter how hard they try and make it so.
Carl Keyser
Staff Reviewer Read more... Read More
