Doctor Who #8
Posted: Friday, February 5, 2010
By: Ray Tate
Tony Lee
Al Davidson, Lovern Kindzierski (c)
IDW Publishing
Last issue, an Acari ship captained by the Advocate slammed into the TARDIS. The Doctor and his companions now race through the endless corridors to find a spare console room in order to reverse the damage. The collision also tore the time/space continuum a new one and shunted new companion Emily Winter into the fifth dimension. Meanwhile, the Advocate attempts to sucker the Doctor's second new companion Matt into becoming her agent.
Emily gets all the best scenes. The fifth dimensional beings reason a way to save her life and she in turn comprehends their abilities enough to dope out a means to rescue the entire TARDIS crew. I furthermore appreciated her fury at the Doctor when he doesn't believe her story about encountering the hyperdimensional creatures. Her point's quite valid and the Doctor's being an ass.
Matt, however, is an idiot. Even Turlough figured out, rather quickly, that the Black Guardian lied to him and the Doctor wasn't the villain the vulture-headed Grand Poobah claimed. Mickey Smith who initially didn't like the Doctor still recognized that the Doctor was the good guy. Even Adric required hypnotic influence to turn against the Doctor.
Writer Tony Lee probably wanted to generate a different kind of tension between the companion and the Doctor but the suspicious Matt just doesn't work. The Doctor radiates goodness. You would have to be a cretin to think otherwise and I just don't see any strength in the Advocate's arguments. Perhaps, if she backed the words with sex.
While the Doctor is in the book, he doesn't really get a good spotlight. His memory's wonky. He blithers on even more than usual and he's not at his best. Al Davidson and Lovern Kindzierski, however, are.
The artists effortlessly create a tapestry of old and new settings in the TARDIS with a spot-on likeness of David Tennant and a surprise guest at the cliffhanger. The sensual Emily again stuns with her outstanding adventuring outfit, but Matt continues to look like Moe Howard on Slimfast. Something really must be done with the lad. Male companions do not have to be lesser characters. Ian, Steven, Jamie, and Harry Sullivan are some of the Doctor's memorable fellow travelers, but Matt's on the path to obscurity.
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