Well then. This is the only story I know of written by American author
James A. Moore, though from his biography I see he's a successful
novelist and games writer. Despite being published in 2007 it feels like
typical 1990s SF, with its emphasis on nano- and bio-tech,
posthumanism, and political grunge; there's definitely a millennial
feel. Which isn't a criticism, by the way, just an observation.
Unfortunately the political aspect suffers a bit from the story's
length, in that the parties standing for office are too clean in their
divisions, being entirely based on single-issue platforms. This is
useful for making clear what everyone stands for in a few words, but
lacks nuance and adds a layer of unreality which doesn't fit with the
overall grimy street-level tone of the piece.
The prose itself is decent; it's easy to read, with Ian and the Doctor's
speech and action coming across as fitting the characters as performed
by Williams Russell and Hartnell. The complete absence of Susan and
Barbara felt odd, with a particularly flimsy excuse offered for them
staying behind in the TARDIS, but this is a minor complaint.
I have more problems with the pacing. After a nice, leisurely amble for
most of the running time, the story suddenly becomes so hectic that it
decoheres and is quite hard to follow. In addition, the reactions of the
local inhabitants to the Doctor's revelation felt both too exaggerated
and too confused. In practise this worked like one of the more recent TV
episodes, which race by so fast you don't have time to notice the
flaws, and I wasn't strongly put off; but it did sour things somewhat
when thinking about it afterwards.
Short stories are a very tricky medium to get right, and even though I
have made a number of negative comments this is still a slightly
above-average example. The set-up and ideas are a lot of fun, the
wordsmithery is good, and it doesn't outstay its welcome. I didn't 'get'
the title to start with, but it fits well in retrospect.
This story really could go anywhere during Ian, Barbara and Susan's
travels after they've all settled down a bit, so I think I'll put it
between two stories of a different stripe. Perhaps just after The Reign Makers.
Why Does the TARDIS Return to Earth So Often?
Since we seem to have some space, I just want to say a little about a
topic that has been bugging me lately: why do they keep revisiting
Earth? The Doctor has affection for our world, sure, and during the
periods when he has some control over his destination that is a good
enough reason; but when he doesn't, his feelings aren't relevant.
(I should make it clear that I'm not talking about artistic, production
or marketing decisions. Extradiegetically - to insert a posh word I've
learned from reading Doctor Who blogs - it makes perfect sense.
Want to include history lessons? Or make use of the BBC's expertise in
period costume drama? Or avoid putting off people who can't relate to
the Zogs of planet Zog? Or just save money by using locations that are actually on the planet you're trying to represent? Pick Earth! No, I'm talking diegesis here: in-story explanations. And hoping I'm using the big words correctly.)
So, what do we know? As confirmed by the ship herself, the TARDIS takes
the Doctor where he needs to go. All well and good, but why is that so
often somewhere (and somewhen) on Earth? Despite the second Doctor's
comment that the Earth seems more vulnerable than other worlds, there
are a hundred million worlds in just one galaxy named in one recent
episode (which actually means it was probably well below average size
based on current estimates, but what the heck); and there are more than a
hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe. You can't tell me
that Earth is more than 10,000,000,000,000,000 times as vulnerable as
the average world! Can you?
There has to be a better explanation; and perhaps I discarded the
Doctor's feelings too soon, because the TARDIS is a far from objective
arbiter of where he needs to go. "Need", itself, is a subjective word,
and I can certainly see her paying as much attention to the Doctor's
needs as to the universe's. Add in Susan, Earth-lover extraordinaire,
and I don't think I need to say any more.
So I won't.
Published:
Date: June 2007
ISBN: 1-84435-253-6
Rating:
6.5/10
Next Time:
A look back at Iananbarbara.
Friday, 27 June 2014
Thursday, 19 June 2014
CC7.10 The Library of Alexandria
This has been my favourite audio for quite a while - since I heard A Death in the Family sometime last year - and probably scrapes into my top five Companion Chronicles to date. Even though the second episode suited me less, I find that barely affects my overall enjoyment of the story as a whole, something I've observed before.
So, onto a few more general points I didn't mention in the episode reviews. Let's start with chronology. Ian refers to their old friend Alexander and also tells us that this is only weeks after his travels with Cook during Transit of Venus, so it has to be very soon after The Reign of Terror (as well as later than Farewell, Great Macedon, which supports my placement of that story during season one rather than in the 1964 summer break). There's not much leeway, but I'd rather not make this the first serial of the break just because that would be three historicals in a row. (It's a thing of mine.) Still, there are stories that don't take up vast stretches of the travellers' time and would fit - Rise and Fall, for instance. So I'm going to put it after that and before City at World's End, thereby breaking up a solid run of SF stories. Perfect.
Next, a cultural point: there is something quite horrific about book-burning. I don't know how specific this is to my background - whether it's common among everyone in literate cultures, a Western Middle-Class hangup, or something even more focused - but it's quite visceral. And the Doctor (as written by Simon Guerrier, at least) shares that view. This is what makes the destruction of the library so affecting, far more so than the deaths (which, let's face it, are commonplace in Doctor Who). It ought to be the deaths. But it isn't.
Extras next, then. I was looking forward to listening to people talking about this story, and wondered if we were going to get Simon Guerrier's writerly thoughts; William Russell and Susan Franklyn's opinions of the story (positive, I suspect, based on Russell's performance); or something else. So I was a little disappointed that there was just Toby Hrycek-Robinson's music. Not that the music's bad, or boring - I happily listened to it again my second time through - but I wanted to hear people's thoughts, darn it.
I mentioned the film Agora. This is largely about belief, and has a very different take on the destruction; but Hypatia - the key (local) figure in both works - is pretty consistently presented between the two. Again, in the film, she considers the solar-centric model of the universe - why is that always the go-to example of how the ancients missed opportunities to Get It Right? I'm sure there must be plenty of other theories that would fit the bill. Still, it's a very powerful one, and when pitching Hypatia as the rationalist it offers good ammunition.
I can't help wondering what the historial Hypatia was really like. I do hope she didn't get too screwed up when she was kidnapped by the Rani.
Published:
Date: April 2013
ISBN: 1-78178-084-8
Rating:
9.5/10
Next Time:
Room for Improvement.
Saturday, 14 June 2014
CC7.10b The Library of Alexandria, Episode 2: The Pathway to the Stars
[No spoilers to begin with...]
After the splendid first episode, I almost failed my will roll to resist listening to The Library of Alexandria's conclusion straight away. I still had to do the dog walking and cooking, things I much prefer in the company of an audio; so instead I relistened to the Companion Chronicle that I obliquely referenced towards the end of my last review. The following day I made some quick notes of my thoughts on the story so far, in order to preserve some of my first-time freshness, and then put this one on at the first opportunity.
In some ways it was a pleasant surprise, in others not. To deal with the negatives first, this has two problems which it shares with many other stories. One is that it is more of a large-scale action piece, which suits my personal taste less well than the small-scale, atmospheric, character-driven first part. There's nothing much anyone can do about that - other people prefer the action, and I wouldn't deprive them of it. Another is simply that this is the conclusion, and nine times out of ten I find the set-up more enjoyable in any performed medium (though it's not so stark in books and comics). I've not yet been able to figure out why.
[...but minor spoilers from now until the subtopic.]
One surprise was the moment when Susan Franklyn took over the story. I'm used to there being either a single narrator (as with most Companion Chronicles) or two in conversation (The Suffering, for example), but this bends the standard idea of framing in an odd direction. it's not completely frameless because Hypatia, like Ian, refers to events after the adventure's conclusion; but since they go their separate ways at the end we actually have two frames. I believe this is the first time this has happened, and it felt quite disorientating. It made perfect sense - Ian wasn't around, whereas Hypatia could describe the events that happened when she was off with the Doctor - but the novelty gave me pause. Still, I recovered quickly, and won't be quite so thrown next time.
The soundscape during the destruction of the library offers a decent (though not perfect) impression of the large-scale catastrophe, conjuring up images that would have been tricky in the 1960s (though possible with modern CGI). All the travellers' reactions are spot on, too; but perhaps unsurprisingly, my favourite part of the episode was the dénouement, where we got a few final scenes of quiet character-based moments. Hypatia's emotional wobble and the way it was handled was a little compressed, perhaps; but not enough to spoil it. I also enjoyed the later revelation concerning the Doctor's lesson, and the return to the TARDIS, both of which considered the issue of changing history and used the topic in new ways. Small moments, but hardly unimportant. And then there's Hypatia's conversation with Ian concerning Barbara.
A Confused Chronology, part 12: When Do You Know?
So, let me return to the Iananbarbara relationship angle raised last time. All of fandom "knows" that the teachers became a couple during their time with the Doctor - and so do the expanded universe writers, given how much time they spend on the subject. The only argument is at what point this happened - "when do we know?", to paraphrase Ian's line from The Rocket Men. On TV, of course, it was deliberately kept ambiguous; but it's been made explicit in several books, audios and comics since.
The trouble comes when putting them all together into a single chronology. Ian finally recognises his feelings in multiple stories set during their time with Vicki, which is tricky enough, but both of them openly acknowledge it in The Time Travellers - before Vicki joins. The Library of Alexandria is unique (so far) in that it concentrates on Barbara's feelings for Ian rather than vice versa, and happily can be made to fit with any of the others.
There are so many tangled paths here. The stories are being written out of order, across different media, and then experienced by me in an order which is chronological neither by publication nor in-story timeline. In addition, relationships can have times when they move backwards rather than forwards. With a little bit of massaging I think they can be made to fit reasonably well.
Rating:
7.5/10
Next Time:
Companion Chronicle 7.10 as a whole.
After the splendid first episode, I almost failed my will roll to resist listening to The Library of Alexandria's conclusion straight away. I still had to do the dog walking and cooking, things I much prefer in the company of an audio; so instead I relistened to the Companion Chronicle that I obliquely referenced towards the end of my last review. The following day I made some quick notes of my thoughts on the story so far, in order to preserve some of my first-time freshness, and then put this one on at the first opportunity.
In some ways it was a pleasant surprise, in others not. To deal with the negatives first, this has two problems which it shares with many other stories. One is that it is more of a large-scale action piece, which suits my personal taste less well than the small-scale, atmospheric, character-driven first part. There's nothing much anyone can do about that - other people prefer the action, and I wouldn't deprive them of it. Another is simply that this is the conclusion, and nine times out of ten I find the set-up more enjoyable in any performed medium (though it's not so stark in books and comics). I've not yet been able to figure out why.
[...but minor spoilers from now until the subtopic.]
One surprise was the moment when Susan Franklyn took over the story. I'm used to there being either a single narrator (as with most Companion Chronicles) or two in conversation (The Suffering, for example), but this bends the standard idea of framing in an odd direction. it's not completely frameless because Hypatia, like Ian, refers to events after the adventure's conclusion; but since they go their separate ways at the end we actually have two frames. I believe this is the first time this has happened, and it felt quite disorientating. It made perfect sense - Ian wasn't around, whereas Hypatia could describe the events that happened when she was off with the Doctor - but the novelty gave me pause. Still, I recovered quickly, and won't be quite so thrown next time.
The soundscape during the destruction of the library offers a decent (though not perfect) impression of the large-scale catastrophe, conjuring up images that would have been tricky in the 1960s (though possible with modern CGI). All the travellers' reactions are spot on, too; but perhaps unsurprisingly, my favourite part of the episode was the dénouement, where we got a few final scenes of quiet character-based moments. Hypatia's emotional wobble and the way it was handled was a little compressed, perhaps; but not enough to spoil it. I also enjoyed the later revelation concerning the Doctor's lesson, and the return to the TARDIS, both of which considered the issue of changing history and used the topic in new ways. Small moments, but hardly unimportant. And then there's Hypatia's conversation with Ian concerning Barbara.
A Confused Chronology, part 12: When Do You Know?
So, let me return to the Iananbarbara relationship angle raised last time. All of fandom "knows" that the teachers became a couple during their time with the Doctor - and so do the expanded universe writers, given how much time they spend on the subject. The only argument is at what point this happened - "when do we know?", to paraphrase Ian's line from The Rocket Men. On TV, of course, it was deliberately kept ambiguous; but it's been made explicit in several books, audios and comics since.
The trouble comes when putting them all together into a single chronology. Ian finally recognises his feelings in multiple stories set during their time with Vicki, which is tricky enough, but both of them openly acknowledge it in The Time Travellers - before Vicki joins. The Library of Alexandria is unique (so far) in that it concentrates on Barbara's feelings for Ian rather than vice versa, and happily can be made to fit with any of the others.
There are so many tangled paths here. The stories are being written out of order, across different media, and then experienced by me in an order which is chronological neither by publication nor in-story timeline. In addition, relationships can have times when they move backwards rather than forwards. With a little bit of massaging I think they can be made to fit reasonably well.
Rating:
7.5/10
Next Time:
Companion Chronicle 7.10 as a whole.
Tuesday, 10 June 2014
CC7.10a The Library of Alexandria, Episode 1: The Great Library
[I'm cheating a little with the title here, which should match the story
as a whole; but since I had to resort to threads on Gallifrey Base just
to find out the intended episode names, I doubt anyone will object. And
I do so like distinct titles!]
I wasn't going to cover this yet. I'd decided (having reviewed rather too many audios in a row) that it was time to draw a line under Iananbarbara's era and get on with the next phase; but I was in the mood for listening to something new, and it caught my fancy.
I'm very glad it did. This is excellent.
First off, William Russell is on particularly fine form here. He's always good value, but there have been a couple of audios lately - The Masters of Luxor and The Wanderer - where he wasn't quite up to his normal standard. This, on the other hand, is right back to the heights of Rise and Fall or Transit of Venus: there's more power in his voice, which supports the rhythm of his reading. Lovely.
The second voice artist, Susan Franklyn, is no letdown either, giving a strong performance as Hypatia. Because I came to this after watching (and enjoying) the film Agora, with Rachel Weisz in the role, I picture Hypatia as Weisz. Franklyn's voice and interpretations are similar enough that this didn't clash, which meant I had a clearer picture than I often do.
Staying with the sound for a minute, the use of Spanish guitar surprised me, but is effective in creating the right atmosphere (and felt like the sort of music they might have had on TV, being used in a fairly restrained manner). In fact, overall, Toby Hrycek-Robinson's soundscape is great - pleasant to listen to, and I always had a clear image of what was going on. Presumably this is also down to Lisa Bowerman's directorial choices, and it is certainly helped by Simon Guerrier's script, which the rest of this review will focus on.
[There will be minor spoilers in the next few paragraphs, and major ones at the end - I'll warn you when those are coming up.]
There are a few things which mark this out as being the product of an era later than the one in which it is set. First is a repeat of the trick they pulled in The Romans, opening the story after the travellers have been relaxing in the location for a significant period of time. (Well, Ian's been working, fulfilling the traditional postwar male role of sole provider; but he seems to be quite happy in his job.) That's not too far out, though, since it happens on TV three episodes into the second production block. Second is Susan's use of the phrase "meme farms", followed by an immediate comment that she shouldn't have mentioned it, since it was an idea from after Iananbarbara's time. Indeed, the concept was only formulated in the 1970s (by Richard Dawkins).
There's an interesting contrast between these two features. The first is something that could easily have been shown on TV at the time. That it wasn't done more often is mainly due to the way the program worked as a single ongoing narrative, with one serial linking straight into the next - indeed, they had to have a cliffhanger leading into The Slave Traders, which they then cheekily ignored - but it's something that the Companion Chronicles don't have to worry about. The second feature maps nicely onto moments like Susan's comments about decimalisation, and so is an example of a technique the show had already tried; but the specifics weren't possible, given that predicting the idea of memes in 1964 would have been pretty darned unlikely, let alone the name!
The third out-of-era feature is different again, a matter of intent. In this episode it becomes quite clear that almost everyone except Ian - including Barbara - thinks of Iananbarbara as "an item". This issue is a bit tricksy, and because this review is already a monster I'll save it for next time - I'm quite sure that the subject will come up again in episode 2! For now, I want to say that the different reactions when the other travellers believe that Ian has been on a date with Hypatia are varied and perfectly judged. Hypatia's own comments - the way she gently wards Ian off when she mistakenly thinks he is coming on to her, and her amused deductions about Barbara after the fact - are a joy.
There are also some other very nice touches in this episode. Ian's wry comment that the travellers don't have Sophocles' comedies where they come from (and Hypatia's disdain for the quality of the writing) made me smile, as well as wonder how many of the lost works mentioned in Aristotle's Poetics they got to see. I'm odd like that. I also enjoyed the disagreement between Iananbarbara over whether they were dealing with science or history, which pokes gentle fun at the early division of focus among both serials and cast. That this division becomes part of what drives the plot is just icing.
[Major spoilers coming up now - I strongly recommend listening to the episode before reading on. You have been warned!]
Time to talk about the ending. The use of the mysterious book to set up the plot for the second episode was a classic Chekhov's Gun moment, developing naturally from the events of the first scene. It came as a total surprise to me that this wasn't a pure historical - which is the fourth way it deviates from the era. Like the (lack of) cliffhanger resolution which opens The Romans, it's the pure brass cheek of this that saves it. The identity of the threat - a recurring foe, though not one from the early 1960s - was also a surprise. I have only previously encountered it once, in my second(?) Companion Chronicle, where it proved an intriguing variation on an old theme.
Then we have the cliffhanger itself, which was delightful for two reasons. One was the fakeout, with a potential mundane problem being interrupted by the arrival of the main threat; the other was the way this last echoed the closing moments of opening episodes from 1960s serials, particularly World's End (the first episode of The Dalek Invasion of Earth). Spot on.
Rating:
9.5/10, only dropping half a mark for Ian being just a little too dense and for a fairly standard use of the "can't change history" meme. I guess I just expect more from the author of The Time Travellers!
Next Time:
The Pathway to the Stars.
I wasn't going to cover this yet. I'd decided (having reviewed rather too many audios in a row) that it was time to draw a line under Iananbarbara's era and get on with the next phase; but I was in the mood for listening to something new, and it caught my fancy.
I'm very glad it did. This is excellent.
First off, William Russell is on particularly fine form here. He's always good value, but there have been a couple of audios lately - The Masters of Luxor and The Wanderer - where he wasn't quite up to his normal standard. This, on the other hand, is right back to the heights of Rise and Fall or Transit of Venus: there's more power in his voice, which supports the rhythm of his reading. Lovely.
The second voice artist, Susan Franklyn, is no letdown either, giving a strong performance as Hypatia. Because I came to this after watching (and enjoying) the film Agora, with Rachel Weisz in the role, I picture Hypatia as Weisz. Franklyn's voice and interpretations are similar enough that this didn't clash, which meant I had a clearer picture than I often do.
Staying with the sound for a minute, the use of Spanish guitar surprised me, but is effective in creating the right atmosphere (and felt like the sort of music they might have had on TV, being used in a fairly restrained manner). In fact, overall, Toby Hrycek-Robinson's soundscape is great - pleasant to listen to, and I always had a clear image of what was going on. Presumably this is also down to Lisa Bowerman's directorial choices, and it is certainly helped by Simon Guerrier's script, which the rest of this review will focus on.
[There will be minor spoilers in the next few paragraphs, and major ones at the end - I'll warn you when those are coming up.]
There are a few things which mark this out as being the product of an era later than the one in which it is set. First is a repeat of the trick they pulled in The Romans, opening the story after the travellers have been relaxing in the location for a significant period of time. (Well, Ian's been working, fulfilling the traditional postwar male role of sole provider; but he seems to be quite happy in his job.) That's not too far out, though, since it happens on TV three episodes into the second production block. Second is Susan's use of the phrase "meme farms", followed by an immediate comment that she shouldn't have mentioned it, since it was an idea from after Iananbarbara's time. Indeed, the concept was only formulated in the 1970s (by Richard Dawkins).
There's an interesting contrast between these two features. The first is something that could easily have been shown on TV at the time. That it wasn't done more often is mainly due to the way the program worked as a single ongoing narrative, with one serial linking straight into the next - indeed, they had to have a cliffhanger leading into The Slave Traders, which they then cheekily ignored - but it's something that the Companion Chronicles don't have to worry about. The second feature maps nicely onto moments like Susan's comments about decimalisation, and so is an example of a technique the show had already tried; but the specifics weren't possible, given that predicting the idea of memes in 1964 would have been pretty darned unlikely, let alone the name!
The third out-of-era feature is different again, a matter of intent. In this episode it becomes quite clear that almost everyone except Ian - including Barbara - thinks of Iananbarbara as "an item". This issue is a bit tricksy, and because this review is already a monster I'll save it for next time - I'm quite sure that the subject will come up again in episode 2! For now, I want to say that the different reactions when the other travellers believe that Ian has been on a date with Hypatia are varied and perfectly judged. Hypatia's own comments - the way she gently wards Ian off when she mistakenly thinks he is coming on to her, and her amused deductions about Barbara after the fact - are a joy.
There are also some other very nice touches in this episode. Ian's wry comment that the travellers don't have Sophocles' comedies where they come from (and Hypatia's disdain for the quality of the writing) made me smile, as well as wonder how many of the lost works mentioned in Aristotle's Poetics they got to see. I'm odd like that. I also enjoyed the disagreement between Iananbarbara over whether they were dealing with science or history, which pokes gentle fun at the early division of focus among both serials and cast. That this division becomes part of what drives the plot is just icing.
[Major spoilers coming up now - I strongly recommend listening to the episode before reading on. You have been warned!]
Time to talk about the ending. The use of the mysterious book to set up the plot for the second episode was a classic Chekhov's Gun moment, developing naturally from the events of the first scene. It came as a total surprise to me that this wasn't a pure historical - which is the fourth way it deviates from the era. Like the (lack of) cliffhanger resolution which opens The Romans, it's the pure brass cheek of this that saves it. The identity of the threat - a recurring foe, though not one from the early 1960s - was also a surprise. I have only previously encountered it once, in my second(?) Companion Chronicle, where it proved an intriguing variation on an old theme.
Then we have the cliffhanger itself, which was delightful for two reasons. One was the fakeout, with a potential mundane problem being interrupted by the arrival of the main threat; the other was the way this last echoed the closing moments of opening episodes from 1960s serials, particularly World's End (the first episode of The Dalek Invasion of Earth). Spot on.
Rating:
9.5/10, only dropping half a mark for Ian being just a little too dense and for a fairly standard use of the "can't change history" meme. I guess I just expect more from the author of The Time Travellers!
Next Time:
The Pathway to the Stars.
Wednesday, 4 June 2014
The Prisoners of Time, Chapter One: Unnatural Selection
[This review spoilers the identity of the menace for this chapter, but nothing else.]
I wasn't even aware that this comic existed until a couple of weeks ago, when deltaandthebannermen on Gallifrey Base put me on to the humble bundle containing loads of Doctor Who comics sold as (legal) PDFs. The humble bundles are a neat idea, selling collections of digital stuff for a variable price (decided by the buyer) with a proportion going to charity (also decided by the buyer). IDW - the publishers - are not going to be licensed to sell these comics for much longer, so it makes sense for them to get as much money as they can from a property that will soon lose its earning power. An all-round win!
I'm not a big comics buyer any more, though I used to be in my youth. I have actually read a lot of the issues contained herein because the Sheffield public library system has a good selection of the IDW graphic novels, but I don't buy them. I have a handful of DWM collections from both Marvel and Panini that I found cheap (though in the case of The Collected Ninth Doctor Comics, 'cheap' is a relative term); and that's it (well, for Who, anyway).
I'm also not much of one for reading digital comics. I like paper. But both money and storage are at a premium at the moment, and the opportunity to get so much for a little over £9 was irresistible.
So, on with the review, and let's get one of the minor points out of the way first: The lettering, by Tom B. Long, is clear and easy to read. But, as usual, I don't have anything else to say about it. The list of artists in the front of the book is extensive, but I think that this is because we have four issues collected together - the TARDIS Data Bank lists only Simon Fraser on art and Gary Caldwell on colouring for this issue. So I can be pretty sure I know where to direct my boos and cheers.
Ignoring the introductory section (which isn't part of the first Doctor's adventure), Fraser's layout on every page except one is clean and simple, using grids of rectangular panels separated by regular white borders. This gives more impact to the exception - page 23 (24 in the PDF), which is the climax of the story - but it doesn't offer much of interest elsewhere, beyond the use of uncommonly short/wide and tall/thin panels. Still, there is never any confusion over where you need to read next. Within the panels - and across the pages as a whole - elements are arranged much more interestingly, so that there is a good sense of the energy of each scene, and a good variety of camera angles.
The worst job of any artist in these adaptations is getting the likenesses of the main characters right - I discussed a similar issue when talking about the animation for The Reign of Terror. The Doctor is so visually distinctive that he presents the smallest problem, and Fraser's version is fine; but to be honest I found Vicki and Barbara almost unrecognisable here when wearing hats. Not knowing what the celebrity guest star looked like in real life, I don't know if he is accurately represented or not. I'm getting used to the recognition problem (it comes up a lot), so it bothered me here less than it did in my previous IDW comic review. But it still knocks a point or two off my rating.
I have fewer reservations about Caldwell's colouring. It is quite subdued for most of the comic, which works well for a story set in the black and white era. When he strays from this it is generally to good effect: for example, page 14, which is set in a tunnel, has very dim browny-grey tones with small areas of orange where the illuminations of the hand-held lanterns fall; but the centre panel of the page is in much brighter shades of green, drawing attention to the dramatic events focused here. Another fine example is on and around page 22, where both colour range and brightness change as the protagonists reach the chamber of the Animus.
Ah yes, the Animus. This brings us on to the plot. Scott and David Tipton are the writers with Denton J. Tipton editing, making this, I presume, very much a family affair. I was almost instantly put off, seven panels in, when the Doctor explains why he brought his companions to this time (1868) and place (the Royal College of Surgeons). Grr. Why can't writers seem to remember that the Doctor can't control his TARDIS?! It really bugs me. And it's not even necessary to the plot, though it's so woven into the dialogue that it's hard to ignore. Add to that a fairly clichéd discussion on the appropriateness of interfering with the past and I was soon ill-disposed to enjoy the story.
Which is a shame. There are some more problems later - the discussions of science are trite, and the Doctor getting Chesterton's name wrong is horribly overused - but the general plot is fine. I groaned when I saw the Zarbi, but actually they are well used.
After I had finished reading I had a minor epiphany. This is, in a way, a tribute to the first Doctor comics published in TV Comic in the 1960s. The inhabitants of Vortis were, I think, the only aliens from the TV show to appear in these stories; so their use here is particularly appropriate for a modern comic series that is so heavily based on nostalgia. The resolution of the threat is more the kind of thing we would see in the comic than the series, and not just because of budget! And I could even pretend that because the Doctor (the only humanoid character from the TV show to appear in the comics) didn't resemble William Hartnell much, slightly dodgy attempts at his companions here are also fitting. I don't know how much of this is intended - surely not that last point! - but it does retrospectively improve the experience.
Overall, this was more fun than the first Doctor's other IDW outing, but still lacked a certain something. There's at least one eleventh Doctor story in the bundle that I enjoyed more, and I've only read one!
Published:
Date: 29th January 2013
ISBN: 1-78178-084-8
Rating:
4.5/10. Higher for the visuals, lower for the story.
Next Time:
The Library of Alexandria.
I wasn't even aware that this comic existed until a couple of weeks ago, when deltaandthebannermen on Gallifrey Base put me on to the humble bundle containing loads of Doctor Who comics sold as (legal) PDFs. The humble bundles are a neat idea, selling collections of digital stuff for a variable price (decided by the buyer) with a proportion going to charity (also decided by the buyer). IDW - the publishers - are not going to be licensed to sell these comics for much longer, so it makes sense for them to get as much money as they can from a property that will soon lose its earning power. An all-round win!
I'm not a big comics buyer any more, though I used to be in my youth. I have actually read a lot of the issues contained herein because the Sheffield public library system has a good selection of the IDW graphic novels, but I don't buy them. I have a handful of DWM collections from both Marvel and Panini that I found cheap (though in the case of The Collected Ninth Doctor Comics, 'cheap' is a relative term); and that's it (well, for Who, anyway).
I'm also not much of one for reading digital comics. I like paper. But both money and storage are at a premium at the moment, and the opportunity to get so much for a little over £9 was irresistible.
So, on with the review, and let's get one of the minor points out of the way first: The lettering, by Tom B. Long, is clear and easy to read. But, as usual, I don't have anything else to say about it. The list of artists in the front of the book is extensive, but I think that this is because we have four issues collected together - the TARDIS Data Bank lists only Simon Fraser on art and Gary Caldwell on colouring for this issue. So I can be pretty sure I know where to direct my boos and cheers.
Ignoring the introductory section (which isn't part of the first Doctor's adventure), Fraser's layout on every page except one is clean and simple, using grids of rectangular panels separated by regular white borders. This gives more impact to the exception - page 23 (24 in the PDF), which is the climax of the story - but it doesn't offer much of interest elsewhere, beyond the use of uncommonly short/wide and tall/thin panels. Still, there is never any confusion over where you need to read next. Within the panels - and across the pages as a whole - elements are arranged much more interestingly, so that there is a good sense of the energy of each scene, and a good variety of camera angles.
The worst job of any artist in these adaptations is getting the likenesses of the main characters right - I discussed a similar issue when talking about the animation for The Reign of Terror. The Doctor is so visually distinctive that he presents the smallest problem, and Fraser's version is fine; but to be honest I found Vicki and Barbara almost unrecognisable here when wearing hats. Not knowing what the celebrity guest star looked like in real life, I don't know if he is accurately represented or not. I'm getting used to the recognition problem (it comes up a lot), so it bothered me here less than it did in my previous IDW comic review. But it still knocks a point or two off my rating.
I have fewer reservations about Caldwell's colouring. It is quite subdued for most of the comic, which works well for a story set in the black and white era. When he strays from this it is generally to good effect: for example, page 14, which is set in a tunnel, has very dim browny-grey tones with small areas of orange where the illuminations of the hand-held lanterns fall; but the centre panel of the page is in much brighter shades of green, drawing attention to the dramatic events focused here. Another fine example is on and around page 22, where both colour range and brightness change as the protagonists reach the chamber of the Animus.
Ah yes, the Animus. This brings us on to the plot. Scott and David Tipton are the writers with Denton J. Tipton editing, making this, I presume, very much a family affair. I was almost instantly put off, seven panels in, when the Doctor explains why he brought his companions to this time (1868) and place (the Royal College of Surgeons). Grr. Why can't writers seem to remember that the Doctor can't control his TARDIS?! It really bugs me. And it's not even necessary to the plot, though it's so woven into the dialogue that it's hard to ignore. Add to that a fairly clichéd discussion on the appropriateness of interfering with the past and I was soon ill-disposed to enjoy the story.
Which is a shame. There are some more problems later - the discussions of science are trite, and the Doctor getting Chesterton's name wrong is horribly overused - but the general plot is fine. I groaned when I saw the Zarbi, but actually they are well used.
After I had finished reading I had a minor epiphany. This is, in a way, a tribute to the first Doctor comics published in TV Comic in the 1960s. The inhabitants of Vortis were, I think, the only aliens from the TV show to appear in these stories; so their use here is particularly appropriate for a modern comic series that is so heavily based on nostalgia. The resolution of the threat is more the kind of thing we would see in the comic than the series, and not just because of budget! And I could even pretend that because the Doctor (the only humanoid character from the TV show to appear in the comics) didn't resemble William Hartnell much, slightly dodgy attempts at his companions here are also fitting. I don't know how much of this is intended - surely not that last point! - but it does retrospectively improve the experience.
Overall, this was more fun than the first Doctor's other IDW outing, but still lacked a certain something. There's at least one eleventh Doctor story in the bundle that I enjoyed more, and I've only read one!
Published:
Date: 29th January 2013
ISBN: 1-78178-084-8
Rating:
4.5/10. Higher for the visuals, lower for the story.
Next Time:
The Library of Alexandria.
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