While the Sunday Who Review looks at stories, characters, and themes from all across the Whoniverse, it’s heretofore focused almost solely on the TV shows, classic and new Who along with its spin-offs. But the Whoniverse is even wider than its more-than-50-years of TV – Doctor Who has also inspired numerous stories put out in a variety of media, one of which is comic stories. Different comic outlets have published them over the years, featuring a variety of Doctors. Today, I want to dip my toes into talking about that side of the Whoniverse. We’ll start with one particular Doctor – Ten – and one particular publisher – IDW.
“The Whispering Gallery”
A really lovely story. The Doctor and Martha come to a planet where all emotion is forbidden, and portraits of the dead speak the words they regret not expressing in life. The Doctor’s plot is interesting here, trying to figure out what became of a former companion he had from this world, and Martha’s attempts to bring the portraits some peace in death are just so Martha. Neat artwork too.
“The Forgotten”
This isn’t the only time the greater Whoniverse has strung together adventures from every Doctor into one connected narrative (see IDW’s later Prisoners of Time or Big Finish’s Destiny of the Doctor audiobooks,) but it’s probably my favorite. I love the central mystery – the Doctor and Martha seemingly find themselves in a museum dedicated to his lives, and with the Doctor’s earlier memories hidden from him, he uses artifacts in the museum to remember his former selves and discover what’s going on. It offers some great twists and turns that feature all sorts of callbacks to both the classic and new series, and the story culminates in a pretty beautiful tribute to all things Who. The climactic reveal about Martha is just gorgeous.
“Silver Scream”
The introduction to comic companions Emily and Matthew, this story is an old-Hollywood treat. In lieu of Charlie Chaplin, we meet British silent comedy star “Archie Maplin,” whose film set has been besieged by aliens stealing the ambitions of aspiring starlets. The Doctor, Archie, and new friends Emily and Matthew go on a whirlwind adventure through the world of silent movies. We get someone tied to railroad tracks, people hanging from the hands of a tower clock, and a cameo from Buster Keaton, who recognizes a good comic romp when he sees one!
“Fugitive”
“Silver Screen” is followed up by this saga, a continuity-stuffed adventure featuring the old standby: the Doctor on trial for his life. We see the Shadow Proclamation, Mr. Finch and the Krillitanes from School Reunion, and other delightful bits of goodness. I also really enjoy the Doctor’s uneasy alliance in the second half with a Draconian, a Sontaran, and an Ogron – I love a good “opponents forced to work together against a greater foe” storyline, and this is a good one. Predictably, the Doctor expends at least half of his energy on just keeping the Sontaran and the Ogron from killing anybody.
“Don’t Step on the Grass”
Okay, so what doesn’t this story have? We’ve got clockwork angels, John Dee mysteries, royal gardener Freemasons, Lord of the Rings references, and a reappearance of Martha Jones! It loses points for the Doctor still seemingly failing to recognize Martha for the incredible woman she is, but Martha herself is stupendous as always, and I like her attempts to try and bond with Matthew. Meanwhile, Emily continues down her path of being a badass.
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