Writer: Nick Abadzis
Artist: Elena Casagrande
Published by Titan Magazines
The Comic:
The issue picks up with The Doctor and Gabby, a young American woman who wants more than to just work in her dad’s laundromat, in peril as they are being chased by a freakishly massive and scary version of Gabby. You just can’t get more Doctor Who then that! In fact, this issue is full of moments that will feel very familiar to the fans. The Doctor being overly witty in the face of danger, spitting out long diatribes of pseudo-science, and attempting to distance himself from humans that are fascinated by him. So the book is able to capture the feel of the series that it is based on.
The thing that I love the most about Doctor Who as a comic book it is that it shares the serial format of the classic television series. Before binge watching was even a term, I remember the fun of watching the original series on our local PBS affiliate, and loving the cliffhanger predicament that the Doctor and his companion would find themselves as the ending theme would start. It’s been my constant complaint that the new series has decided to do away with the serialized stories in favor of series arcs.
Even though the book does a solid job of capturing the feel of a Doctor Who episode, the story is not one of my favorites. Gabby’s not the most interesting companion, or at least she’s not established enough for the reader to have any real connection with her. I think the best Doctor stories are with companions that the audience is invested in, and Gabby’s not there yet. There are also a couple of pop culture references thrown in that feel really out of place, and I’m usually the type of person who gets a kick out of those types of nods.
I also don’t feel that the doctor in this story had to be the Tenth Doctor, and being a fan of David Tennant’s Doctor, the promise of a new Tenth Doctor story was a huge draw for me to read this book. If there is a anything comforting that I can take from this disappointment, its that Tennant was so much a part of that role that its difficult to put his personality into The Doctor in other media.
7.5/10
The Art:
First off, in start contrast to my last point, The Doctor does look just like the Tenth Doctor in most panels, which is a good start. But beyond that, there’s nothing particularly great or memorable about the art here.
6/10
While not a great Doctor Who outing, I give this issue credit for bringing the style of a Doctor Who episode to a comic book. I’ll be tuning in again next month to see how things go for The Doctor and Gabby.