Reviews 

“Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor” #2 and #3

By | June 15th, 2019
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

Today’s installments of our Summer Comics Binge with Matt Smith’s 11th Doctor introduce us to a mysterious corporation and a new companion.

Cover by Alice X. Zhang
Written by Al Ewing
Illustrated by Simon Fraser
Colored by Gary Caldwell
Lettered by Richard Starkings and Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt

When the Doctor last visited Rokhandi, it was a planet of such stunning natural beauty that an entire solar system had sworn to preserve it. What better place to take new companion Alice Obiefune on her first off-world adventure?

And it would have been a magical vacation… if the TARDIS hadn’t overshot by fifty years. Now the austerity-hit pleasure planet has become a ‘theme safari’ corporate hell, overrun by eerie, giant-headed mascots and a trillion tramping tourist feet!

But there’s something more sinister at play than rampant commercialism and ecological devastation… and the Doctor and Alice need to uncover all of Rokhandi’s long-buried secrets if they’re to escape with their lives!

Writer Al Ewing (Loki: Agent of Asgard) and artist Simon Fraser (Grindhouse) request that you have a nice day, whichever system you’re from. We hope to SERVEYOU again in the future!

Cover by Verity Glass
Written by Rob Williams
Illustrated by Simon Fraser
Colored by Gary Caldwell
Lettered by Richard Starkings and Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt

There’s a devil out on the bayou, or so they say… Something stalking bluesmen through the swamps of Mississippi, offering them talent beyond imagining, worlds at their feet – in exchange for their souls!

When Alice asks the Doctor if they can visit one of her mother’s musical heroes, she’s initially disappointed. Is Jones, a forgettable singer whose talent seems to be that of disappearing in a crowded room, really the colossal talent who brought passion, creativity and meaning to her mother’s life?

And what does he have to do with the nightmarish deals taking place in the dead of night…?

Writer Rob Williams (Ordinary) and artist Simon Fraser (Grindhouse, Nikolai Dante) multiply the chills, in this haunting adventure into the soul of music!

The next two issues in our look at “Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor” are standalone stories, but share a connection through the presence of the mysterious SERVEYOUInc., a company that seems to know all, see all, and own all. (Sound a bit familiar?) They’re right in line with the episode structure of the revival era: stories that have a connection to the overarching season arc but also have enough narrative to stand on their own.  One adventure takes us to theme park hell, the other to the Deep South.

(An aside on terminology, since these reviews throughout the summer will no doubt make reference to the source TV show. “Classic” Doctor Who refers to the original run of the show from 1963-1989.  The “Revival” Doctor Who refers to the reboot of the show in 2005 that still airs today.)

In “The Friendly Place” (issue #2), the Doctor seeks to impress Alice with a trip to a planet of unsurpassed beauty . . . except the TARDIS misses by about 50 years and it’s turned into a tourist trap promising smiles and a friendly place to play, all thanks to new owners SERVEYOUInc.  It’s almost too perfect, right down to the orderly and perfectly well-behaved employees and visitors. And that has the hairs on the back of the Doctor’s neck at attention.  Something is sucking away – – literally – – at people’s ambition, will, and creativity to leave them pacified and placid on this paradise planet. Issue #3, “What He Wants” is full of time travel and music, as the Doctor and Alice are hot on the trail of demonic possession in 1930s Mississippi, where the promise of fame comes with a very big price tag.

Al Ewing puts social commentary on full display with “The Friendly Place,” touching on everything from the over-reach of corporations to destruction of ecological paradise. Reading this five years after publication in a world that strives for everything to be Pinterest Perfect reveals an even deeper subtext, that of striving to make the so-called “carefully curated experience.” Neither this approach nor the topics covered here are new to the franchise. Environmentalism was a hallmark of classic era serials “The Green Death,” and “Inferno.” “The Caves of Androzani,” from Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor touches on big pharma. There’s also a rarity in this story for the Doctor: the use of guns, both by him and Alice. The Doctor isn’t a lover of firearms, but has used them throughout the years, though certainly more in classic Who serials than in the revival era.

Continued below

Rob Williams’s script for “What He Wants” is pure sci-fi, with elements of time travel and demonic possession, sci-fi and fantasy that are the hallmarks of memorable Doctor Who episodes. The setting of the Depression-era Deep South opens the door to incorporate some social commentary on racism and class struggles (all the musicians we meet are African-American) but Williams stays away. Perhaps after the previous installment which leaned hard into social issues, it was time for a break.

We also meet a new companion here, the fledgling rockstar John Jones, a musician Alice’s mother loved. In later years, he turns out to be a glam rock David Bowie clone, but at this time and place he’s a rather reserved young man trying to find his footing. Doctor Who saw tremendous success with the male and female companion pairing on television with Amy and Rory traveling with the Eleventh Doctor, so it’s no surprise they want to replicate this in the comic. The beauty of that companion pairing on TV was the connection Amy and Rory had as a couple, the foundation of their relationship providing comedic effect and emotion throughout several stories. It’s too early to tell just what Williams (and presumably Ewing) will have in mind for John Jones and Alice just now. For the moment, they’re awkwardly navigating space and time together, and that may just well be the bond they share.

There’s also a subtle nod towards representation I enjoyed in these two issues. Alice is a woman of color and also a bit older when compared to other companions, based on the Doctor’s remark on how he enjoys traveling with someone closer to his age. Companions on the TV show often are in their late teens and early 20s, so I’m assuming Alice may be a bit closer to Generation X. Going with an older companion opens up an air of maturity that provides interesting story direction.

Simon Fraser finds his footing as well with his depictions of the Doctor in both these issues.  The lines are still soft, but he works well with shading to define Matt Smith’s very angular facial features. Throughout “The Friendly Place” he nails creepy happiness beautifully in everyone we encounter in the Rokhandi theme park.  The smiles are broad and welcoming, but the eyes are vacant and devoid of any emotion that would be out of touch with the corporate directive.  Even the tentacle entity behind the scenes sucking away the color from folks’s lives is bland, itself having to fit in with the prime directive of SERVEYOUInc. All this adds the sinister touches the story needs to not only provide compelling narrative, but underscore the themes in Al Ewing’s script. John Jones in “What He Wants” looks more mop-top Beatles than Bowie, a man trying to find an identity and seizing on the one most popular at the time. And Fraser continues his talent with malevolence with a smile in “What He Wants” giving us an agent of SERVEYOUInc whose eyes belie the smile on this face.

There’s two different layouts and color palettes at work in these issues, both serving the needs of their stories well.  Caldwell’s turns up the palette throughout “The Friendly Place” to befit the image of a slickly packaged theme park, but only up to eight instead of 11, adding to the idea that not everything in this happy place is as happy as it can be.  For “What He Wants,” the nighttime setting allows him to play with world of the blues literally, but with enough variety that the eye can distinguish shape. Large spreads and bird’s eye view perspective show off detail throughout Rokhandi World in “The Friendly Place,” reinforcing the polish of the park.  Smaller panels and varying panel sizes in “What He Wants” give the story a more intimate, more cinematic feel, perfect for this more character-focused tale. If one of these two stories had to come to television, it would be that one – – the storyboard is all laid out.

Two very different stories, but still connected by this malevolent corporate force that wants something with the essence of what makes humanity tick.  Who are they really out to serve?

Continued below

Next week, we’ll be looking at issues #4 and #5, the two-part story titled, “Whodunnit/The Sound of Our Voices”

If you’d like to read along with me this summer, the first four trades of the series are available on Comixology Unlimited, along with the first fifteen issues of Year One and the first five issues of Year Two (as of this writing). If you are in the United States or Canada and your local library has access to the Hoopla Digital service, you can make Alice happy by borrowing single issues and trades from the series via your local library.


//TAGS | 2019 Summer Comics Binge

Kate Kosturski

Kate Kosturski is your Multiversity social media manager, a librarian by day and a comics geek...well, by day too (and by night). Kate's writing has also been featured at PanelxPanel, Women Write About Comics, and Geeks OUT. She spends her free time spending too much money on Funko POP figures and LEGO, playing with yarn, and rooting for the hapless New York Mets. Follow her on Twitter at @librarian_kate.

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