“Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor” #11

If last week’s two issues were like the Avengers: Endgame of this series – – putting a proverbial bow on the majority of the SERVEYOUInc. storyline – – this week’s installment is a bit like Spider-Man: Far From Home. The main conflicts hang over and drive the story, which itself provides a coda to those conflicts, with a certain level of resolution at the end.

The nebulous ARC gets center stage here, and as we discovered last issue, ARC senses and feels on a very unique plane.  It sensed the Doctor’s transformation into corporate lackey, and now it senses that its family is a fractured one.  The Doctor wants to bring ARC back to its home entity, Jones is still angry at the Doctor for his SERVEYOUInc. tenure, and Alice is angry at Jones for lecturing the Doctor.  As such, it decided to take matters into its own . . . hands? self? (how does one describe this?) and take the TARDIS on a ride back in time to find the Entity . . . but it’s an interrupted one where the TARDIS itself splits into four distinct iterations of itself.  (There’s your four dimensions. Roll credits!)

In one dimension, Alice tries to find the rest of the team, all alone.  In another, John Jones meets a creature (presumably the Talent Scout) who, just like in the last issues with the Doctor, promises him all his worldly desires. In a third, ARC confronts the Talent Scout, where a similar demand is made, only this time with a price: the TARDIS.  And in space, the Doctor floats above it all, powerless, helpless, without a body.   Will everyone be reunited to save the day?

The star of this story is the colorwork from Hi-Fi, setting up the four dimensions in color, using a base color for each: blue for John Jones, yellow for Alice, pink for ARC, and grey for the Doctor.  Coupled with frenetic linework from Boo Cook, you can feel in the pain in your own heart as the TARDIS is ripped four ways. We do not know what hit the TARDIS, nor do we need to know or care. It’s the impact and the aftermath that matters most.

Rough, asymmetrical panel shapes as our four principals work in their four dimensions (roll credits again!) add to that sense of urgency for the team to reunite before it’s too late.

Cook is also all in on the David Bowie metaphor; the form of the Talent Scout goes all in on the Labyrinth imagery as Jareth the goblin king, right down to the clear balls in his hand. And while it’s no Sarah Williams ballgown (you know the one), the ruffles on John Jones Pierrot costume are recognizable enough in this recreation of one of the most powerful scenes from the film throughout the issue, and you can hear Bowie’s “As The World Falls Down” in the back of your head as you follow Jones’s arc.

But I'll be there for you as the world falls down

But let’s get back to the use of color here.  Not only does it work to frame our four separate stories, it also works to bring them together.  As characters join Alice in the control room, the color scheme changes, first from green (when John joins), then to lavender when ARC appears to eradicate the Talent Scout from the TARDIS.

Notice I said “certain level of resolution” above. Much like Spider-Man: Far From Home closed out the Infinity Saga of the MCU, it also opened new doors: a reveal and setup for conflict for Peter Parker that certainly seems insurmountable at this point in time, and another that opens up ideas about the cosmic direction of the MCU. The same happens here: the Talent Scout may be off the TARDIS but he’s not out of the Doctor’s presence.  In fact, the Doctor deduces the order of meeting of this team and the Talent Scout and knows there’s one more appointment they have to make together.

And finally, one last question at the heart of this issue: why did ARC take over the TARDIS and defy the Doctor’s orders?

I think back to issue #10, where ARC sensed fear, and warned Alice and John to “fear him – he is coming!” That “he” that was to be feared was not the SERVEYOUInc. CEO, but the Doctor himself. This is the beauty of ARC: its ability to transcend the mortal plane of emotion. No doubt it knew the Talent Scout was going to be back. But it also knew that its principals needs to vanquish their own internal, temporary demons before it could take on the Talent Scout on their own turf. Alice needed to gain confidence in piloting the TARDIS, a growing acceptance of this wondrous life placed before her. John Jones needed to dig deep to find the confidence to chart his own course in life.  In keeping with the Labyrinth symbolism, his rejection of the Talent Scout’s offer are the exact same words Sarah utters at the end of the film to reclaim her own agency:  You have no power over me. And ARC knew that the Doctor was not the person to help Alice and John to these truths, hence the exile to space.

The one way that our TARDIS team will beat the Talent Scout is once they cast off their own baggage. And with that done, it’s time for the final showdown. Bring it on.

Next week, the TARDIS goes time-hopping from Rome in the 4th century to Berlin in the 1970s, and sins and old foes come to roost in issues #12 and #13, “Conversion”

If you’d like to read along with me this summer, all issues of the series, single and trade, are available on Comixology. 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.