When you take a wrong turn and end up at the end of the world…what do you do? Jack and his companion Tara find themselves in this exact situation, but have a trump card with rather large ears and a leather jacket – the Ninth Doctor. Unfortunately rescue attempts fail and Jack and Tara get sucked up into…time? space? the Upside Down? It’s up to another face of the Doctor, this one a cranky Scotsman with wild white hair, to set things right – but he’s going to need some very familiar faces to get this job done. Complicating matters: whatever kidnapped Jack and Tara has made its way to Earth…and is causing its own mischief with the human race.
Written by George Mann & Cavan ScottCover by Rachael Stott
Illustrated by Rachael Stott, Cris Bolson, Pasquale Qualano, Elton Thomasi, Klebs Jr., and JB Bastos
Colored by Rod Fernandes
Lettered by Richard Starkings and Comicraft’s Jimmy BetancourtTrust him, he’s the Doctor. Or, Doctors. There’s a couple of Doctors in the house, and we’re going to need all of their help in order to set time and space properly again. “The Lost Dimension” is the comic to bridge the gap while we all wait for Christmas and Jodie Whitaker’s debut.
Despite being an obsessive Doctor Who fan, I could never get into any of the comic spinoffs. There was something about this large tie-in universe that seemed like too much time and effort to get invested in – comics, audio adventures, novels – and there’s only so many hours in the day. Thus, I stuck with the TV show only, but when the opportunity of a new Doctor Who comic serial came on board, I thought it was high time to revisit the possibility of the Whovian comic universe.
“The Lost Dimension,” as a limited run series, is that perfect comic for those that are looking to try a spinoff. Predictably, our current Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) is leading this effort, but there are enough cameos by companions, supporting cast, and previous Doctors to keep longtime fans or casual watchers entertained. This is not the book to give to someone in your life looking for an introduction to Doctor Who – there’s no character explanation; it is assumed that the reader knows who everyone is. Mann and Scott have given us enough exposition, humor, and a cliffhanger to get things started without falling prey to the Steven Moffatt School of Writing motto of “be so clever because you can” that leaves the audience bored or lost (or both) within minutes.
Our illustrators of Stott and company shine here. It’s no easy task to draw a world that is best known in three dimensions into two dimensions, and one with a passionate fan base – you can tell that they have watched episodes of the show over and over to get their likenesses right. Their brush strokes give life to the wild hair on Capaldi and Tennant, Osgood’s glasses, Nardole’s overly shiny square-shaped head – pencil and ink work that does these actors and characters proud. Our illustrators also use specific drawing styles to draw the reader’s eye to scenes of importance. Those panels with the Doctor or his companions are rendered in greater detail than, for example, a series of panels with an interview with UNIT’s Kate Stewart.
Colorist Rod Fernandes has also done his homework – Capaldi’s piercing light blue eyes and Matt Smith’s pink shirt and deep red bow tie are exactly how I remember them from TV. Fernandes has also captured each era of the TARDIS interior perfectly – from the steampunk-inspired Tennant TARDIS in its multitudes of brown to the clean white minimalist interior of the early 80s. And like his illustrator colleagues, Fernandes knows how to use color to highlight what is important to the reader – the aforementioned interview with UNIT has a flatter, less detailed color palette than scenes in the TARDIS where you can see every shade gradient under the sun. The color work is not without its flaws. I don’t remember Peter Davison’s cricket suit being that dark of a beige, and there’s some odd shadowing around Matt Smith’s face that I can’t seem to figure out the source. Finally, our letterers of Starkings and Betancourt give us typeface and sound effects that complement the colors and illustrations – including spot-on renditions of that TARDIS startup chime/wheeze we know and love.
Any comic based on an existing pop culture property has several inherent risks. It can just shoehorn characters into a completely original story just for the name recognition (and in turn, higher sales), or it can overuse cameos for the sake of fanservice. Thus far, “The Lost Dimension” has struck the right marks in both these areas – an original story that works well with the established property, with enough appearances by beloved folks to keep the deep-rooted fans entertained. I hope that this team can keep up the good work put forth in this debut – and make this TV Who fan into a Who comic fan.
Final Verdict: 7.5 – This is a comic for longtime Whovians, and it will be a great way to keep my appetite sated until this Christmas when we meet Jodie Whitaker.
