Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor #4 - Titan Comics

DOCTOR WHO: THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR No. 4, November 2014

Considering just how sympathetic this title’s 13,411 strong audience probably were towards Alice Obiefune's personal plight, it’s incredible to think how unbelievably ungrateful and dislikeable Al Ewing somehow manages to make her within just this twenty-two page periodical's opening quarter. After all, hadn’t the Timelord’s latest female travelling companion “felt like her life was falling apart before she met” the Gallifreyan? Hadn’t his offer to show her “all the beauty and strangeness of the universe” helped lift her spirits following the death of her mother, being made redundant and getting evicted?

Somewhat shockingly, the British author would strongly suggest not, and in an especially unpleasant fit of churlishness has the former library assistant angrily scold the ‘madman with a box’ for failing to take her home in order to keep a solicitor’s appointment. Such disillusionment with time travelling, and a need to deal with the more mundane challenges of day-to-day life, may well have proved a palpable attitude if the person spouting such virtues had been an enduring confidant who had finally tired of their perpetual adventuring, such as Jo Grant or Tegan Jovanko. But not some condescending, ill-mannered youth whose life ‘amongst the stars’ had only just started, and to whom the Doctor had treated with nothing but compassionate kindness…

Sadly, the rest of Ewing’s script for Issue Four of “Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor” proves just as disagreeable as Alice’s new found petulant persona. True, the ‘murder mystery’ set on board “a remote space research facility” finally starts to deal with “the temporal trail of the slippery SERVEYOUinc corporation” encountered by the TARDIS crew just a couple of editions earlier. Yet it’s ‘fresh take’ on the machinations of the “humourless” August Hart, a conniving, vicious chief of security who seemingly is trying to cover up the actions of a “formless creature creeping through the station, stealing voices and inflicting comas on those research scientists unlucky enough to be caught”, hardly makes for the “terrifying space adventure” advertised by “Titan Comics”.    

Perhaps the most unsettling aspect to “Whodunnit?” though, is Boo Cook’s breakdowns. Undoubtedly competent in his ability to sketch a story, the penciller really does an interesting job of caricaturing actor Matt Smith and his wayward hair. However, the same cannot be said for many of his other figures, most notably Hart and John Jones. Indeed, the incoming artist’s glowering, consistently cross-faced drawings of Obiefune is another reason why the young lady's character is so utterly detestable within this comic.

Writer: Al Ewing, Artist: Boo Cook, and Colorist: Hi-Fi

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor #3 - Titan Comics

DOCTOR WHO: THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR No. 3, October 2014

Despite containing an incredibly sacrilegious re-imagining of the Third Doctor’s “hi-tech, yellow Edwardian roadster” into a disconcertingly large monster truck, and the somewhat low-key introduction of an additional travelling companion in the shape of “the ultimate pop star” John Jones, Issue Three of “Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor” probably still provided it’s 14,854 readers with plenty of light-hearted laughs and fun-filled action. For whilst Rob Williams’ narrative clearly has the onerous chore of having to explain the “tantalizing, achronological mystery” of his predecessor’s previous instalment, “What He Wants…” also manages to both turn Alice Obiefune’s emotional pain regarding the death of her mother into the key motivator behind the Timelord’s trip back to the “Dog & Duck” in 1962, and cause her subsequent harsh criticism of the Chameleon of Pop’s debut performance as the reason behind why “The Tall Pale Earl” would follow the disillusioned library assistant into a blue Police telephone box; “Oi! You two! I heard you two slagging me off outside the club. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.”

True, the former freelance journalist’s ensuing tale of “something stalking the bluesmen through the swamps of Mississippi” and “offering them talent beyond imaging, worlds at their feet – in exchange for their souls” is not a terribly well thought out storyline; especially as it once again relies heavily upon the extra-terrestrial corporation SERVEYOUinc and its inexplicable ability to provide people with “some sort of nasty, quick fix life-force enhancement”. But it does at least afford the lead protagonist with plenty of Matt Smith-sounding dialogue, a couple of pulse-pounding foot chases through a southern U.S. state in 1931, and John Jones’ quite hilarious abduction of the indoctrinated Gallifreyan from amidst an entire planation filled full of creepy mantra-chanting mind-controlled minions.

Most of these Machiavellian machinations are well illustrated by Simon Fraser, with the Scotsman’s rather stylised, bendy-looking figures appearing suitably frantic as the Timelord’s rubber-like physiology permits him to straddle wooden fencing, negotiate a barn-full of reprogrammed negro workers and be roughly dragged protestingly into the back of a giant-wheeled Bessie. However, sadly the same cannot be said for the rest of the artist’s pencilling, which, whenever tasked to deliver a character’s close-up or render something sedentary in nature, like Alice simply holding a conversation, appears disinteresting, poorly detailed and unattractively malformed.

The regular cover art of "DOCTOR WHO: THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR" No. 3 by Verity Glass

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor #2 - Titan Comics

DOCTOR WHO: THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR No. 2, September 2014

Selling 15,947 copies in September 2014, Al Ewing’s script for Issue Two of “Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor” must surely have bemused the vast majority of its audience with its bizarre trip to a world both the Gallifreyan and his (brand) new companion have apparently visited ten years before. Indeed, from the moment August Hart appears and chides the duo for having had him previously demoted to “Chief Security Officer of this… ridiculous little sideshow” the English comic book writer’s ‘wibbly wobbly timey wimey’ narrative becomes all a bit too silly, and even goes as far as to imply that the Timelord will ‘collect’ a second assistant at some point in the future; “Now, where’s the other one?”   

Sadly however, even before the appearance of the “classic bully with a bit of sadist thrown in”, the storyline for “The Friendly Place” is struggling to really do anything different from what the television programme has shown before. The premise of an overly friendly ‘holiday camp’ planet within which lurks a dark, “long-buried”, sinister secret has been seen previously in the 1967 serial “The Macra Terror”. Whilst a mental parasite feeding off “the desire… to make trouble”, and thereby pacifying society’s “problem elements” is far too close to the Keller Machine entity depicted in the 1971 transmitted tale “The Mind Of Evil”.

Disconcertingly, even Simon Fraser’s artwork for this “magical vacation” on an “austerity-hit pleasure planet” appears tired and lifeless. Admittedly, the Scottish artist’s initial breakdowns, illustrating the “mysterious” Doctor’s early exploration of the gaudily colourful Rokhandi World, are pleasant enough to the eyes. But his pencilling soon significantly deteriorates once the time travellers have decided to accept “a complimentary Rokhandi Floss” and enter the dimly lit monster’s lair. In fact, the longer the twenty-two page periodical plays out the more minimalist the artwork becomes, and it is almost as if Fraser spent so long carefully drawing his stunningly detailed splash pages of “the friendliest world for all” that he had scant time to finish the rest of the comic.

Criticisms as to the look and plot of this publication aside though, Ewing’s ability to replicate actor Matt Smith’s speech pattern, especially early on when the titular character is berating an “eerie, giant-headed” pig-costumed employee, genuinely brings a smile to the face, and is undoubtedly this book’s saving grace. It’s certainly very easy to hear the BAFTA Award-nominee’s voice and spoken inflection throughout the Doctor’s dialogue, with the Gallifreyan’s lecturing of Hart proving to be a highlight of an otherwise unremarkable and confusing climax…

Writer: Al Ewing, Artist: Simon Fraser, and Colorist: Gary Caldwell

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor #1 - Titan Comics

DOCTOR WHO: THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR No. 1, August 2014

Capturing the excitement, look, flavour and feel of a popular television series and placing it within a comic book format can be no easy task, especially when the subject matter is one that is as internationally well-known and loved as the British Broadcasting Company’s science fiction programme “Doctor Who”. However, “2000 A.D.” co-writers Al Ewing and Rob Williams would seem to have succeeded in doing just that with this initial instalment of a “stunning new era” for the Eleventh Doctor, and perhaps even more impressively, have additionally managed to specifically depict the awkwardly odd physical and vocal eccentricities of actor Matt Smith.

Admittedly, the title’s architects were never going to win any prizes for “After Life”, as it’s rather preposterous narrative somewhat haphazardly deals with both a “grieving young woman”, and a supposedly “terrifying cosmic threat”, as well as what the Timelord “gets up to when Amy and Rory aren’t around” following “the second Big Bang.” But as ‘companion introductory stories’ go Issue One of “Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor” should have amply entertained the vast majority of its 41,068-strong readership in July 2014, with its obligatory ‘bigger on the inside than the out’ interior TARDIS scene and a story depicting a depressed, self-doubting ‘new assistant’ who finally digs deep within herself and finds the strength, courage and resolve to find “a solution” which is “not just -- blowing things up!”; there’s even some nice panels featuring the modern-day inept U.N.I.T. who seem disconcertingly keen to disintegrate all and sundry.

All of these moments, whether they be dispiritingly sorrowful, or laugh out loud, are zanily illustrated by Simon Fraser and magnificently coloured by Gary Caldwell. In fact, a lot of the success of this ‘one-shot’ story has to do with just how well the characters are pencilled and the differing palettes used with which to appropriately colour them.

Devastated by the death of her mother, the misery and anguish of Alice Obiefune's loss is perturbingly magnified by the comic’s opening being predominantly populated by grey-scale pictures. Indeed, the only semblance of colour seen during the adventure’s early stages is the fleeting glimpse of a certain blue English Police box. This demoralising bleakness however, is then thrown into full vibrant life with the very sudden arrival of a “Rainbow Dog” and the Doctor sprinting after it; “Excuse me! Coming through!”

The regular cover art of "DOCTOR WHO: THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR" No. 1 by Alice X. Zhang