Comic Club: D11Y1.2 Serve You

Really enjoyed this volume.

The cliffhanger with the Serve You version of the Doctor contrasted against Alice’s hologram version is superb.

Summary

Somehow the artist has managed to capture exactly how I think Matt Smith would differentiate the role.

Loved the stuff with the two warring species (and the reveal that one lot are hamsters inside space suits) was great fun. Not sure about the weird focus on Jones gaining weight though.

The bit with Alice’s Mum and how she realised it was a trick and the whole Talent Scout stuff was great.

I am struggling to get a handle on Jones though. The dressing as a David Bowie tribute act is all a bit odd but I quite like the dynamic in the crew and Alice is awesome so I can live with it.

I thought the final part didn’t live up to the promise of the middle sections but overall, I’m really enjoying these. And I must have read these once before but didn’t remember 90% of these issues.

7 Likes

The Eleventh Doctor #7 - The Eternal Dogfight

Well this was better - back to a normal story and picking up Alice’s story again. I still don’t know why this was a “single episode” story though since it appears to actually be Part 1 of a longer story. Some interesting ideas here - how did Jones get overweight so quickly, what has eating the alien food done to him - and the unexpected cliffhanger with Alice’s mother came completely out of the blue! I’m guessing she is actually a shapeshifter, but how did they get into the alien spaceship - wouldn’t Alice have questioned that?

7 Likes

The Eleventh Doctor #8 - The Infinite Astronaut

I really enjoyed this one. Although the speed with which Alice found what she was looking for in the Library was incredibly unrealistic, I loved the way she figured out that her “mother” was an impostor and how this was then the direct cause of her surviving the trip through the gateway. I was also intrigued by the developing symbiosis of Jones & ARC first signposted much earlier.

Looking forward to the next issue now that the Talent Scout has been unmasked.

5 Likes

The Eleventh Doctor #9 - The Rise And Fall

Once again this one was all set-up and no payoff (yet). This single-episode thing really isn’t working for me. This and the previous story are clearly two-parters and I would rather have rated them as such.

Having said that, I did enjoy the issue and am intrigued to see where this is going. (What did the Doctor want?)

5 Likes

The Eleventh Doctor #10 - The Other Doctor

This left me a bit disappointed TBH. It had its good bits - for example I really liked the way Alice saving the day herself turned out to be “Plan Two” and the fact that all the innocent people got rescued and rehomed - but I found it a bit confusing - why couldn’t Jones see the holographic Doctor? How was ARC suddenly OK again at the end? And we still don’t know what it was that the Doctor wanted so badly that enabled the Talent Scout to trap him. I’m guessing this may not be the final end of the story as we still have another 5 issues to go though.

6 Likes

I liked space in dimension relative and time, it’s a really cool concept, and one that I don’t think would have worked in any other medium.
I liked the idea of the eternal dogfight/the infinite astronaut too, but the execution felt a bit odd at times.
With rise and fall/the other doctor, I like the characters, Alice especially is super cool, and I’d like to examine a bit more what ARC is but I’m just not a fan of the talent coach or the corporation as villains so these fall a bit flat for me.

6 Likes

Space in Relative Dimension and Time - Totally confused me at first but a neat gimmick that works well in comic form. Not a remarkable story but definitely a fun one

The Eternal Dogfight/The Infinite Astronaut - The first part gives a reasonably good setup, an interesting enough conflict. But my favorite aspect was Alice’s grief surrounding her mother and how it gets preyed upon. The ending is a tad anticlimactic but still visually nice to look at.

The Rise and Fall/The Other Doctor - I preferred this storyline more. I definitely picked up a lot more of the David Bowie lyric references in this one lol. It was interesting to see the Doctor become more fallible even with his desires to do good. And it’s always fun to have a companion step into the role of the Doctor.

7 Likes

I LOVE the 11th Doctor Comics, they’re very original and very engaging. Space in Relative Dimension and Time is so cool, and later on, there’s a story where each character is separated into a CMYK color. Peak stuff all around. Oh yeah, and David Bowie! (in everything but name)

5 Likes

That would be Four Dimensions, right?

3 Likes

Here we go again.. I’d argue this Set of Story is overall stronger than the last, which I already had a solid Time with, so this will be fun!

Space in Dimension Relative and Time: What a perfect Title! And what a fun Story, I read it a while back and really enjoyed it, it plays with its Format so well and uses the Fact that it’s a Comic to subvert your Expectations greatly. The Story itself isn’t particular strong, while fine, one cannot deny this one lives mainly from its ‘Gimmick’/Subversion of the Comic Medium, still my favorite of this Set

Eternal Dogfight: It’s alright, it’s mainly setting up Things for the next Story and while it does it in a competent solid Way it never really gives me much beyond that. Some great Character Bits here and there, but that’s just kinda about it. Like somebody else pointed out, the Treatment of Jones is just strange in this one, don’t really get at all what they were going for it.

The Infinite Astronaut: While much better than its previous Entry and while I really quite like how we delve into Alice’s Relationship with her Mum, I wish this one was fleshed out a bit more. I am not really sold on the Opening of this Story, but hey when Alice sits in the Spaceship and questions if that really is her Mother, that Moment was quite a Highlight and just showcases to me that Alice is a pretty great Character to explore.

The Rise and Fall: A fun one, it lives from its genius Premise mainly for me, I really liked this Story, and it felt oddly perfect for the eleventh Doctor. I also think it sets up Things much more interesting compared to Dogfight Eternal, which did it kinda what-ever. Great Cliffhanger and an enjoyable Issue!

The Other Doctor: I quite like how we use the Companions in this one, it’s very much focused on them and that’s quite nice. How the entire Story gets resolved is something I am not too particular fond of, but I still got enough Enjoyment out of this one.

7 Likes