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I know, but he gets too little attention in other ways as well. There is very little other stuff with him as well. If you don’t count Big Finish there have only been 5 11 Doctors releases in the past 4 years. And only 2 that focus on him. If you look at this forum everyone is talking about the Twelfth Doctor all the time but very few mention Moffats best Doctor, Matt Smith.
That’s true! I wish they could continue the Eleventh Doctor Chronicles range with Jake Dudman or even get Matt to Big Finish and begin pumping out audios! Or give us more comics or books! A game! Anything!
Probably my favourite FCBD story, and I think I’ve read them all
Obsessions - 8/10 (Spoilers)
Just a brilliant character piece for Abslom.
When you sit down and think about it, there really are a lot of parallels between a post-Time War Doctor and Abslom Daak, and this story does a great job of showing that. The Doctor sees in Abslom who he could have been and can empathise with his current situation, but also knows that Abslom absolutely won’t listen to him if he tries to talk, so talks about that obsession to Alice while letting Abslom listen in.
The emotion you can see on his face when he finds his wife, and the contrast between that and the facade he puts back on when he comes back pretending he hadn’t, it’s just great.
This story does more to make me like Abslom as a character than the full previous volume, and with this level of writing for him I can’t wait to see more.
Overall, this story is fine, the way this year is all one long story and it’s split up so often does mean there’s often stories with a bit less to talk about though.
The art doesn’t really work for me in the first issue, there’s a panel where River looks like Four (she’s wearing his clothes, but still, her hair and face look off). It goes to a better one for the start of the second issue, but then goes back, it’s a bit weird and inconsistent, but when it does go back it’s better than it started
Great character moments with River knowing why Eleven looked for her and her way of reassuring him is great.
Four having wiped Shada from his memory is a fun little nod to the story’s fate. It doesn’t quite work with the multiple references to it in expanded media, but it’s still fun. The sentient computer too feels very Adams especially the way they were able to get away from it, with it not having any way to deal with Squire.
I also noticed that when the copies of all the characters show up, there’s one for Squire but they’re in the background in shadow, we don’t get to see them at all, I’m definitely interested in seeing where exactly this goes, and the cliffhanger that the Master was there but at least thinks The Doctor did it is interesting.
Overall though, it’s just another piece of the whole, and it’s a bit frustrating how long we have to wait to get any answers, just being drip fed small ones along the way… I guess it’s a good representation of the era because of it though.
Another issue of not much happening… but in a good way?
Unlike the other stories where the plot is moving forward, but at what feels like a snail’s pace, this story doesn’t pretend to be moving the plot forward, it lives up to it’s name and lets our characters have some Downtime.
Abslom is once again written really well here, returning to a bar where he’s gone off the rails before, here he’s just kind of sad. Once again we’re reminded that his reason to keep going has faded, and that he’s just kind of going through the motions a lot of the time at this point, it’s great stuff.
This also does some great stuff for Eleven too, as the doctor with the youngest face and oldest eyes, how does he respond to these atrocities he didn’t even know he did, he’s also just sad and needs time. His interaction with Squire as well is pretty interesting, especially with her just vanishing, definitely wonder what’s going on there.
River is unfortunately written pretty out of character with her interactions with Alice. Suggesting leaving her to The Then And The Now, basically to die, so that they can get away. There might be reason for this later, but for now it just feels off.
And then there’s The Dalek Collector, I love his interactions with Abslom, and that suit with the dalek bumps (sorry, etheric beam locators) is just really fun, and that final page reaveal looks great.
River continuing to act out of character, and The Doctor doing so too now, they’re just being mean to Alice for no reason and it’s really weird. Even after River gets put in stasis, Eleven continues to do so. It’s sort of implied that it’s maybe to convince her to do what she does at the end of the story, but even then I just don’t believe that that’s how Eleven would act if that even is the intent of that ending, and I don’t know if it is.
They also completely gloss over Ablsom’s reaction to seeing his wife again here. Sure there’s a full page splash of him swearing at Eleven, but that’s kinda it? And Eleven doesn’t seem to care at all, seemingly telling Abslom to hush, which somehow he then does???
There’s some really solid art here, but there’s also a lot that almost looks traced, it’s a very strange mismatch.
Also Squire’s back! I guess she didnt’ just vanish in the last issue, weird art choice there then. But regardless, she then almost immediately takes out the main problem of this whole series, and almost immediately almost dies.
I don’t know how to put it other than this feeling like an issue where a lot of things just kinda happen.
My problem with Eleven is that I enjoy his expanded media content way more than I do TV (I love season 5 but not so much 7 and definetely not 6). But Matt is tied to TV, only, for obvious reasons, so I don’t have much to say for Matt.
Like, I am sorry, but my favorite Eleventh Doctor perfomance isn’t even his.
On the topic of Titan Comics since I haven’t engaged much with the clubs (yet): Eleven’s Year Two irritates me a bit because it’s much, much more fanservicey. And while I do actually appreciate a lot of emotional beats in Year Two, I am so, so tired of the Time War at this point that I wish the writers chose other focal point.
The artists just didn’t communicate about what the Time War Wall was meant to look like apparently. It’s not a big thing, but it’s an inconsistency on something that’s meant to be a big part of this story.
That said, I’m not complaining about the art here at all, there’s some horrific imagery in there that I love.
It’s just a shame the story is oh so very ‘meh’ again.
I enjoy the idea of looking at the time war, I like War showing up at the end, I like the idea that Eleven set up Abslom to be Alice’s bodyguard in the time war… But again I don’t think that that’s how Eleven would go about all of this, I don’t think he’d be mean to her to get her to do what he’s planning, I think he’d just ask, and honestly I’m cheering Abslom on as he beats him up this issue.
More hints at the child, Alice’s flashes, The Then And The Now, but I honestly just kinda don’t really care at this point. Lets hope the final volume of year two brings me back.
See I really like time war related stuff, but this has probably been my least favourite Comic Club since we started. It’s just a whole lot of not really anything happening.
Eleven Year Two has been taking my least favourite aspects of his TV run and just doing those. Mystery boxes upon mystery boxes, with an ongoing plot that get it’s grubby little hands on every single story that.
Eleven is probably my least rewatched modern doctor because I love just jumping on and watchign a random story with family, but you just can’t do that with Eleven, even something more self contained will have some setup at the end of it to a story that never really gets a good resolution, and I kinda feel that’s what’s happening here.
Obsessions: some really nice insights into the doctor’s and Abslom’s psyche, I like that
The one: River! I really love how this ties with Shada, that story has so many interesting concepts
Downtime: this one is rather slow, but I do like how much these stories explore the doctor’s mental state
Running to stay still: feels like we’re actually advancing the plot, so that’s nice. The doctor is starting to be somewhat out of character to me though. I think the planet cut in half looks really cool
First Rule: quite the issue to end this volume on. The squire is dead, and Alice is in the Time War. And the war doctor! He looks really cool
The comics with the eleventh doctor have really cool concepts, but I have to say that something about their vibe just doesn’t really speak to me
