Fallen Angels is excellent… and has a pre-Master Sacha Dhawan.
5 Likes
Who is this supposed to be?!?!
6 Likes
Read the Lodger. I found it to be great. I did not know that the episode was based on a comic. I think that it worked great with Micky and Ten.
5 Likes
Yeah… one of ugliest panels ever in DWM publication history… if not THE ugliest…
3 Likes
Is this the one where they are doing a Trisha / Jeremy Kyle spoof? To be fair, I think the whole strip is supposed to be a sort of caricature - but yes, doesn’t look great.
4 Likes
Finished writing my reviews for the John Wagner-Pat Mills-Dave Gibbons era of the comics. They’re all very spoilery and I didn’t blur it this time, so do not expand or open them only if you don’t want SPOILERS.
City of the Damned - ★★★½☆
It’s is an interesting story. It has strong brutal emotional moments that take advantage of the very bleak nature of the scenes to make its point. It works, a lot of pages stuck in my head; the opening scene is a punch to the gut and the ending however optimistic is also very bittersweet. There is a very unique kind of grief that will haunt the people of this city of the damned for the rest of their lives.
City of the Damned is a tale of a city its people let go of their emotions for the greater good. It’s a cautionary tale of how hurtful that can be, of how important emotions are to our sense of self - and of how that self itself is something so much valuable. And of course, the Doctor arrives at the heart of the matter, making it his mission to bring back emotion to a souless city.
With a premise like this it’s really hard not to think of the Cybermen, since they have already a strong hold in an extremely similar premise and are one of the most iconic recurring villains of the show. So I question a bit if this shouldn’t have been an actual Cybermen story, but I also think there is interesting arguments to make about how humanity can perpetuate in very distinct scenarios the worst it has to offer.
I like the characters. The habitants of the city are for the most part very stoic, which is the point and hits HARD. As I just said, the opening scene is powerful. I am not sure I love ZEPO as comic relief characters, but I appreciate that they give a single emotion to each of them - it makes so much sense that after living an entire life without feelings there is something you feel so strong about you’ll latch to it. I also love the Brain Trusts design. I really like the slugs But the strongest character is surely the city itself.
I have a bit of a problem with the designs though. I love the city itself and there is nothing wrong with the designs in a vaccum (they are really good, actually), but the aesthetic brings a lot from 2000 AD/Judge Dredd (which is to be expected with a creative team made of John Wagner, Patt Mills and Dave Gibbons). That can be felt in other stories in this run too, but City of the Damned and the later The End of the Line is when it’s most noticeable. And besides I not being the biggest fan of it (just not usually my cup of tea), I have mixed feelings if it fits Doctor Who. I like to think that anything can fit in Doctor Who, but I don’t know.
But please don’t misunderstand me - the art is gorgeous.
Timeslip - ★★★☆☆
Timeslip is a short story, not only because it has eight pages but also it’s quite simple. The Doctor and K9, in the TARDIS, are taken by surprise by a creature travelling through the cosmos that sees the TARDIS and think - yummy!
I like Timeslip. Sure, it could have been even stronger if it actually had anything to say through the “deregeneration”, but the art gorgeous and very evocative. I adore the design of the creature, the page that depicts the “deregeneration”, and that page layout of the Doctor pulling the lever is beautiful. I can’t say it hasn’t high stakes, but the solution being pulling a lever is a bit anticlimatic. But oh well, it’s not like you could’ve done much more within this premise in only eight pages.
The Star Beast - ★★★½☆
Probably the most iconic story of the Doctor Who Magazine, but it’s a bit overrated. Most whovians must be well acquainted with the premise of The Star Beast now it had a TV adaptation, but here we go: a ship crashes in an English city (in this version what I believe is a fictious town, Blackcastle), and local girl Sharon Davies rescue a defenseless creature being chased by horrible monsters. And of course, wherever is trouble there is the Doctor.
I actually prefer the comic version to the TV one, simply because I think the alien characters are much better utilised and the plot is better structured. The Wrath Warriors in special are both more interesting and terrifying here, and the conflict between them and Beep the Meep is better developed. I can’t deny the adaptation has stronger emotional moments though, but it’s less because of anything to do with the originals ideas from The Star Beast and more because it’s a reunion of the Doctor and Donna that just hit in the feels. I like the visuals in both fairly enough, but I dislike the conclusion to the TV episode.
And then there is Sharon. I actually like her here, it’s a really strong introduction and probably the most emotional scene is courtesy of her; when she yells at Beep how horrible he is and that she will never make the mistake of so easily trusting again. It’s a bit tragic, actually. Her innocence was just robbed from her. But it frustrates me in retrospect because she’s so good here and I just hate the path they took her character. It’s not really The Star Beast’s fault, of course, but I can’t completely dissociate it from the rest anymore as long as Sharon is concerned.
And there is also an actual problem, and it’s the Meep. Or rather the reveal that he is evil, which I didn’t try to hide at all since everybody probably knows already anyways. I like the character, I like his background, but the comic ruins its own twist by showing the reader way too early that he’s evil by telling us so through his thought bubbles and evil faces when nobody is looking. It’d have worked much better is there was just ambiguity to his actions until the climax, when he mind control a bunch of people, Sharon included, and the reader was left to wonder who to trust.
Totally understandable why this is so iconic, but it’s a flawed classic.
The Dogs of Doom - ★★☆☆☆
I don’t like the aesthetic. The way the werelox look was obviously intentionally disturbing, but it being intentional doesn’t make me hate it any less. And I consider it a personal attack because werewolves are one of my favourite horror creatures ever, and almost every time Doctor Who do a take on them I don’t like it much. But this one is just… ugh. I also don’t appreciate one of them becoming a central character and then being the comic relief because of the contrast of crazyness and violence going on, just not my thing.
I have to admit to that cliffhanger of the Fourth Doctor transforming in one of them is gold. That part of trying to find a cure is the best one too.
It also has this aesthetic my mind insists in calling 90s’ (this is actually how I picture VNA’s Ace vibe being without having read any of them yet) even though this was written in the 70s’ and I logically know, however limited my fashion knowledge may be, it much more representative of the 70’s than the 90’s… not my cup of tea. I don’t like tea at all, actually. It’s also one of those that feels a bit 2000 AD, but this one fits Doctor Who a bit better tho.
What I like is Babe. She is a sweetheart, I cared when for a second I thought they were going to kill her. Perhaps they should’ve, since it ends up being so gutless for what turns out to be a DALEK story. And that’s is another problem I have with The Dogs of Doom. Let’s actually talk premise.
The worst werewolf-adjacent species in the history of fiction is causing chaos throughout space, going planet by planet infecting innocent humans that suffers through the worst fate anyone can go through: becoming a werelox too. I hate it, but it’s a fun “invasion” story that was playing with “zombie tropes but make it the ugliest werewolves ever to exist”. Then by the middle of the road all we meet the Daleks, who are of course behind it all.
The story ends up much less fun than it was to that point simply because we know who the Daleks are, and they are a much more serious threat than the werelox. Not only that, but as much as I dislike the creatures themselves the elements of horror and cruelty at the first half coming from them were actually efective, but introducing the Daleks just make them even less serious because now they are just scared (psycho) pawns. There is just a whiplash by the villain swap that I dislike.
Also, Sharon doesn’t do anything.
This is the last of the Pat Mills/John Wagner run and given that I enjoyed their other three stories, I wish they ended with a stronger one.
5 Likes
I’ve got this era sitting on my bedside table waiting for me! Really excited.
3 Likes
It’s the same for basically all of year two.
2 Likes
The Dogs of Doom - 5/10
Sharon, our new companion, get her first outing here and gets to do… absolutely nothing, it’s like they just forgot she was there.
The wereloks are fairly bog standard monsters, but they’re pretty fun for what they are and there’s some good moments with them. Their initial attack infecting some people who they let get away to turn when they’re on the inside, and I think the highlight of the story was Four’s turning into a werelok for a minute. I like how he uses the TARDIS as a lab, it taking three months to make the cure, but him them coming back in 10 minutes real time. That whole sequence of the monster within destroying the equipment to stop him while he’s fighting for control, K9 zapping him when he goes too far, is great.
And then there’s the Daleks… Their plan here just feels really off, they’re using the wereloks to clear the planet, reasonable so far, but they want to turn it into a breeding ground? It’s never really explained why they want to use New Earth for it and not anywhere else, if anything there’s reasons given that it might not be a good idea with new Earth being smaller than Earth. Also like, is there anything wrong with Skaro at this point in continuity? And then on top of that, they want to take parts of other creatures and add them to daleks to make them even more sly or cunning or whatever they’re taking, which like, goes against the entire point of the daleks?
The hypnotised werelok also just didn’t work for me, he keeps too much of his personality and that to feel like he’s just been hypnotised, it feels like they wanted to use one as a temporary companion, but didn’t want to have to introduce a good one because that goes against them too much and so they just did this which ends up feeling a little lazy.
3 Likes
I initially gave it a 5/10 too. But more I think about it, the less I like. Love Babe tho. She should’ve died.
2 Likes
It was definitely between a 4 and 5 for me
1 Like
I know that Panini has been releasing collections of the main DWM comics, but I’m not if many of the backup comics have been collected. Also, when are we going to a collection of the various DWM short stories?
3 Likes
I think they did because I saw this on Amazon some weeks ago
4 Likes
Yep all the back up strips, as far as I know, are in those two volumes.
4 Likes
Now we just need the short stories.
3 Likes
Two volumes, I’ve read both.
Some are very good, but it’s a real mix of quality. Definitely worth it though.
3 Likes
The Time Witch - 7/10
Now this is another just delightful story (provided you don’t think too hard about the villian having gone through an eternity of torment and just take the comic’s word that she must’ve been evil enough to deserve it.
The idea of a ‘blank universe’ where anything you think gets created is great, I’ve seen similar things before but how it’s done here is delightful. The back and forth conflict between The Witch and Four almost reminded me of The Oldest Game from Sandman. The ending with Four tricking her into imagining her imprisonment, trapping her again, is inventive and works really nicely.
Sharon again doesn’t get too much to do here, but is at least present which is a change from the last one.
The very end of the comic does feel really weird though, aging Sharon up from 16 to 20 is… an interesting creative choice. I’m a little worried for what it means of the future of the comic, are they going to give her romantic interests and that because she’s still mentally just 16. It’s a really weird thing that is just kind of glossed over
4 Likes
Five down, 210 to go!
4 Likes
It’s one of the comics that I think DWM executed the concept better later in their publication, but I like it.
2 Likes
