As Doctors Ten and Eleven continue to live on in the pages
of new comic books, one series for each Time Lord, Peter Capaldi’s twelfth
incarnation has been bringing layer of dark grittiness to the airwaves every
week for the last few months. But that’s not enough for him, oh no, the newest Man from Gallifrey is also
getting his very own monthly title from Titan Comics. Clara is along for the
ride, too, though she’s still having some issues coming to terms with the
Doctor’s new face, and personality. It’s also getting increasingly difficult to
juggle her teaching duties with adventures through space and time—she’s one of
the cool teachers, even though the kids call her Ms. Oddwald or Ms. Oddbod.
Clara’s school kids are about to embark on a weekend ski
trip, to which she is playing chaperone, while the Doctor rails against how
humans the great lengths to go beautify what he calls their “packaging.” First
thing out of the gate he makes fun of Doctor Eleven and his penchant for
wearing bow ties, a fez and using the word “cool.” This newer, grumpier Time
Lord apparently has no time for such frivolity. And the biggest thing, Clara
doesn’t know how to ski, so the good Doctor is going to teach her before the
outing. Of course on a planet with ice sharks, this is an even more challenging
task than usual. Imminent fear of death, that’s one way to teach.
As you can imagine, things don’t quite go as planned, and
instead of an icy world, they wind up in a sweltering jungle. Hmm, curious. When
they investigate the unexpected change, it leads them somewhere they never
expected, uncovering a ruthless planetary engineering operation, an ancient
Gallifreyan message—the remnants of an early warning system of sorts—and the
rise of an unknown new enemy. As Clara says, they’re getting into
we’re-all-going-to-die-now territory.
You also probably imagined that there’s a thinly veiled
message about messing with the environment, especially doing so when all you
hope to do is turn a profit. This is actually also a point that pops up regularly
in the Eleventh Doctor series as well. Whatever his form, he doesn’t approve of
people doing shitty things for shitty reasons.
While the other titles in the Doctor Who
series—Ten, Eleven, and a just-announced Ninth Doctor, which should be an
interesting time—are all essentially
starting over, Twelve just kind of jumps into the middle. The others already
had their conclusions, and pick up in a time not covered by the series, as they
explore previously unknown adventures. A key part of the early going is that
they have to pick up new companions. But as you already know, this Doctor
already has one in place, with an established rapport, so they hit the ground
running a little bit faster. After all, we’re less than ten episodes of
Capaldi’s reign, so it’s all still building, and this feels like a part of
that.
Written by Robbie Morrison, who has worked on titles like
Judge Dredd, Wildcats, and
Nikolai Danta, among many others, this is definitely a
cranky old man version of the Doctor, and that’s a pretty good time. But there
are also tons of the trademark wackiness you expect from Doctor
Who, like singing robots and hat-stealing skunk monkeys. It does bog
down a bit in the technical minutia of the terraforming for a bit. A tech
starts explaining the process and before you know it, it’s two pages later and
you’re like, huh? Luckily for you, this Doctor doesn’t have time for such
trifles, and isn’t afraid to say so.
All in all, this is, like the others, decently entertaining.
Thus far all the others Doctor books have taken a few issues to really get
rolling and hit their stride, and while this one picks up a bit faster, there’s
still some work to do. Still, they’re really just laying the groundwork, and
you definitely get the feeling that we’ll get there before long.
If you still need some convincing to check this out, here’s
a trailer for the comic that definitely trades on the more serious, sinister
overall tone.
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