Review: Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor (year 2) #1

Story:

“Looking for rest and relaxation, the Tenth Doctor and companion Gabriella Gonzalez take a trip to Earth Station Presley, a mining platform around an enormous gas giant – and home to one of the most spectacular sensory experiences in the universe!

The gas giant is a perfect example of human colonists living in harmony with indigenous life – in this case, the Shan’tee: conceptual beings perceived by humans as hauntingly beautiful music!

But the Doctor and Gabby are walking straight into a war.”

Read more about it at Goodreads

Review:

It’s year two of the tenth doctor adventures and we’re back to issue number one again so they can get more new readers. To be fair though it is a good starting place for new readers so there is some justification for renumbering the series back to number one. That being said they probably could have continued as they were. At least this isn’t as bad as when Marvel do it in the middle of a story.

This is the kind of story that benefits from being in comic form and is exactly what I want them to do. These are Doctor Who stories that they’d have a hard time telling on TV because it’s out of the scope of TV.

The world building feels well thought out and like they’ve put a lot of effort into it. The Doctor and Gabby arrive on a planet where humans live side by side with two other species. It’s all harmonious so you know it’s going to go wrong. It’s also kind of refreshing that humans can live with other species and the Doctor notes this too. Usually the humans end up being the problem and the Doctor has to save them from whatever they’ve made angry.

You’ve got the Bovodines who produce air for the planet and other gases that the humans trade with other worlds. Then there are the Shan’tee which are beings we can only perceive as living music. It’s just the right amount of weird mixed with science that Doctor Who does so well. I think the formula might be take some fantastical idea and add a physics word like quantum to make it science fiction.

It’s a very compelling story for mostly being stuck in one place with the crisis only happening at the end. Being a first issue it’s mostly set up. There’s almost a bit too much exposition between setting up how the three species live together, how the Shan’tee exist and the problem they’ve been having with the plague. But between Gabby’s enthusiasm for the beautiful planet and the constant music she can always hear and the interesting concept it doesn’t get boring.

The only thing is the cover is a bit boring and doesn’t really represent the tone of the comic. In the story everyone’s fairly happy until the end but the cover looks grim and generic. It’s just the Doctor and Gabby in front of the TARDIS looking serious. And the art is completely different to what’s inside which is not something I’m a fan of.

Year two starts off with a great issue and hopefully this run will continue to be better than the current episodes of the TV show. At least we’ve only got one more season and we get a new showrunner. The news of Moffat leaving actually made me feel like writing about Doctor Who again. So yay for that, I’m ready for a new creative team. And I can’t wait to read the next issue.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Next: Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor (year 2) #2

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