With Doctor Who coming back on TV last week I’ve been in the mood for more stories featuring the Doctor and his current companions. IDW’s timing fortunately is spot on with Doctor Who Special 2012 releasing this week. It contains four separate stories in its 50 pages so none are too long but they all are really fun in their own right. Making it even better is that each one has a different writer and artist. Things start off with “In-FEZ-station” which was really fun because Amy and Rory finally get to wear fez. Plus, the plan that the bad guys had been pretty hysterical. It reminded me of something the Mythbusters would test out. My only fault with the story, and it is a minor one, was with after all the time spent building up the ending was rather abrupt.
The next story is “Time Fraud” which could easily have been expanded into a full episode for the tv show. It has the Doctor’s trademark last second plan to save everyone while foiling the plot of the bad guy. It also has some great alien races in it that would be fun to see done at some point in the show. If not, hopefully they will at least be back in future comics. The third story, “Escape Into Alcatraz” features the Doctor going back in time to help an old friend. This story is fun because the Doctor went back even further in time and planted stuff to help his friend before actually going to 1962 to help him. Plus, the art style has this monotone look that fits with the era. The final story is “The Eagle of the Reich” and while it is the shortest one it reminds fans that the Doctor is so much smarter than everyone else and even when people do not believe him he is trying to help them.
While each of these stories if quite different in tone and atmosphere the recurring theme in them is that the Doctor takes care of his friends, and while he will not directly kill someone he will allow them to be killed by their own devices. Even going so far as to reprogram them if need be. He always tries to convince them to stop but when they do not they suffer. While Doctor Who’s stories do not generally get overly dark we do see this same theme carrying over into the television series. It has me excited to see where things are headed with the Doctor and the Ponds.
