Day two of the Multi-Doctor catch up marathon and it’s another Tenth / Thirteenth Doctor crossover, and weirdly it follows on from the last one from the perspective of Doctor 13 but the Tenth she encounters is from a different point in his timeline, so we get a repeat of the earlier Doctor meeting 13 for the first time from his perspective scene (due to the whole earlier incarnations not remembering multi-Doctor stories thing) Ah well, either way it’s another quick four-issue jaunt though this time its more heavily connected to an actual Thirteenth Doctor TV story rather than a Tenth, so that’s … something! Let’s take a look…
Picking right up after the cliffhanger from the previous story the Thirteenth Doctor and her companions Yaz, Ryan and Graham arrive on Earth but one that has been enslaved by the Sea Devils for some time now, enough that a version of Rose Tyler that has only known fighting them off as part of a resistance her whole life. While Doc 13 and “fam” head off and start dealing with the Sea Devils (with the help of Jackie and Pete Tyler) the Tenth Doctor meets this new Rose but due to the time paradox that caused all this she doesn’t recognise him, which for this Doctor is an extra stab in the heart, or um, hearts. He still picks her up in his TARDIS though, despite her love of carrying around a large gun, meanwhile his older incarnation and co find out that the Sea Devils aren’t the only issue here and that the Skithra are also on Earth and in charge of them.
If that’s your sole reason for slaughter then shouldn’t you also slaughter yourselves?! Hmm?!
The Skithra, if like me you don’t remember right away, were the foes from the Nikola Tesla episode, and sure enough that’s where this paradox happened, though not due to the Skithra Queen as she is here in the “present” as this one in fact on humanity’s side. The Thirteenth Doctor realises that she must go back to 1903 and save Tesla once again and invites the more friendlier Skithra Queen along for the ride, but during the journey in the vortex she bumps into the Tenth’s TARDIS. Doc 13 explains that he is in the middle of the paradox and due to the rules of multi-Doctor stories he doesn’t remember what happened anyway so she sends him a “data packet” before their two TARDISes merge and the Tenth Doctor and Rose appear on the Thirteenth’s ship, ready to lend a hand in rescuing Nikola Tesla once again…
Much like “A Little Help From My Friends” this story is short both in terms of page length and on any real substance. The art is once again fine but this time I felt there were way too many weird cartoony expressions, especially for the Thirteenth Doctor, for some reason. Occasionally took me out of a story a bit…
The Continuity:
An alternate Rose Tyler who’s a bad ass? Somehow NOT very original… That’s Doctor Who for you…
This is a sort-of sequel / re-do of the Thirteenth Doctor TV story “Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror”, as well as a sequel to the previous Tenth / Thirteenth Doctor team up “A Little Help From My Friends”. The alternate Rose Tyler seen here reappears in the Eighth / Eleventh Doctors team up “Empire of the Wolf”. Also due to having a version of Rose Tyler in it there are several mentions of some of her key moments, like Ninth Doctor TV story “Father’s Day”, and Tenth Doctor TV stories “Army of Ghosts / Doomsday” and “The Stolen Earth / Journey’s End”.
As for the Sea Devils, they first appeared in the Third Doctor TV classic “The Sea Devils” and more recently appeared with the Thirteenth Doctor in real life with the story “Legend of the Sea Devils”, which is anything but a classic sadly. It’s also mentioned here that the Sea Devils in question that first arose were the same ones from the Twelfth Doctor Titan comic story “The School of Death”.
While it technically happens during the “Spoiler” part of this review I’ll mention here that the Thirteenth Doctor’s appearance in the Tenth Doctor’s “Defender of the Daleks” comic happens in the last few moments of this story.
Overall Thoughts:
This was actually the opening, if not the cliffhanger from the previous story but you know, limited scans available sadly…
“Alternating Current” had a more focused story with more going on but at the end of the day it still wasn’t up to much. The main plot wasn’t all that interesting and seeing a tougher Rose with a large gun isn’t anything new either, plus the Sea Devils and Skithra aren’t as interesting a double act as the Weeping Angels and the Autons, not that the previous story did much with either anyway. Basically it’s much the same: if you want a 10/13 crossover then you’ll get that, but you won’t get a lot else…
Not actually much to mention here, they arrive in 1903 only to find out that both Tesla and Edison have already gone missing so head up to the Skithra mothership where the Tenth Doctor and all the companions head to a lab and… free the two scientists and head back to the TARDIS without incident, while Thirteen and the Skithra Queen heads to the 1903 Skithra Queen and the two Queens fight for like a single panel and then the ship is set to explode and everyone leaves. That’s it.
An earlier Doctor meeting a Thirteenth Doctor era alien species, that’s a new one! … Mostly because the Thirteenth Doctor era doesn’t have many memorable aliens, but hey-ho.
The two scientists are dropped off back in their own time, the Tenth Doctor promises to take this other Rose somewhere she can make a difference because this Earth isn’t her Earth, and the Thirteenth Doctor pops off and then pops back again (the aforementioned “Defender of the Daleks” cameo) and when she returns she’s met with her “Fam” and the Corsair, leading into the next Thirteenth Doctor comic! … which has yet to materialize and frankly at this point are unlikely to ever do. Oh well!
Hogan Reviews 