I’ll be honest here and say I very nearly forgot about this one completely as I think of “The Prisoner of Time” (coming soon!) as IDW’s 50th anniversary story, but this was released actually during the 50th itself rather than in the run up to it so it also features some multi-Doctor action, albeit in a “barely counts but why not?” way. Also the story itself has plenty of fun Western tropes and some historical celebrities to boot, so let’s take a look!
The story starts in the town of Deadwood as an undead outlaw in a red mask is gunning people down by pointing his fingers at them and shouting “bang!”, a strange and frightening experience for the locals, including Calamity Jane, oddly Thomas Edison and a visiting Oscar Wilde. The Doctor and Clara soon arrive and begin investigating, including a fun Issue 1 cliffhanger of Clara seemingly being shot and The Doctor’s general confusion as to how and why Edison is there. After The Doctor gets a good look at the technology of the mysterious red mask and claims its host is merely an “echo” of its former self The TARDIS duo split up as The Doctor and Oscar Wilde head off to a hidden spaceship after the former waves his screwdriver around a bit while Clara and Calamity head off after the no-longer-masked stranger as Jane believes it to be the thought-dead Wild Bill Hickok.
At the spaceship The Doctor discovers Edison is being mind controlled by a race called the T’Keyn and that the one responsible for this, Sondrah, seems to have a personal grudge against the Time Lord, something extremely confusing for The Doctor as the T’Keyn and the Time Lords apparently always steer clear of each other. Sondrah reveals he’s going to put in a plea to have Earth eradicated by the T’Keyn leadership out of nothing but spite so The Doctor decides to meet him in the T’Keyn version of the Matrix. While in the virtual world The Doctor appears in all his incarnations (including the War Doctor, making what I believe to be his first expanded media appearance) and as they all debate and/or berate Sondrah his reaction to the Tenth Doctor tips the current incarnation off to the fact that Sondrah himself is being mind controlled much like he’s doing to Edison. They break contact due to Oscar following orders and destroying the T’Keyn machines and the duo escape the ship with Edison, who The Doctor eventually frees.
I mean they may all be talking to one enemy rather than each other, but still feel it counts for this marathon…
Meanwhile Clara and Calamity find Wild Bill in a barn, but it’s not really him or at the very least it’s a walking corpse brought back via the mysterious mask. Clara and Jane manage to calm him down somewhat and the trio head back to town and eventually find out that a large army of mask-revived corpses with lots of high-tech guns have just wiped out the Cavalry and are heading towards them. The Doctor and Oscar (now ironically wearing the Eighth Doctor’s clothes) arrive just in time to face down the massive army…
I think the most striking thing about the story is the artwork. I wasn’t surprised to find out it was done by Mike Collins, a veteran comic artist who has worked on DWM comic strips in the past. The few changes of setting works well, and there are lots of Western tropes to get stuck into as well, so it’s good fun all round, really.
The Continuity:
The fact they did a Western story and still had a non-Cowboy wear the Eighth Doctor’s clothes is a top class gag (for those of us deep enough in the continuity, anyway…)
There are many references to other Who media on and off but nothing major. I will mention that Doctor Who has done Westerns on TV twice in the pasts, with First Doctor story “The Gunfighters” and Eleventh Doctor story “A Town Called Mercy”.
There is also something towards the end (a.k.a. in the Spoiler section) that loops this final IDW comic back round to its original one, Tenth Doctor comic “The Forgotten”, which is actually coming up (much) later in this marathon…
Overall Thoughts:
Pretty much the only image that will come up if your search Google for “Doctor Who Dead Man’s Hand”
When I had to almost scramble to fit this in after forgetting about it I almost felt resentment towards it, but after reading all four issues I can say I really enjoyed myself! Some of the guest historical characters worked well, the plot kept changing locations and scenery enough that it never got visually dull and the artwork was great. Sure it doesn’t have the most exciting solutions to any of the problems (very Eleventh Doctor sonic-wavy) but I still recommend giving it a shot if you ever end up able to read it.
The Doctor manages to hit an EMP pulse that stops the masks and weaponry of the invading army temporarily, leading to Clara, Calamity and Wild Bill heading to destroy the T’Keyn power station hidden in a barn. They find themselves unable to destroy it remotely so Bill steers a cart full of explosives into the power station personally, claiming to know he’s already dead and that he just wanted to rest, something Jane couldn’t come to terms with.
An imposing sight today, let alone in the 1800s…
Due to the explosion The Doctor and Oscar are able to take the TARDIS through a newly opened T’Keyn portal and meet face-to-face with Sondrah as he tries to convince the T’Keyn leader to destroy Earth. It’s here where The Doctor names the parasite controlling Sondrah: the “Es’Cartrss of the Tactires”, or the parasite from IDW’s first Doctor Who story “The Forgotten”. The T’Keyn leader is unconvinced so hears the arguments for and against the destruction of Earth and is convinced to keep the planet due to a rousing speech by Oscar Wilde. Sondrah is taken away and the T’Keyn leader claims that the parasite will be dealt with, so The Doctor heads back, puts all the historical celebrities back in their rightful places and then heads back off in the TARDIS with Clara as we get a thank you message from the IDW staff, this being their final Who story.
Hogan Reviews 