“The Forgotten” was a big deal at the time of its release as it was pretty much the first bit of media to properly connect “Classic Who” with “NuWho”, with the then-current 10th Doctor strolling down memory lane in a museum dedicated to himself but with no memories of his previous lives. It’s sort of like “The Eight Doctors” but less about Terrence Dicks patting himself on the back. Sadly though as the series progresses the art gets worse and worse until the final issue has some of the worst likenesses I’ve ever seen. At the time I ignored it because “classic and old Doctors next to each other!” but now, when that concept is old hat? Let’s take a look…
As mentioned the story kicks off with The Doctor, in his Tenth incarnation, and Martha Jones wandering around a museum, no real memory of how they got there. The Doctor soon notices all the artefacts are of people or places he’s visited and then he’s pointed to an exhibition of his old selves… just as a mysterious goateed figure presses a button and erases his memories of before his Tenth body. This sets in motion the next few issues as The Doctor grabs an artefact relating to each of his past selves and recalls a story for each, though unlike say “Prisoners of Time” these stories are far more brief. The Doctor touches the First Doctor’s walking stick and remembers a quick jaunt he, Susan, Barbara and Ian had in ancient Egypt; his Second self’s recorder has him remember an incident on a space station when it was invaded by large alien snakes and he stopped them by playing a snake-charming melody; and the keys to Bessie remind him of his Third self and when he, the Brig and Jo (who looks nothing like Jo, an early case of the poor likenesses!) were being chased by humanoid dogs riding giant robotic spiders which, um… didn’t feel in-keeping with the era at all, but whatever, they’re defeated thanks to the Sonic Screwdriver (also far more a modern thing…)
Back in the museum The Doctor and Martha are attacked by Autons but blast them back with Nitro-9, which is followed by The Doctor’s realisation that he can’t sense the TARDIS, and the key isn’t giving off any signal either. While trying to deal with that The Doctor touches some jellybeans from his Fourth self and remembers a time when he and Romana escaped a 17th century sewer guarded by a minotaur in Paris (at least that weirdness fits Doctor #4…) and then touches a cricket ball to remember his Fifth self, Tegan and Turlough at a time when he tricked a Judoon platoon by switching the “Eye of Akasha” they were looking for with a cricket ball. After a quick break to save Martha from some Metebelis III spiders he touches his Sixth self’s cat brooch and remembers when he saved Peri from a court of animal people who were sentencing her for murder but he managed to prove it was the victim’s assistant who did it with “Quantum Flux technology”, and then touches the Seventh Doctor’s umbrella and remembers a time he carried a cure for a deadly Gallifreyan virus that had been unleashed on a planet and used it to save its people alongside Ace.
I do like the monochrome effect in the First and Second Doctor flashbacks…
The Doctor unscrews the umbrella and drinks the same restorative and gets a boost of energy and clarity, hearing the TARDIS cloister bell despite being in a museum and begins to question some of the knowledge Martha had shown. Before he could get to the bottom of it a Clockwork droid and a VOC Robot appear and attack, then we see The Doctor laying in his TARDIS console room with a mysterious creature wrapped around him, so that’s the big reveal out of the way with a couple of issues left. Odd decision, that… Anyway, back is what is now clearly established as a dream the Doctor grabs a hold of his Eighth self’s cravat and remembers… ah, his TV movie-looking self fighting in the Time War. Well, that story has been thoroughly retconned now! Ah well, The Doctor is in a prison cell and eventually escapes with a “great key” that can build the De-mat gun, but he hopes he and his people won’t have to use it. The Tenth remarks how that incarnation started and ended alone (that part is still true!) and ended the Time War by using the Great Key to turn “the lock” and doom everyone (that part, not so much…) The Doctor then touches some psychic paper and remembers when his previous self took Rose to a World War I trench on Christmas Day to show her the infamous “both sides play football in no man’s land” moment.
With all his memories restored The Doctor is now confident again, but is suddenly confronted by the mastermind behind all this, and it’s the Tenth Doctor with a dodgy goatee calling himself the Valeyard? (although again, we’ve seen what the actual culprit is, so that cliffhanger kind of falls flat…) Again it’s a fun little story, and a great mix of the different eras when it was released, but now it’s just… okay, with a final part still completely ruined by the artwork…
The Continuity:
This is the second time in this marathon that the Tenth Doctor has mentioned or has had the idea mentioned that a Doctor in front of him is the Valeyard. Odd that…
Quite a bit, but I won’t be mentioning the overwhelming amount of objects in cases seen during the story, for the sake of my own sanity. The biggest one is that the main enemy of this story returns in “Prisoners of Time”, which appeared earlier in this marathon due to me working backwards, and it claims to have entered the TARDIS during the events of Tenth Doctor series final “The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End”. Seen with prominent roles are the Judoon, who first appeared in the Tenth Doctor TV story “Smith and Jones”; the Autons, who first appeared in Third Doctor debut story “Spearhead From Space” (and a million other stories besides); VOC robots from Fourth Doctor classic “The Robots of Death”, and a Clockwork droid from Tenth Doctor episode “The Girl in the Fireplace”.
As I mentioned The Doctor losing his memory and then regaining them incarnation by incarnation was the plot of Eighth Doctor book “The Eight Doctors”, though that involved The Doctor actually visiting his past selves. We also get yet another reference to Susan leaving in “The Dalek Invasion of Earth”, which if you count the recently released “Once and Future: The Union” this is the first of two times The Tenth Doctor and Susan meet to reminisce, but here she’s not really her and in Once and Future he’s not really him…
Overall Thoughts:
Here it is, the legendary image! Why is the Fifth Doctor now a woman? Why is The Third Doctor now 18? Why is The Second Doctor a small Chinese boy? The answers will never come…
“The Forgotten” was a big deal when it was released, finally seeing the Classic and New come together in one story, but now in 2023? It’s fine, it has some fun mini-stories and the core concept is good but man, the artwork is a real turn off in the last issue. Given the higher quality of the first issue I assume it was a rushed schedule thing but yikes. Ah well, it’s still harmless fun for five issues, but I doubt I’ll be reading it again…
The Doctor immediately calls out this apparent Doctor as clearly a mental image created by mixing several of his foes like The Master, the Valeyard and um, the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor? The creature reveals itself as the “Es’Cartrss of the Tactire”, a type of cranial parasite who has entered the TARDIS during the events of “Journey’s End” as its planet were among the many stolen by Davros for his Reality Bomb. The Doctor and “Martha” run, on the way the Doctor figuring out that she was actually the TARDIS trying to telepathically help him, which then prompts The Doctor to ask if it could take the form of someone less recent and raw, which leads to a fun bunch of companion cameos, though again slightly ruined by the poor likenesses.
I wonder if The Tenth Doctor visited the actual Susan during his farewell tour?
The Doctor reaches the area where the Tactire was strongest (or weakest? Most vulnerable?) and uses his stronger mental powers to summon his nine previous selves, all looking so… so bad (see earlier image!) but nether the less they push past it and head to a representation of the TARDIS, allowing them to “escape” to reality, though not before the Doctor has this TARDIS image turn into Susan so he can say how proud he is of her after all this time. The Doctor wakes, kicks the now lifeless parasite off the floor and then claims to be heading to Barcelona…
Hogan Reviews 