So the Audio / Comic Companion Debut Marathon comes to a close with the Eleventh Doctor’s Titan Comics companion Alice… plus John Jones and ARC, who last far less, but do travel with The Doctor, to be fair to them! Anyway, let’s have a look at “After Life”, which unlike the 10th Doctor stuff, is actually four short stories with connected themes, rather than all being multi-part affairs…
As we near the end of the Audio / Comics Companion Debut Marathon we reach the Titan comics range, a range I started covering on this blog from “Year 2” onwards, so this is slightly awkward as I’ll be going back to the start, before beginning to tackle “Year 3” in a month or so… Oh well! The Tenth Doctor’s new companion for the range, Gabby, is a fun character and their adventures get off to a good, and less complicated, start… so let’s have a look!
This is a rare one, an IDW comic story (well, stories). I wasn’t a big fan of the IDW series, and re-reading these two confirmed that opinion. Wonky artwork (especially Silver Scream!) and endless, relentless call backs right from the off. The stories aren’t bad, but I just don’t like the presentation, not helped by the fact that I only own them digitally thanks to a Humble Bundle a fair few years ago. Either way though, I consider them “canon” to my personal Doctor Who timeline, so Emily and Matthew are indeed comic companions, so here they are in this marathon! Let’s take a look…
The Comic/Audio Companion Debut Marathon enters the “NuWho” era of Doctor Who (and sadly, but not unexpectedly, skips the Ninth Doctor…) as we get the one and only Tenth Doctor comic companion from Doctor Who Magazine, though the first of three comic companions for Tennant’s incarnation of the Time Lord… So let’s have a look!
This was an awkward one to review, as it felt to recent to re-listen to it retrospectively, yet it was obviously far too long ago to review it from memory. Still, there were worst things to relisten to than the introduction of The Eleven, and the debut story of Helen Sinclair (though mostly because it’s a really good story, rather than for the debut itself) So while it may be a fair few years before I review the rest of Doom Coalition, let’s take a look how it started, shall we?
Continuing the many audio companions of the Eighth Doctor we have Molly O’Sullivan, who appears solely in the Dark Eyes series of audios. Dark Eyes begins the Eighth Doctor’s transfer from the single-disc “Eighth Doctor Adventures” range to series of four, four-story boxset “series”, a theme that continues today, although that really begin with Dark Eyes 2, as this boxset was clearly written as a stand-alone story, a four-parter in all but name, which is why I’m reviewing the whole box rather than splitting it in half like I do for later releases. With all that being said, is it any good? Erm…
When I announced this Audio/Comic companion marathon I actually excluded Tamsin Drew because in reality she’s just a cog in the larger Lucie Miller storyline and only lasts two or three stories as an actual Doctor companion, but you know what? The Eighth Doctor names her in his death monologue, so why not? Save someone complaining I “left her out” anyway! With that all said, let’s take a look at Situation Vacant, a really fun hour of Doctor Who!
Blood of the Daleks holds a special place in my heart, being the first audio drama I ever listened to, let alone the first Doctor Who audio story in general. It was on the radio, and having seen the TV Movie and liked Paul McGann as the Doctor, I thought I’d give it a go, and literally hundreds of Doctor Who audios have followed since! More of note in terms of this blog is that it’s the debut of Lucie “Bleedin” Miller, one of the more fun original companions, and also saw the Eighth Doctor transfer from traditional, “old Who” four roughly 30 minute episodes per story, into the “new Who” format of roughly one hour stories, with some being two parters. Also, it’s a Dalek story! Phew, that’s a lot of baggage, but does it work? Well…
This story always stuck in my head as not a very good one, and I think that mainly has to do with how the general fan opinion is that … well, it’s not very good. Upon re-listening to it for this marathon, I can confirm that… it’s not very good. Still, it introduces C’rizz to the pantheon of Eighth Doctor companions, so that’s something! Let’s take a look overall then, and then swiftly forget about it all over again…
I actually forgot about the Eighth Doctor’s run with Mary Shelley as a companion when I announced this marathon, but I will quickly add her into it, even if she only lasts three more stories after this 30-minute one… Mary’s Story is a fun one, mind you, full of good atmosphere and two very different versions of the same incarnation of The Doctor. Intrigued? Read on!
Hogan Reviews 