Doctor Who, Series 3, Vol 1: The Hypothetical Gentlemen - A No Flying, No Tights Review

There’s this bloke called The Doctor. He’s smart and good and occasionally nice. He looks human, but he’s really an alien. He lives in a big blue box called The TARDIS. It can travel anywhere in space and time and, while it rarely takes The Doctor where he wants to go, it always takes him where he needs to be. He wanders the cosmos showing off the wonders of the universe to the various companions he picks up along the way and quite frequently saves the day, the night, the world, and the entire universe.

Doctor Who has been around for nearly five decades and there’s a fine tradition of Doctor Who comics stretching back nearly as long as the history of the show itself. It’s no surprise, then, that with the reemergence of the Doctor Who television series back in 2005 there would be new comic books, as well. IDW Publishing currently holds the license and has printed a number of mini-series and specials depicting the exploits of the enigmatic Doctor and his companions, as well as a monthly series that restarts every year or so.

This first collection of the third IDW series collects four issues and two whole stories. The first story, “The Hypothetical Gentleman,” centers upon The Doctor and his current companions (the husband and wife team of aspiring-model Amy Pond and nurse Rory Williams) as they travel to Victorian London. It is here they meet another young couple – Charles and Emily – who make a living putting on fake séances in order to capitalize on the growing belief in Spiritualism. While their shows are fake, Emily’s telepathic gifts are quite real, making her into a conduit for a disturbing intelligence. Naturally, this is just the sort of mystery to get The Doctor’s attention.

The second story, “The Doctor and The Nurse,” centers upon The Doctor and Rory reluctantly agreeing to have a “Boys Day Out” after Amy concludes that the two need some time to bond without her getting in the way. This is the only thing The Doctor and Rory agree upon, apart from the fact that neither of them is particularly interested in doing any male bonding. So while Amy wanders off for an hour to see the sights of London in 1814, The Doctor and Rory decide to “cheat” and take The TARDIS forward one hour so they can meet up with Amy later. Naturally The TARDIS winds up taking them elsewhere and elsewhen, while Amy has an adventure of her own fighting an unexpected alien menace.

Like the television series, the Doctor Who comic has attracted some of the best and brightest creators in its respective industry. This particular volume features writing by acclaimed author Andy Diggle, best known as the creator of the Vertigo series The Losers, and Brandon Seifert, creator of the independent horror series Witchdoctor. The art team is no less impressive, with Mark Buckingham of Fables fame and Phillip Bond – most famous for his work on Vertigo Comics’ The Invisibles and Tank Girl – lending their considerable talents to the proceedings.

In my professional opinion as a critic and my personal opinion as a Whovian, this volume would make a fine addition for any graphic novel collection. Like the show itself, there’s little here that would be unsuitable for younger audiences, but the language and ideas are complex enough that it might be best if an adult were on hand to assist younger readers. Place it in the Teen section as a compromise.

Doctor Who: Series 3, Volume 1: The Hypothetical Gentleman
by Andy Diggle, Brandon Seifert
Art by Mark Buckingham , Philip Bond
ISBN: 9781613775790
IDW Publishing, 2013
Publisher Age Rating: (13+)

Doctor Who #4 (IDW Vol. 3) - A Review

Doctor Who #4 continues the tale of The Doctor and The Nurse, which began in the previous issue.  As Amy Pond grows sick of "her boys" bickering, she concludes that what the flighty Doctor and the dependable Rory Williams need is some male-bonding time without her getting in the way.  Leaving them alone in a pub, she goes off to wander around 1814 London by her lonesome.

Rory and The Doctor don't agree on much but they do agree that taking the TARDIS forward a few hours so they don't actually have to talk to each other is a brilliant idea.  Of course the TARDIS, being as temperamental as she is sexy, doesn't take them where they want to go because there's somewhere they need to be.  And so begins a glorious comedy of errors as The Doctor and Rory deal with many problems, large and small, all while trying to get back to 1814, where Amy has uncovered some trouble on her own. 


I described Brandon Seifert's scripts as delightfully mad last month and I am hard-pressed to think of an more apt description that that this month.  We catch glimpses of what would be the beginnings of about five or six great Doctor Who episodes here - The Doctor meets James Bond creator Ian Flemming back in his own days as a spy, someone shrinks New York City and sets a regular size gorilla loose in it, The Silence trigger the infamous London Beer Flood - all this and a thousand dancing Daleks!  Well, not really, but they wouldn't be out of place amongst all the rest of the chaos.  The whole experience is enjoyable, coming off as an extended version of the Pond Life trailers created by Steven Moffat which showcased some of the Doctor's solo adventures as he sent letters "home" to The Ponds.  Seifert captures the spirit of the characters from the show perfectly and anyone who felt Amy was less proactive as a heroine in the recent Series 7 episodes will be glad to know she holds her own in this story.


The art team of Philip Bond and Ilias Kyriazis match Seifert's script perfectly.  The look of this book is cartoonishly stylized, but appropriately so.  The action is quiet silly and the characters well-caricatured.  This book looks as fun as it is, which is a rare thing to see in a comic book these days.

Bottom line: this story may not be for everyone.  There are serious Whovians who will look at this and stroke their chins and mutter tut-tut and wonder why nobody in 1814 London makes a fuss about Amy Pond's mini-skirt.  The rest of us will merely laugh, throw a pie in their face, shout hurrah and enjoy this silly little spirit of adventure.

Doctor Who #3 (IDW Vol. 3) - A Review

One of the more annoying aspects of Steven Moffat's time as the show runner on Doctor Who has been the constant return to the idea of Amy Pond having to chose between the exciting Doctor and the dependable Rory Williams.  It was false drama, for we all knew that The Doctor had nothing to offer Amy apart from adventure and Rory proved his worth to Amy time and time again.  Paradoxically, one of the best aspects of the show from this time was Rory Williams attitude toward The Doctor, which was heightened by the same conflict.  Rory was an everyman with an attitude, ready to snark at The Doctor whenever something went wrong (which it frequently did) and more than willing to puncture a hole in The Doctor's pomposity.

Writer Brandon Seifert - best known for his self-published horror/medical comic Witch Doctor - explores this conflict in this, the first part of The Doctor And The Nurse.  After their latest adventure results in everyone coming even closer to death than usual, Rory and The Doctor nearly come to blows.  Amy concludes that her boys need some quality male-bonding time without her getting in the way. 



Naturally, because this is a Doctor Who comic, things don't go quite that smoothly.  Amy's plan to enjoy some alone time in the relatively quiet year of 1814 are put on hold after she notices an agent of The Silence walking about and decides to investigate it herself.  And The Doctor and Rory, mutually agreeing that this male-bonding stuff is a bunch of bollocks, decide to jump ahead a few hours in the TARDIS before Amy gets back from her walk.  This results in a series of adventures involving tuxes, moon landings and prehistorical animals as Amy's boys try to get back to the right time.

Seibert's script is as delightfully mad and light on logic as anything you'd expect to see on the regular Who series under Moffat's tenure.  One can almost hear the crazy montage music that plays whenever we see The Doctor running through several time periods in rapid succession, as we see him and Rory poking their head out of the TARDIS and trying to figure out where they are.  Never mind that the TARDIS instruments should easily enable The Doctor to know where and when they've landed or the fact that Amy is able to wander around Dickensian London in her trademark mini-skirt without being arrested for indecent exposure.  This story is pure fun and there's no time to worry about such logical plot holes when you get to see Rory Williams smacking a saber-tooth tiger across the face with a rolled-up magazine.    


The artwork by 2000 AD artist Phillip Bond  is manic enough to match the script.  Bond does a good job of caricaturing the cast of the show, though his general style is more cartoonish than realistic.  However, given the comedic tone of the story, this proves to the benefit of the issue.  Bond is also an excellent visual storyteller and the action of the story flows smoothly from panel to panel under his pencils.

If you haven't been reading the Doctor Who comics of late, this is a grand time to jump on!