“What makes you think I’m a police detective?”
Doctor Who: Prisoners Of Time #10
IDW Publishing (October, 2013)
WRITERS: Scott & David Tipton ARTIST: Elena Casagrande COLORIST: Ariana Florean COLOR ASSISTS: Azzurra M. Florean SELECTED COVER ART: Francesco Francavilla LETTERER: Tom B. Long EDITOR: Denton J. Tipton
The 10th Doctor and Martha end up on a movie set outside an observatory, but the actors and crew are disappearing. Among the robot props the Doctor recognizes one as a Quark, robotic servants of the self-styled “Dominators”. As the Doctor foils their plan he also has to come up with one to stop Adam, which is that message he sent to Frobisher.
What they got right: I haven’t seen the Dominators’ one story arc in the classic show but they don’t seem to get a lot of love from anybody. I would be surprised to see them show up in the new series, so it’s interesting to see them here, with the Quark just as it looked. 10 had a couple more companions to go for than just Rose so I’m glad they did.
What they got wrong: I love Martha, I really do. As a straight male it’s a toss-up between her and Amy for hottest New Who companion. As a fan she made a great Companion when she wasn’t fawning over the Doctor. However, Donna (who unbeknownst to 10 will be the kind of tragic Companion Adam goes on about) hasn’t had as much time in the IDW comics and part of me would have liked to have seen more of her. Plus, it leads to one of my pet peeves with New Who and its intentional ignorance of the times. It’s the 1950’s. I don’t think swapping a white woman for a black woman would have worked that well or a woman of color as the heroine would have been all that acceptable back then. Sad, I know, but that’s the history and New Who seems to not care beyond the bounds of poetic license to make their point.
Recommendation: It’s still a fairly decent story and I’m curious to see how the Doctors will stop Adam. As a stand-alone it’s still a good read.
Also nice to get a moment like this.
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