“Well here’s your problem, Doctor. You’re using a higher watt bulb in your logo.”
Doctor Who: The Forgotten #4
IDW Publishing (November, 2008)
“Survival”
WRITER: Tony Lee
ARTIST: Kelly Yates
FINAL PAGES PENCILER: Pia Guerra
FINAL PAGES INKER: Kent Archer
COLORISTS: Kris Carter & Charlie Kirchoff
SELECTED COVER ART: Nick Roche (Kirchoff on colors)
LETTERER: Richard Starkings
PRODUCTION: Neil Uyetake
EDITOR: Denton J. Tipton
The Doctor and Martha manage to stop spiders, but the Doctor starts fading again. The cat broach leads to memories of the Sixth Doctor defending Peri from a murder frame-up. Then the Doctor pics up the umbrella he carried in his Seventh incarnation, remembering when he and Ace tried to help a people engaged in war when someone interferes and gives the nastier side a viral weapon from Galifrey. During the flashback the Seventh seems to be telling the Tenth to not give up. as some more recent memories start to open up our goateed villain decides to send out a bunch of the Doctor’s old dance partners. But why can they hear the cloister bell, and if that’s the Doctor in the museum who’s that lying on the floor of the TARDIS with a creature on his chest?
What they got right: It makes sense for the Seventh, the chessmaster, to actually be able to bridge the memory gap and send a message to his then-current incarnation. Both flashback stories are good and the mystery deepens on what’s happening to the Doctor in present day.
What they got wrong: Since this is my first opening to discuss it, Peri’s name (and this is on the show) is kind of wrong for a supposedly American character. (Nicola Bryant is British though.) Perpugilliam isn’t an American name, but it is a rarely used British one. In fact it’s so rare I looked up just Perpugilliam (which doesn’t come up in spell check) and most of responses came up for Peri Brown. The comic itself has no major issues though in my original review I did note that Peri does pretty much nothing in this story compared to many of the other Companions. Even Ace gets to smack a baddie with her bat and blow something up with her homemade explosive.
Recommendation: Still enjoying the story. It’s worth picking up as a primer for the Doctor and his Companions.
