Whoniverse
Written by Lance Parkin
Published by Aurum Press
Released on 29 October 2015

In an age when Doctor Who book licenses are almost entirely held within the behemoth of the publishing world that is Penguin Random House, it is a brave mainstream publisher that ventures into the Doctor Who world with an unlicensed title. The inconveniences are many and the rewards uncertain. Aurum, part of popular history to DIY to children's books to gardening (and much else) combine Quarto, have released this ambitious work written by Lance Parkin which seeks to present the storytelling and narrative philosophy he has expressed in more narrowly-targeted works such as the various editions of Ahistory to a wider audience, with the benefits of illustrations and infographics. The book is produced by design and photography publisher RotoVision who intriguingly retain the copyright.

Whoniverse’s title appeals to a pedigree beyond those shared by books official or otherwise which draw from recent memories of Doctor Who: I first came across the term ‘Whoniverse’ as the title of the second volume of Jean-Marc Lofficier’s The Doctor Who Programme Guide (1981) The written content and the concept are sound. Parkin takes the reader through the cosmology of Doctor Who – not just a universe but universes, through galaxies and across worlds. There are examinations of phenomena such as the migrations of the Cybermen or human colonies. As expected given his previous work, Parkin doesn’t confine himself to the Doctor’s televised adventures but pulls together evidence from across multiple sources: comic strips and text fiction from many (licensed) sources and of course audio stories. The result is an outlook on the imagined world of Doctor Who far removed from that presented by most accounts where in practice evidence from what is still sometimes dismissed as ‘spinoffery’ bends to that drawn from the television series, especially the current one.

The execution leaves something to be desired, however. The range of images drawn upon – research credited to the author himself – is impressive but not without reservations. Several alien designs are represented not by photographs of actors in make-up and costume but of reduced-scale models or dummies from exhibitions sometimes looking like unfortunate examples of taxidermy. The non-BBC agency photographs are a variable trove use to mixed effect. There is some very good artwork, some specially commissioned for the book from artists known and unknown, and others reprinted from earlier publications, often deployed in ways which demonstrate Parkin’s catholic attitude towards sources. However, much of it is printed at a resolution which doesn’t flatter the detail or where more care was needed with colour calibration. The standard vortex pattern which provides the base for the infographics which appear on many of the right-hand pages is similarly uninvolving. There are some factual errors in the picture captions and at least one persistent misspelling of the name of a real-life person.

These weaknesses are to be regretted as Parkin approaches the exercise with a deadpan tone with strong precedent in works which treat fictional shared worlds as if they are coherent unified creations. Anywhere which treats the planets of the Nimon (used both as singular and plural here) on the same basis as Kastria, Logopolis, Sontar or the Shadow Proclamation is entertaining; adding the Robotov Empire from the BBC Audio Serpent Crest series is audacious but carried off. The point is not the primacy of a particular canon, but whether a concept has gained enough weight to support a double-spread of text and image.

Whoniverse isn’t the essential purchase its publisher hoped it would be. The concept deserved more investment, better deployment of its eclectic art resources and perhaps also more text or even better-deployed text; as it is the impression is given on some layouts of more white space than there actually is. Sometimes it's curiously old-fashioned, as if using illustrations from the World Distributors Doctor Who annuals had transferred some of their spirit. Nevertheless, it’s an entertaining experiment which might yet set both a precedent and a challenge for future commissions.

Writers - Al Ewing + Rob Williams

Artist - Simon Fraser

Colorist - Gary Caldwell

Letterer - Richard Starkings + Comicraft's Jimmy Betancourt

Editor  - Andrew James

Assistant Editor - Kirsten Murray

Designer - Rob Farmer

Humour Strip - Marc Ellerby

Released August 12th 2015 - Titan Comics

Events that involved the very first meeting of the Doctor and Alice are suddenly happening all over again and the solution to this dilemma is not immediately forthcoming. Having no access to his beloved TARDIS also makes the Doctor's plan of action somewhat fraught. But a bit of determination and lateral thinking go a long way, and having a further two assistants to call upon (who have literally become more than the sum of their parts) will turn out to be crucial. The Time Lord realises he must take responsibility for his past actions, once and for all. Will the plan he devises work though?

Themes and characterisation are the order of the day here, with the story and plot really not being terribly important in terms of what the creative team are trying to accomplish. And this is fine. This closing second part functions as a nice 'coda' after a series finale, something that is rarely done with televisual form of Doctor Who.

As I have reiterated many times Alice is the core companion of this run of comic- or to put it another way the 'heart and soul' of these adventures. Her belief in the Doctor, as much as her own unique skillset proves vital when all appears to be giving way to chaos and agents of destruction. Just as the Doctor needs someone by his side, so do the people that end up with him need his unique abilities and complex persona(s) to give them some proper progression in their lives.

It is also good. that as in Part One of this story there is far more significant development for Jones and Arc, whether we count them as one entity or two. It is a brave move by Ewing and Williams to have such a non-communicative and barely humanoid third companion as ARC and they also know when to quit while ahead so that he does not become an impediment for telling certain kinds of stories.

As much as I like K9, and enjoy a good number of the stories to feature the dog-shaped computer genius, there is little objective dispute that he often made things too easy for the protagonists. Thus having an especially powerful form of Jones/ARC would only push this problem to the forefront in any future stories. So a decisive but also poetic solution is achieved in this story's narrative.

All the same, there are none of the mistakes made with the sadly catastrophic Kameleon character that is often forgotten when fans look back at the Peter Davison era. Many issues with the Master's 'on-off' servant were owing to ambition far exceeding resources, but there was precious little characterisation as well. I feel that in a number of months ARC has certainly been pulled off to a good level. But now is the time for either a traditional Doctor and one companion pairing, or finding someone very different to spark off Alice, who may not necessarily be her kind of person.

Jones does in many ways come full circle this issue, but having had the 'trip of a lifetime' and then some - to put it mildly - and now being ready to make his mark in pop culture in Western society. Even more pleasing is the chance to finally see the real grandmother of Alice and without needing flashbacks, albeit at a time when she is herself youthful and attending a gig featuring Jones. This is a great example of the writers being on song as they tie one character's emotional journey to another.

Less positively, I did get frustrated over the immediate backtracking whereby the mysterious Time Lady was no such being, but just another temporal 'crossing  of wires', with the Talent Scout doggedly pursuing the TARDIS crew in all of time and space. We had had a really nice hook from the end of issue 14. and it just seems to be all thrown away. The Doctor's mother supposedly showing up in the final official 10th Doctor story was arguably more intrigue and fan-service than substance. Now this time it is similarly shallow but now also a complete red herring.

On the other hand, where the story takes the reader is still quite fascinating. We have a memorable end to the Talent Scout's story in that he is conclusively defeated, and yet in his own way ends up a winner. It did remind me ever so slightly of the far more disturbing end that befell the evil Astrolabus in the classic Sixth Doctor Voyager. Glancing back at my well-thumbed edition of the epic story, I do note just how similar in looks and demeanour Astrolabus is to the Talent Scout's 'default' form. It would not be inconceivable that this groundbreaking effort from Steve Parkhouse and John Ridgway played some part in giving root to the story arc we have had for much of 2014-2015. Doctor Who should never shy from reprising past glories, so long as there is some new observation process involved.

So onto a final summary of the these colourful tales for one of the most effervescent incarnations of our favourite Gallifreyan. Matt Smith certainly set a template for any writers wishing to take his Doctor to unchartered territory and with various unprecedented characters to join him. Month in and month out there has been drama, comedy, and even a bit of slapstick. Also good forward planning and authentic portrayals of individuals have also been on display. Year One was a veritable success. Year Two could be even more groundbreaking and impressive.

BONUS STORY - Take A Bow Tie:

The humorous one-page effort from Marc Ellerby features the Doctor on an errand or two for significant other River Song. He has his work cut out with Weeping Angels, Cybermen, Silence, and other races that sometimes favour him and sometimes not. He comes through this trial relatively unscathed.. or at least until River has another demanding request for him. The charm of the Doctor is that his greatest obstacles are for us mere Earthlings a great deal easier to overcome. 

You and Who Else.
Edited by J.R. Southall
Published by Watching Books, 20 November 2015
Proceeds to the Terence Higgins Trust

This is the first time I’ve encountered one of the essay anthologies edited by J.R. Southall. After the Doctor Who-mulling of two You and Who volumes Southall and his contributors have now widened their horizons and assembled a (largely British) television canon over which to chew, from The Quatermass Experiment in 1953 to Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell in 2015, with a bias towards telefantasy but also including examples from other genres. The works of Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin or Gordon Murray rub film cans with A for Andromeda or obscure (at least, to me) pre-school programmes such as Bizzy Lizzy. Later, My Parents are Aliens is filed near The Mighty Boosh and Strange. With such eclectic tastes to be served, the tome is a heavy one, almost reaching eight hundred pages. The number of contributors and essays also runs into the hundreds. Writers include familiar names from professional commissions to prolific forum contributors, bloggers and podcasters as well as less well-known people. It’s difficult therefore to generalize about the book’s content.

Several strains of fandom rely on nostalgia and this is well represented here, but the lessons of the past and our emotional relations with it are not always learned. Tales of admiration for television series are too often told with regret for what might have been, or as assertions of identity and individuality which use similar language in each case and rely too much on reflections of the author’s present condition back into a reimagined history. It’s therefore a relief when one reaches an essay based on diary entries or other evidence where the writer makes a serious attempt to recover and assess their past self.

There is so much creativity and imagination in fandom and it’s a pity that too often in the earlier stages of the book a writer’s reaction to or memories of a particular programme is expressed through unconstructive self-criticism or even dismissive self-loathing which rejects or fails to understand the admirable qualities shown by their younger selves. It would be unfair to say that this tendency dominates the entire book. There are always examples of snappy journalistic writing and arguments with which one might disagree, but which are nevertheless built on individual experience. This is a book expressing the identity of two or three television-viewing generations, and identity can be tricksy and intensely felt. Perhaps that’s why among the most successful pieces is one which distills memoir into abstract short fiction.

Contributors come from many different careers. Several have professional experience in broadcasting, and while there are several witty and perhaps even indiscreet memoirs here there are also reminders that even people with what might appear to be a string of enviable production credits have their own moments of self-doubt. The most uplifting essays are often by those who come from outside Britain or from those who are assessing a programme they are too young to have viewed at the time; these might offer a more distinctive account of the author’s personal development, away from the familiar narrative of school and bullying, a foreign interpretation on the way a culture might present itself to itself, or even surprising parallels between a British 1960s play and the American workplace of the 1990s and 2000s.

You and Who Else never claims to be a reference work in any conventional sense. Even if it did, there are too many errors of fact or underappreciations of context for that. The essays which attempt to tell a history of a series at the expense of crowding out its personal impact disappoint, particularly when they tantalize with a couple of sentences of unfulfilled insight. However, it is work for pleasure with the intention of raising money for charity rather than an entry in the broad commercial marketplace; and as a broad-based assembly of the views of a worldwide community of literate commentators, all writing somewhere in a tradition of self-improvement and in celebration and defence of a populist creative form, You and Who Else is a worthy addition to the bookshelf even if a more readable book might have been achieved by removing some of the material and concentrating on the most imaginative responses to the brief. 

Writer - George Mann
Artist - Emma Vieceli
Colorist - Hi-Fi
Letterer- Richard Starkings + Comicraft's Jimmy Betancourt
Editor - Andrew James
Assistant Editor - Kirsten Murray
Designer - Rob Farmer
Released December 8th, Titan Comics

This is the second part of a four issue mini series featuring the 8th Doctor. Previously we were introduced to a new companion, a free spirited artist named Josie. The two had a run in when the Doctor came looking for his copy of Jane Eyre and instead happened upon a young woman squatting in his cottage. They found a list of names and coordinates in the book and in this second issue they head off to Lumin’s world on their first alien adventure together.

Things get off to a rocky start (pun intended) when they land in the middle of a warzone between crystalline invaders the Spherions and their anamorphic cat-like victims, the Calaxi.  In typical Doctor Who fashion within seconds the pair is running for their lives, dodging transmogrifying bullets. Josie isn’t quite fast enough though and is wounded in the leg. When the locals tell them that there is no cure and she will be turned into a crystal creature, the Doctor decides to do the only thing he can to save Josie’s life. End the war.

As mentioned in a previous review, this miniseries is standalone stories that are just loosely tied together. Right now the thread that binds them is the list found in the Doctor’s copy of the Bronte novel. As such, any information needed from previous stories is passed along in the narrative or through the characters. A new reader could easily jump on board without missing a beat.

“War. It’s everywhere I turn. No matter where I go, or what I do, everyone is at each other’s throats. It’s as if the universe wants to tear itself apart”

That lament is one of the Doctor’s finest moments. It really harkens back (or is it foreshadowing in this timey wimey universe?) to his appearance in Night Of The Doctor. He is a man who is being haunted by death no matter where he turns. When Josie is gravely injured he knows this is his chance to steal back an innocent life that would have otherwise been lost.

So where does Josie rank amongst companions now that she has two adventures under her belt? I like her a lot. Though she might be portrayed as a sort of hipster/hippie because she is an artist with blue hair, spacers in her ears and no food in the cupboard, I think she moves beyond such a banal stereotypical characterization. She blew away my preconceptions and delivered a fantastic emotionally charged story. After being wounded she faces the situation with a sense of bravery and compassion that many wouldn’t be able to muster. The bleaker the going, the more poignant and heartfelt she becomes. She reacts to her tragic situation the way all of us would like to think we would, by being amazing, brave and kind. In short, the epitome of what the Doctor loves about us humans.

Overall, I really enjoyed this comic. The art was bright and vibrant, it did a great job selling this beautiful crystalline alien world. The story itself was a pleasant and somewhat uplifting read. The only drawback would be the miniseries format. With all the stories just loosely tied together, it lacks the cliff hanger at the end that keeps you anxiously waiting for the next issue to drop. Even still, the plot and characters have been fulfilling enough that number three will be on top of my “to read” pile once it comes out.