These days, Doctor Who is
such a massive industry all its own that you pretty much need your
own TARDIS to make the time necessary to explore all the media that
the series produces. In addition to the TV series itself there's the
spin-off series, the Big Finish Productions audio adventures, the
novels, and of course the comics, which are among the most prolific
of all Doctor Who content.
But since we don't have TARDISes, most of us have to pick and choose
which adventures with The Doctor we tag along on, making the extended
universe of this show a pretty daunting one to fully explore. I must
admit that I have not read many of the Doctor Who
comics, despite being an enormous fan of the series itself, simply
due to that time factor. But the newly-released graphic novel Doctor
Who: The Lost Dimension (Book 1
of 2) offers something that no Whovian can resist: an epic
multi-Doctor event. This is something that only happens every once in
a rare while within the series, usually for special events like
landmark anniversaries of the show's release: a reality-bending
crisis happens within the world of the show which puts the normal
laws of time on hold and brings various incarnations of The Doctor
together. This has happened for the series' tenth anniversary (The
Three Doctors), twentieth
anniversary (The Five Doctors),
fortieth anniversary (the Big Finish audio serial Zagreus),
fiftieth anniversary (Day of the Doctor),
and most recently the ten-season anniversary of the new series (Twice
Upon A Time), as well as a small
handful of other times outside of special occasions (The
Two Doctors, Timecrash, etc).
The Lost Dimension
brings the multi-Doctor story concept to comic book form, taking
advantage of the possibilities the medium provides – namely, not
having to worry about a television budget, or the realities that not
all of the past Doctors are still alive, and most of the
original-series Doctors look too old to easily step back into their
un-aging rolls – to give us a sprawling and ambitious arc that hops
across huge swaths of time and space.
The
graphic novel takes a scattered, multi-story approach to spinning its
epic yarn, using a narrative technique that works well in a long-form
comic context, but wouldn't work on TV: it cross-cuts between stories
involving many of the past and present Doctors, most of which don't
directly intersect, but all of which involve a common threat, and all
of which are clearly building towards a grand reunion of most (if not
all) of our hero's past incarnations. There is a mysterious energy
spreading throughout the universe: a “white hole” sending out
tendrils that devour anything they come in contact with. As several
of The Doctor's incarnations get sucked into the white hole, they
begin a process which brings his other incarnations into the struggle
to figure out exactly what this energy is, what lies on the other
side, and how to stop it before it devours everything. Volume one of
The Lost Dimension is
mostly spent laying the groundwork of this struggle, and focuses on
the adventures of several of the Doctors which bring them into
contact with the energy. It is, in a sense, an anthology series,
offering a bunch of smaller adventures that add up to one big one.
Various past companions and side-characters likewise appear, making
this quite the nostalgia trip for long-time Doctor Who
fans; although it should be
noted that it mostly focuses on the new series, with Doctors 9-12 and
their companions getting most of the narrative attention.
All
the stories are pretty good, but what is most impressive about the
book is how well it channels the storytelling sensibilities of each
of these eras, with the Tenth and Eleventh Doctor plot threads in
particular genuinely capturing the personality of those bygone
incarnations of the TV show. David Tennant's Doctor gets a
space-exploration story with a wild setting, a bunch of aliens, and
some tense action, all of which would make Russell T. Davies proud,
while Matt Smith's Doctor gets a very Moffat-y high-concept dive into
Gallifreyan mythology. Christopher Eccleston and Peter Capaldi's
Doctors similarly get plot threads very much in the vein of their
era's styles, though it is Tennant and Smith's incarnations who
largely steal the show this time around. Given the anthology format,
however, it is unsurprising that the various stories are a bit
uneven, with some working quite a bit better than others. Overall
they add up into a very enjoyable book, though.
The
biggest issue with The Lost Dimension
is the same one that the vast majority of multi-Doctor stories have
had to some degree or another: by juggling multiple incarnations of
our main character at the same time (all but one of whom we haven't
seen in a while and need to get re-acquainted with), the plot takes
on so many storytelling tasks that some of them inevitably end up
feeling rushed, and the set-ups in particular don't have enough room
to breathe. Several moments early on, as we're thrown into
story-starting moments of disaster with various Doctors, clearly
should have dramatic weight and a certain amount of shock to them,
but everything happens so fast, without enough panels to really build
suspense or tension, that they don't have much weight at all. As much
as the story does take its time in revealing how some of the threads
connect, it really should have taken its time a bit more; as it is,
it isn't always as epic in practice as it sounds in theory. Once it
gets going, and moves past these initial moments of awkwardness, it
fairs a bit better though.
The
other area of The Lost Dimension which
is a bit uneven is the artwork: the visuals across the book swing
peculiarly from impressively detailed sometimes to rushed-looking
other times. Many of the settings and landscapes are very detailed,
and have a great, appropriately otherworldly quality to them, with
the Tenth Doctor story and the crumbling-planet opening pages being
probably the most impressive in this regard. Likewise, many of the
characters look great, and are given plenty of strong detail to their
facial features that really convey their personality. But at other
times, settings and characters' faces alike look hastily filled in
with a vaguely defined, airbrush-looking lack of detail. When the
book is at its best, it looks great, so it is truly a shame when some
panels look so noticeably subpar.
Unevenness
in art style, pacing, and tension aside, The Lost Dimension
is nonetheless a very fun and
enjoyable read. It isn't perfect, but then again, very few (if any)
of the multi-Doctor specials actually are. This is, at the very
least, much better than The
Five Doctors
or The Two
Doctors (though
let's be honest, there are very few episodes of Doctor
Who
worse than The
Two Doctors),
and it is great to have so many past iterations of our favorite Time
Lord back all at once.
Fans of the series – especially long-time fans of the old and new
show, or at least those who have been watching since the Christopher
Eccleston days – will find a lot to enjoy, both in the numerous
appearances by returning favorite characters, and in how well the
book captures the feeling of the various eras of Doctor Who
in which it is set. Given how
much of book one is spent laying the groundwork of this sprawling
arc, I can't wait for book two to come out later this month, to see
how it all connects up. If, like me, you are a long-time fan of the
TV series but a relative newcomer to the comics, The Lost
Dimension is a pretty solid, if
somewhat flawed, place to start.
-
Christopher S. Jordan
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