First of all, that’s not the real title. When I requested this title from NetGalley to review it, the official listed title was Doctor Who II Volume 1. That’s way too boring for the Doctor. And it’s not even technically correct. The publisher, IDW, lists it as Doctor Who Volume 2 #1. Still boring.
The graphic novel is definitely not boring. What it is is an absolute howl. After the wedding, Rory and Amy are traveling in the TARDIS, and Rory finds one of the many phones that the Doctor has spiffed up over the last few years for his human companions. So what does Rory do? Does he phone home? No, not our Rory. He signs it up for a data plan. Only one problem with that. The TARDIS may have lots of really neat features, but one of the things the old girl doesn’t have is a firewall.
The Doctor discovers what Rory has done when the TARDIS gets flooded with spam. And not just spam email, but spam holograms. Yes, spam gets much more sophisticated as the millenia move on, and this is not a GOOD THING. The poor TARDIS overloads, shuts herself down, and they crash. Nothing unusual in that. Howsomever, the TARDIS crashes on a planet chock-full of holograms, holograms and nothing but holograms. Many of whom are spam. And one little holographic stapler, who just wants to help.
And, in true Doctor Who style, the planet is about to be destroyed by intergalactic scroungers who are more than a wee bit annoyed that the holograms can’t be taken off-planet and sold as slaves.
There’s a good time to be had just in playing “spot the trope” among the various types of spam that the planet, the email run amok and the Doctor’s own plots foist on the raiders and on the readers.
This was lighthearted fun. I had a good time giggling with the story over my lunch. And the drawing of the characters worked for me. I know what the Doctor and Amy and Rory are supposed to look like. That can make it difficult for a graphic novel to be “close enough”. This one was. Some of the images of the Doctor were spot on, and he’s the character that matters most.
The adventure the Doctor has on the spam planet is just the lighthearted opener to a much more serious encounter with Jack the Ripper. In The Doctor and the Ripper, it looks like the Doctor is going to get in some serious trouble, again.
