"Liberation of the Daleks" [review]
Apr. 23rd, 2024 09:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shivverFinally received the "Liberation of the Daleks" graphic novel! I don't read DWM so I didn't get to see this as it came out, and honestly hadn't heard that it even existed until right around the time of the 60th. And then it took forever to get to the States. But here it is!
Spoilers, of course.
Just to put this all in context, this comic is the Fourteenth Doctor's official first adventure, where he goes right after regenerating, and from here, he goes directly into "The Star Beast". It's officially part of the 60th anniversary celebrations.
And it was underwhelming.
My husband, the voracious reader who loves both DW and comic books, didn't even bother to finish it. He called it "an overambitious mess", too confusing with switching back and forth between realities and multiple groups of Daleks that were all different but too similar, and too predictable - who didn't expect that the simulated Daleks would become real or that they would reverse the psychoplasm stuff? And yes, I agree. I really only finished it because I wanted to see how it would hand off to "The Star Beast".
Maybe it's because I'm doing this backwards, reading this after knowing where the Doctor is going and how his life over the next fifteen hours is going to pan out, but for me, this adventure didn't fit. The Doctor had just regenerated, going, "What? What? What?" at his reversion to a previous face, then here, the very first scene is the Doctor running into the TARDIS going, "All right, then, Universe, what have you got for me today?" How did he go from existential confusion to not a care in the world in fifteen seconds? The very last scene is the Doctor saying, "All right, then, Universe, what have you got for me next?" There's nothing in between those two lines of the Doctor wondering why he got his old face back.
The characterization of the Doctor was also off. He felt much more like Ten than Fourteen, though actually, thinking about it, he felt much more like Eleven - egotistical, self-satisfied, and flippant. The TARDIS answered a distress call and landed him in Wembly Stadium in 1966 during the England/Germany World Cup final, and in order to figure out what the problem is, he ran up to people, one by one, sticking the sonic in their faces and asked, "You in distress?" Further on, there was a lot of speeching (something that Ten actually didn't do a lot of) and talking over people, and insults for laughs. It's like the writer wasn't told what Fourteen should be like, so they made a Doctor that was an amalgam of the last three.
And yet, on the other hand, the Doctor wasn't Doctor-y enough. There just seemed to be a lack of caring about things beyond the main plot of ending the simulation/theme park without the Daleks getting out and killing everyone. He hadn't had the time to mourn Georgy at the moment she died, but he didn't even give her death (or the metaphysics behind her being a simulation who gained sentience and knowledge of her own non-existence) a second thought at the end - just, "Okay, Universe, what's next?" And the Daleks might be his greatest enemy, the one species he really hates, but he should have been horrified by what the game dome was doing to the individual Daleks they'd captured.
Of course, DW stories don't all need to be deep and meaningful. They could be just fun. Problem is, this one wasn't that either. I never found myself wanting to turn the page to see what would happen next. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I couldn't care about anyone in the story. Everyone rubbed me the wrong way, especially Georgette, and the Doctor just wasn't interesting.
I was impressed with the art. I've read a fair number of the Tenth Doctor comics and they've done decent approximations of David Tennant (except for that one in the middle chapter of "The Forgotten" - I would not have identified that as DT if he hadn't been wearing the pinstripes), but this artist, Lee Sullivan, captured his expressions, as well as managed to make him look older without relying on the stubble. Unfortunately, this individualization didn't extend to the guest characters. Georgette/Georgy, the main guest character(s), had a standard comics female face and was recognizable only by her hairstyle - slightly different between the two versions but with a unique white stripe down her left. The general scenes were great to look at, and I really liked the drawings of the trapped individual Daleks.
So, all in all, it just felt like a waste of time, and it didn't add anything to the story of the Fourteenth Doctor. I'd recommend skipping this story - just know that the Doctor went to a theme park where they were enslaving Daleks to create simulated Dalek invasions for tourists to gawk at, and the Daleks tried to get out into reality and the Doctor managed to save the situation - and go read the Target novelizations of the 60th instead.
Spoilers, of course.
Just to put this all in context, this comic is the Fourteenth Doctor's official first adventure, where he goes right after regenerating, and from here, he goes directly into "The Star Beast". It's officially part of the 60th anniversary celebrations.
And it was underwhelming.
My husband, the voracious reader who loves both DW and comic books, didn't even bother to finish it. He called it "an overambitious mess", too confusing with switching back and forth between realities and multiple groups of Daleks that were all different but too similar, and too predictable - who didn't expect that the simulated Daleks would become real or that they would reverse the psychoplasm stuff? And yes, I agree. I really only finished it because I wanted to see how it would hand off to "The Star Beast".
Maybe it's because I'm doing this backwards, reading this after knowing where the Doctor is going and how his life over the next fifteen hours is going to pan out, but for me, this adventure didn't fit. The Doctor had just regenerated, going, "What? What? What?" at his reversion to a previous face, then here, the very first scene is the Doctor running into the TARDIS going, "All right, then, Universe, what have you got for me today?" How did he go from existential confusion to not a care in the world in fifteen seconds? The very last scene is the Doctor saying, "All right, then, Universe, what have you got for me next?" There's nothing in between those two lines of the Doctor wondering why he got his old face back.
The characterization of the Doctor was also off. He felt much more like Ten than Fourteen, though actually, thinking about it, he felt much more like Eleven - egotistical, self-satisfied, and flippant. The TARDIS answered a distress call and landed him in Wembly Stadium in 1966 during the England/Germany World Cup final, and in order to figure out what the problem is, he ran up to people, one by one, sticking the sonic in their faces and asked, "You in distress?" Further on, there was a lot of speeching (something that Ten actually didn't do a lot of) and talking over people, and insults for laughs. It's like the writer wasn't told what Fourteen should be like, so they made a Doctor that was an amalgam of the last three.
And yet, on the other hand, the Doctor wasn't Doctor-y enough. There just seemed to be a lack of caring about things beyond the main plot of ending the simulation/theme park without the Daleks getting out and killing everyone. He hadn't had the time to mourn Georgy at the moment she died, but he didn't even give her death (or the metaphysics behind her being a simulation who gained sentience and knowledge of her own non-existence) a second thought at the end - just, "Okay, Universe, what's next?" And the Daleks might be his greatest enemy, the one species he really hates, but he should have been horrified by what the game dome was doing to the individual Daleks they'd captured.
Of course, DW stories don't all need to be deep and meaningful. They could be just fun. Problem is, this one wasn't that either. I never found myself wanting to turn the page to see what would happen next. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I couldn't care about anyone in the story. Everyone rubbed me the wrong way, especially Georgette, and the Doctor just wasn't interesting.
I was impressed with the art. I've read a fair number of the Tenth Doctor comics and they've done decent approximations of David Tennant (except for that one in the middle chapter of "The Forgotten" - I would not have identified that as DT if he hadn't been wearing the pinstripes), but this artist, Lee Sullivan, captured his expressions, as well as managed to make him look older without relying on the stubble. Unfortunately, this individualization didn't extend to the guest characters. Georgette/Georgy, the main guest character(s), had a standard comics female face and was recognizable only by her hairstyle - slightly different between the two versions but with a unique white stripe down her left. The general scenes were great to look at, and I really liked the drawings of the trapped individual Daleks.
So, all in all, it just felt like a waste of time, and it didn't add anything to the story of the Fourteenth Doctor. I'd recommend skipping this story - just know that the Doctor went to a theme park where they were enslaving Daleks to create simulated Dalek invasions for tourists to gawk at, and the Daleks tried to get out into reality and the Doctor managed to save the situation - and go read the Target novelizations of the 60th instead.
no subject
Date: 2024-04-24 12:42 pm (UTC)Reading over your review: this doesn’t sound that great. The story has potential to work if it was fine tuned some.
But the Doctor being out of character is enough to make me go 🤷. I can understand the writer not knowing how he’s gonna act. Since the episode hadn’t aired yet. I recall reading one of the 13 novels , Molten Heart, and feeling this way about Graham ( the author kept having call Yaz “ Yaz, love” ).
And a pretty egregious case was A Big Hand For the Doctor: where I think the author just based One on the Target books.
However, I have recently discovered the fun and use of research. Could this writer not have just asked to get a copy of a script? Holly Black wrote Lights Out before Twelve’s first episode aired, and she got to use I think three or four scripts to help with his character.
I will say though “ he ran up to people, one by one, sticking the sonic in their faces and asked, "You in distress?" ‘. made me giggle.
no subject
Date: 2024-04-24 03:04 pm (UTC)As far as the writer getting the script, there are a lot of things that can interfere with that. Maybe the scripts weren't written yet. Maybe the BBC didn't allow them to release the scripts (especially since they were being so secretive with what the 60th would be about, in particular "Wild Blue Yonder"). Maybe he had limited access. I know that for the Target novelizations of the 60th, the writers got the scripts but were only allowed one viewing of the rough-cut episode.
Also, scripts may not be enough, since they don't include the actors' interpretations of the characters, or their movements and gestures, and the Doctor especially expresses themselves through gestures. From a script alone, you wouldn't be told that Ten arches his eyebrow, Eleven holds his hands up in front of him and wiggles his fingers, or Twelve runs like a penguin, and those are important things to know for a comic book.
> I will say though “ he ran up to people, one by one, sticking the sonic in their faces and asked, "You in distress?" ‘. made me giggle.
Yeah, this was totally for the comedy, but not what Ten would do (or Fourteen in hindsight), especially since he didn't give the people a chance to answer him. Ten would normally stop a single person and ask them what's wrong, engage them in conversation. Then the person would tell him to sod off, I'm watching football and nothing's wrong, then Ten would gob on and the person would get increasingly irritated. Interrupting multiple people rapid-fire and not stopping to hear their responses is totally an Eleven thing.