• A Review by Finn Clark
• The Doctor's Grace by Noe Geric

A Review by Finn Clark 5/3/12

It's far richer than I'd remembered. It's working like the dickens to be a proper sequel to the 1996 TVM and it's thinking up all kinds of interesting story and thematic continuations, eventually becoming a good deal better than the original. Personally, I'd say it's one of the most thorough sequels we've seen in Doctor Who in any medium, not just the comic strip.

Spoilers, by the way. There are a couple of surprises here and I'm rather fond of them. If you've never read this story, stop reading this review now and buy The Glorious Dead graphic novel.

Talking about spoiler-free stuff for a while, one thing I like about this story is the authenticity of its setting. The DWM comic strip isn't where you'd normally go in search of realism, but I live in South London and the portrayal of it here rang true to me. It's got graffiti, railway bridges, lots of black people and at least one Jamaican accent. You can recognise the MI6 building and all the place names. West Norwood, Brixton, Herne Hill, Kennington Park... Admittedly, Martin Geraghty isn't the artist you'd choose first if you wanted your setting to feel realistic rather than the backdrop for a comic book, but he still manages to summon up quite a bit of atmosphere. Scott Gray walked around the locations for his story while he was planning it, taking photos, and he says the details of its geography are accurate.

This story takes the Doctor, the Master and Grace and shows us how they've changed as a result of what happened in San Francisco. Admittedly, the Master's not the main villain and he's only here because it amuses him, but this is in itself quite a cool use of the character. He's actually quite a powerful presence in the story and I think he makes a bigger difference to it than you'd think. The final splash page will make absolutely no sense to non-fanboys, mind you. The last time we saw the Master leave a shrunken human corpse on television, Tom Baker was the Doctor.

I'd also like to suggest that Leighton Woodrow could be regarded as a substitute 7th Doctor. Sylvester McCoy's the most obvious omission from this story, but Woodrow's remarkably similar in manners and methods to the NA Doctor we saw in Ground Zero. He's urbane, manipulative and a smug know-it-all who has people to do his dirty work for him. They even have the same hairstyle. Someone desperate to extend this line of thought might even suggest that his MI6 subordinate Duncan is Scott's equivalent of Chang Lee, since they're both gun-toting members of ethnic minorities who are only technically good guys. Perhaps significantly, Duncan introduces himself to the Doctor with a gun in an alley.

"Everyone in this part of town knows which way to move when they hear gunfire, chum, so how come I find you here? If you've given my people any grief, I guarantee you'll be apologising all the way to intensive care."

Then you've got the thematic continuations. The newborn 8th Doctor's flibbertigibbet actions in San Francisco are scrutinised and not found to be flawless, an innovation which Gray turned into an ongoing theme for the strip's next two years. Shoot your mouth off like an idiot and there's a chance someone might take you seriously, especially if you're an alien with a time machine. I have to confess that I find the Doctor-Grace scenes just a little bit dull, but they're certainly meatier than you'd have expected. If you're looking for a mirroring of this arrogance, what about Stark? Similarly, I don't think you could exactly say they're going for the TVM's theme of bringing the dead back to life, but they're certainly bringing back a whole bunch of people and having someone say there's "no life after death" on the first page.

There are some surprising details. "Hmmm, I think we'll blame this on the Arabs." There's a prescient line for you. Note that, despite being published at the start of 1999, it's set in November 2001, i.e. two months after 9/11 and the destruction of the World Trade Center. Casts a new light on having balaclava-clad soldiers with guns everywhere and London looking as if it's under martial law, doesn't it?

Oh, and there's also a line for those who hadn't worked out yet that Izzy was a lesbian. "Carrie, you were my best friend and I never once told you how I really felt."

However someone can't spell 'canister'.

All these undercurrents I love. There's a lot here to admire... but, at the end of the day, we're just talking about twiddly bits at the edge of a pretty standard "mad scientist turns into monster and eats people" story. If you're not looking for the deeper stuff, it'll read like any other Doctor Who comic strip. Woodrow's cool, Grace turning up is a surprise and the heavy military presence makes it feel a bit like V for Vendetta. Our first shot of Woodrow also makes him look like the Kingpin. However if you are looking for the deeper stuff, it's here. That's something you can't say for many DWM comic strips, even though I love them. It's got a surprisingly challenging relationship between the Doctor and Grace, while lurking in the background is a Master who's found religion and ends up foreshadowing The Glory. He's also present almost throughout, from the second page to the last one. That ending. Brrrr.

The Doctor's Grace by Noe Geric 1/4/20

After she had decided to stay on Earth at the end of the TV movie, Grace was never seen again. Copyright issues did not allow other Doctor Who company to use her as a character. She never appeared again for a few years... Until Doctor Who magazine got the right to bring her back! And now, here she is, with the McGann Doctor, in a sequel to the TV movie!

The story doesn't recap all the event from the TV movie, because when it was published, most of the readers had seen it or heard of that thing. Grace doesn't really appear until the end of the first episode in a surprise cameo. She has now joined M16 and has made a terrible mistake. She has given the liquid the Master had thrown at her in the TV movie to a mad scientist who wants to regenerate and live longer.

But that liquid (I think it was a liquid) wasn't made of the Master's/Time Lord's DNA but of Dalek mutation stuff. And that's all the story. The Doctor and Grace must fight a liquid creature who was once Professor Stark.

The story is nice: the Doctor and Grace talk a lot, and Izzy is sidelined for the three last episodes. But we learn more about Grace, her character has good chemistry with the Doctor, and some of the TV movie lines are the basis of the whole story. I think if it wasn't for Grace's return, the story would be quite boring. The villain isn't really interesting, and his schizophrenic condition isn't fully explored. And the end is really easy: the Doctor must sacrifice himself to stop Stark!

Of course, a little joke saves it from being completely dull.

But it remains quite enjoyable, nothing is really wasted, and the story is also the beginning of a bigger arc! This is definitely a must-have for the Eighth Doctor's fans, a traditional Doctor Who plot mixed with great characters and a nice idea for a sequel. Really recommended: 9/10