Script: Al Ewing Art: Simon Fraser
Series Five on comics by Noe Geric 13/2/22
If the Titan Comics managed to launch the eleventh Doctor series with a great pilot episode (After-Life), their second story was more of a Moffat-arc beginning. Indeed, most of this little episode consists of future-episode elements and leaves little room for the main plot. The story also had the necessity of introducing the concept of time-and-space travel to new companion Alice Obiefune, who joined the Doctor in the previous episode.
The story opens on the Doctor and Alice visiting Rokhandi-World, a space theme park on a planet that was once, a long time ago, one of the most beautiful places in the universe. But the destruction of one ecosystem isn't the Doctor's only problem; strange things are happening in the theme park.
While Al Ewing manages to have the 11th Doctor in his Series Five persona, he also gives Alice a lot of responsibility. She must take care of that great child that is the Doctor. The two of them manage to have more chemistry than any of the Matt Smith companions ever had on television. Alice is just a brilliant character. One of the few female companions from modern Who that manages to be interesting without being an impossible girl or a woman going to save the universe. She actually attacks the enemy with a plastic gun!
So Alice and the Doctor find themselves in the middle of an arc a là Moffat. The entity they fight will come back. The evil Captain Hart is supposed to return, as he had apparently already met the Doctor but the Time Lord doesn't seem to recognize him. There's mention of the two companions that will join the Doctor in the next two episodes, another mention of Episodes 4 and 5 of the series and... Oh God, there's no room for a peaceful adventure.
We get to see Alice discover this Space Theme Park and the Doctor gets to fight an enemy with very few motives. The resolution is easy but manages to be interesting enough. The story's humour is really Series 5 typical but sometimes it falls in the children stuff category.
But the biggest flaw of this story is...
The Artwork! It's terrible. I don't know what Simon Fraser had in mind when he did this. The characters seem to come out of a bad 3-D movie. Everyone looks like a mad serial killer, and I won't talk about the Doctor with the monster's big stick in the forehead... Perhaps it's also the colour, but the Artwork spoils the story completely. Simon Fraser isn't so bad, but here it doesn't work.
This series of comics is everything Series 5 was. The Friendly Place is a little introduction to the Atyourservice Arc and isn't really bad except for the hideous drawings. Some of the ideas are really cool, but it's better to read this one a second time after the whole of the first comic season to get most of the references you've missed about future episodes. Nice little story. And I love the pig. 7/10