Doctor Who: Gaze of the Medusa #1-5

Doctor Who: Gaze of the Medusa #1-5

Originally released in 2016

Written by Gordon Rennie and Emma Beeby

Art by Brian Williamson

Doctor Who is a long-running British science fiction series about a humanoid alien called the Doctor who travels through space and time with human companions in a ship that looks like a police telephone box. (it's supposed to be able to camouflage with its environment, but that feature is broken)  The Doctor changes appearances, or regenerates, when he's dying, which happens every few years as another actor takes over the role; this story focuses on the Fourth Doctor, a chaotic wanderer and trickster who is best known for wearing a freakishly long scarf. (he's my favourite so far, though I'm nowhere near caught up on the show)

In this story, he's accompanied by Sarah Jane Smith, a reporter who's one of the longer-running and most popular companions in the show's history. (Not many supporting characters in this show get their own spin-off show) Unfortunately, Sarah Jane doesn't get a lot to do here, which is a shame; the dynamic between the Doctor and Sarah Jane is a lot of fun in the show because the actors are such good friends.

As the series progressed, it blended mythology or historical mysteries with science fiction (for example, the Loch Ness Monster is a massive alien beast), and this is the case here, with the titular Medusa being an alien whose prison ship crashed into a cave centuries ago.  When a widow finds a device that can create time portals and wants to use it to see her husband and children again, the Medusa takes advantage of that.

The comic does a good job at getting the tone of the era down, along with keeping the characters' voices feeling similar to the show.  As well, the comic medium means that they don't need to worry about budget like the show did. (it's a running joke that a lot of alien planets look like quarries in England, and I've seen at least two stories so far where the main threat is killer bubble wrap, though in one of those cases, it was intentional)

The comic feels like an episode of the TV show that never saw the light of day, which seems impressive given how long it's been since Tom Baker was the Doctor.  I had a good time with reading it, though it appears to help if you've seen a few episodes of the show. (a gag near the end seems to require that you've seen at least one episode from Tom Baker's first season)  Still, it was an entertaining retro monster-of-the-week story, which was what I was hoping for going into it.