Oblivion

The Complete Eighth Doctor 

Comic Strips Volume Three

17: Ophidius

4 parts (DWM 300-303) 7th February to 2nd May 2001
Writer: Scott Gray Pencils: Martin Geraghty Inks & Colours: Robin Smith

When the TARDIS is swallowed by an enormous spaceship in the shape of a snake, the Doctor and Izzy find themselves in a jungle-like interior, beneath an eye-shaped station that sees all. Observed by an alien named Panoquai, they are attacked by a herd of Mobox, silicon-based predators that disintegrate their prey with energy streams. A fish-woman named Destrii rescues them, and the Gorolith - who controls the world-snake - orders Panoquai to kill them all, but he fails when the Doctor detects his presence. 

Destrii takes them all to her camp, which is located behind a hole in the jungle wall. While the Doctor uses Panoquai’s time-cloak to explore, Izzy and Destrii hit it off, and in the central eye-station Destrii finds a machine which she claims is a telepathic transmitter Izzy can use to locate the Doctor. In fact the machine causes them to swap bodies. Destrii is on the run, and intends to destroy her old body, throwing her pursuers off the trail while she escapes with the Doctor in Izzy’s body. 

Inside the floating eye, the Doctor discovers that the Ophidians are dying, and intend to transfer their race’s minds into stronger bodies - those of the Mobox.  

Enraged at what has been done to them, the Mobox attack the eye-station and begin to slaughter the Ophidians, ignoring the Doctor’s pleas for mercy. At the last moment, “Izzy” apparently appears and guns down the Gorolith, saving the Doctor’s life. He is taken aback by her casual display of violence, and tricks her into slipping up, revealing that she is really Destrii. Destrii tries to force the Doctor to take her back to the TARDIS, but then her crimes catch up to her. On her way to find the Doctor she was confronted by an angry Mobox, and killed it when it tried to prevent her from escaping - but this was witnessed by the Mobox’s lover. The grief-stricken Mobox tracks her down just as the real Izzy arrives - and Izzy, still in Destrii’s body, watches in horror as her old body is blasted to ashes... 

The Doctor's green frock coat is destroyed, he replaces it with a blue one in the next strip.

After 299 issues, the Doctor Who Magazine strip is now in colour! Kicking on from the Threshold and Glorious Dead story arcs, Gray & Geraghty are now ready to focus on Izzy, and worlds far more alien than anything seen before in the strip. With the vibrant colour comes spectacular light effects, with the timeshifted Panoquai a particular highlight. If anything there may be just a bit too much going on here; the rich and living backgrounds of the Ophidian interior are sumptuous and the various creatures are admirably varied, if thinly characterised at times. The Gorolith is a somewhat two dimensional villain, but pleasingly reminiscent of the likes of the Animus and the Great Intelligence. Of course, the Gorolith and the Ophidians are not really centre stage here, antagonists for the Doctor to battle certainly but it's Izzy's story and her ordeal at the hands of the devious and amoral Destrii. Whilst likeable, with just enough character to get by, Izzy's never really had the chance to shine until now, but all that's about to change... It's a confident, nay ambitious, statement of intent from the team, but one that's best when focusing on Izzy and Destrii.

7.5/10

18: Beautiful Freak

1 part (DWM 304) 30th May 2001
Writer: Scott Gray Pencils: Martin Geraghty Inks: Robin Smith 

The Doctor finds Izzy huddled in her room, still shattered by her sudden transformation into a fish-person. 

The Doctor tries to convince her to see this as an opportunity, but it’s too much of a nightmare for her to handle. 

She begs the Doctor to take her back in time so she can warn her past self, but that’s one rule even he can’t break. She can never go home again. Enraged, she lashes out at the Doctor and runs out into the TARDIS corridor, where she collapses, dying; her new, amphibious body needs water to survive. The Doctor carries her to the TARDIS pool and submerges her, forcing her to breathe through her gills. After some resistance, she does so, and then collapses in tears. 

Later, she joins the Doctor in the console room, having changed back into her old clothing - such as will fit her new body. Shoes will be a problem, and so will trusting people. She’s not going to make the same mistake again... 

Something rather special, this one, one of a tiny handful of indispensable one-shot strips (though not the last in this volume) such as Up Above the Gods and Unnatural Born Killers. A two-handed bottle episode in TV parlance, but also a quantum leap in maturity of characterization and story telling, with a Doctor out of his depth and Izzy finding hers through her terrified rage. Sombre, shadowed TARDIS scenes, and a beautiful new cloister make the perfect setting for a long dark night of the soul. New ground broken, and a superior entry as vital and worthy as the best of any spin-off media Who.

9/10

19: The Way of All Flesh

4 parts (DWM 306, 308-310) 25th July & 19th September to 14th November 2001
Writer: Scott Gray Pencils: Martin Geraghty Inks: Robin Smith 

The Doctor traces a strange energy signature to the Mexican village of Coyoacan on 2 November 1941. This is the Day of the Dead, when the people of the cities build shrines to their lost loved ones and welcome their spirits into their homes; in this culture death is to be faced, not feared. Izzy is afraid of how people will react when they see that she isn’t human, and stays in the TARDIS while the Doctor goes out to investigate. Feeling guilty, she eventually disguises herself in a floppy hat and scarf and goes out looking for him; but instead, she sees a strange light in a nearby window, and watches as the ghost of a young man embraces his loving parents... and liquefies their flesh, drinking it down and leaving only skeletal remains. 

Izzy flees in terror and is struck by a car driven by artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Frida, fascinated by Izzy’s appearance, takes her back home to recover while Diego goes looking for the “Doctor” whom Izzy mentioned in her delirium. 

Frida becomes angry when Izzy claims she can’t understand what Izzy is going through; Frida’s spine was shattered in a bus crash years ago, and although she’s learned to walk again, she lives with pain every day of her life. Izzy isn’t the only one who’s woken up to find herself trapped in an alien body... 

Diego sees a strange light in Costillio Park, and finds the Doctor hiding in the bushes and observing an alien spacecraft. Assuming that the aliens are friendly like Izzy, Diego rushes out to greet them before the Doctor can stop him, and they are thus captured by the Torajenn, aliens like demonic glowing skeletons. 

The Doctor describes their bodies as plasma matrices held together by bio-nuclear containment fields, and the Torajenn leader, Voreseth, realises that he’s no native of this world. He thus takes the Doctor and Diego to his mistress, Susini of the Wasting Wall - a necrotist who creates art by killing the innocent, holding that a true act of creation must be born of destruction. 

The Torajenn struck a deal with her to steal the flesh they need to rebuild their bodies, providing her with the bones as raw material for her next creation. They lost their own bodies due to a side-effect of a weapon used in their last war, but they have the power to psionically strip the flesh of other species if their victims are too weak to resist. They also have the ability to subtract images from photographs and take the form of the people within; and as this is the Day of the Dead, all of the people of Coyoacan will have placed photographs of their loved ones in shrines and will even be expecting them to show up. They will offer no resistance when the Torajenn arrive to strip the flesh from their bones...

The Doctor realises that Susini’s ultrasonic projector is not one of her artistic tools but a weapon she intended to use should the Torajenn turn against her. He steals it and uses it to destroy the Torajenn, and when Susini tries to kill him, Diego knocks her into the vortex she was using to build the tower, permanently embedding her in her own creation. The people of Coyoacan decide to leave the tower where it stands as a memorial to the dead, while Frida paints a picture of Izzy’s human self to replace the photo she lost, telling Izzy to face the future on her own terms and never forget who she truly is.

Due to “unforeseen circumstances”, Episode 2 was pushed back for an issue; its place in Issue 307 was taken by a reprint of the classic ’60s strip, Flower Power.

The streak continues, not only with Izzy's first proper adventure in her new body, but also something we probably take for granted now: a "celebrity historical". Hats off to Scott Gray for finding a rich thematic link between Frida Khalo and the still-emotionally fragile and bereaved Izzy, this is another very rewarding storyline, though one that doesn't quite justify it's 4 part duration. The reasons for the delay between parts one and three are omitted in the collected volume, and on publication this may have been frustrating for readers to have the tale span 5 issues. The grizzly and brilliantly realized Torajenn never really go much beyond being imitations of Endgame's Pariah, and the Necrotist Susini, whilst of an interesting design and possessed of a cold amorality, isn't particularly memorable. What we do have, however, is a Doctor who, as in Ophidius, is freewheeling whilst steely, still very much in that mould we saw come to the fore through the previous arc, the adventurer of The Tides of Time tempered with the fire The Glorious Dead and its antecedents, so that's very welcome, and of course Izzy's damaged, scared and angry rawness is visceral and essential stuff.

7.5/10

20: Children of the Revolution

6 parts (DWM 312 to 317) 9th January to 29th May 2002

Writer: Scott Gray Artist: Lee Sullivan

The Doctor takes Izzy to the planet Kyrol so his old friend, marine biologist Alison Lavelle, can study Izzy’s new amphibious body and help her to understand it better. 

Alison is currently serving on the submarine Argus, which is exploring the oceans of Kyrol. 

The submarine is struck by an electromagnetic pulse that disables the sub’s engines and causes it to crash on the sea bed. A squad of Daleks then boards the submarine - but rather than killing the crew, they merely stun them, and make their way to the reactor simply in order to shut it down safely. 

And rather than trying to kill the Doctor, they greet him as their saviour. 

The Daleks then take them into the ridge, where a huge Dalek city is hidden underground. This is Azhra Korr, home of thousands of the humanised Daleks which the Second Doctor once created. 

Their leader, Alpha, reveals that he and his Daleks fled Skaro at the end of their civil war, and sought refuge here, in a world which Alpha had seen in his mind. 

The Doctor and Alpha reach a large cavern beneath Azhra Korr, where they find Kata-Phobus, the last native Kyrolian - a giant octopus-like creature with dozens of eyes and tentacles. 

Kata-Phobus reveals that it used its own telepathic abilities to summon the Daleks to Kyrol, and claims that it tried to destroy the Argus in order to protect them from discovery; but now Alpha’s altruism has led to violence and death in Azhra Korr. 

Kata-Phobus travels to Azhra Korr, where he begins to drain the psychokinetic energy out of the Daleks. He is the last of his kind because he devoured all of the others, and he only drew the Daleks here so he could farm them. With the strength he takes from them he will go on to wipe out the human colony. Alpha realises that his people have been used, and calls on them to do the right thing - and every Dalek in Azhra Korr self-destructs simultaneously, interrupting Kata-Phobus’ feeding cycle and killing him. 

Thousands of Daleks have given up their own lives for the sake of the humans, but not all of the humans seem to appreciate the sacrifice. Disgusted, both with the humans and with himself, the Doctor takes his leave - but before he and Izzy can enter the TARDIS, two glowing figures emerge from a swirling vortex in mid-air, having tracked down the woman they believe to be Destriianatos. Before the Doctor can protest, they stun him and transport Izzy back “home”... 

A break for Martin Geraghty, but a welcome return for the Dalek-master par excellence, Lee Sullivan, whose eighth Doctor very much continues where his Radio Times iteration left off. 

It's a very different take on the Daleks - they're not actually the villains, and though presenting something of a threat when mistreated, they're the race that the Doctor must save from the story's true villain, Kata-Phobos, the Kroll with a mind of evil.  There's really pleasing development for Izzy, finally starting to be come comfortable in her new skin, or at least appreciating her new abilities anyway, and real tension in the Doctor's pained realization that he cannot save Daleks and humans alike. 


The humans and their futuristic sub are perhaps a bit too Star Trek, and it's probably a good job that we're not really supposed to sympathize with them when it comes to the resolution, as some are a bit paper-thin on characterization, but Dalek Alpha is every inch the sympathetic and tragic protagonist, and one you can really imagine Nick Briggs making the most of with his obiquitous ring modulator.

The artwork - helped in no small part by some stunning colouring work from Adrian Salmon (in particular the green hues of Kata-Phobos' lair) - lends this a unique atmosphere that sets it apart, too. It's not all perfect; again, 6 parts seems to slow the pace more than is absolutely necessary (although in parts this does in fact add to the underwater feel, the impression of slow travel from one scene to another), and beyond her initial foray into the ocean depths and a brilliant cliffhanger to part 1, Izzy is largely sidelined, but it's a welcome effort to try something new with the Daleks, and with a killer final twist that puts us on the home stretch of the arc with an intriguing final scene.

8.5/10

21: Me and My Shadow

1 part (DWM 318) 24th June to 16th October 2002
Writer: Scott Gray Artist: John Ross

Austria, November 1941. Fey Truscott-Sade and Jacob Gansmann are fleeing from the Nazis, having stolen the troop movement schedule for the Fifth Panzer Division, but Jacob is badly wounded in their flight and urges Fey to leave him behind. However, when Colonel Kessler catches up to Jacob he sets his dog on him, and Fey, hearing this, refuses to let it pass.

She thus forces Shayde, the living Gallifreyan weapon with whom she has merged, to help her slide through the shadows and use psychic bullets to kill Kessler and his soldiers. 

Upset by Jacob’s brutal death, she lashes out at Shayde for refusing to let her use their powers to kill Hitler and the other Nazis in the inner party, due to the damage he claims this would cause to the web of Time. This old argument must be shelved, however, when Shayde receives a call for help from the Doctor... 

Note: This strip does not feature the Doctor, and serves as a prologue for the following strip, Uroborous.

A real oddity, this, but essential nonetheless; it starts as an echo of the classic DWM back-up strips of old, a tale of Fey on a Nazi-hunting revenge trip the likes of which we'd be more likely to see nowadays with Magneto as the protagonist, and develops into a two-handed moral debate between Fey and Shayde by way of both a reintroduction for those characters and our first real chance to see their partnership in fully fledged action. Stylishly executed with strong, dynamic artwork from John Ross (a welcome addition to the roster of 8th Doctor artists) and a cleverly muted colour palatte from Roger Langridge that gives the strip its period feel. These more dramatic one shots, in place of their previously more common light relief comedic siblings, are fast becoming highlights of the run to be excitedly anticipated and Me and My Shadow is no exception.

8.5/10

22: Uroboros

4 parts (DWM 319-322) 13th November 2002 to 2nd April 2003
Writer: Scott Gray Artist: John Ross

Fey answers the Doctor’s summons to find him in an uncharacteristically angry mood.

He needs Shayde’s help to trace Izzy’s kidnappers through the Vortex, but since the creatures had been tracking him and Izzy, the path leads first to Coyoacan, Mexico, and then to the world-snake Ophidius. 

There the Doctor is captured by Mobox led by Major H’rakk, who recognizes the Doctor from their previous encounter and decides to take him to Presidor B’rostt, the Mobox who destroyed Izzy’s old body.

The Doctor is only concerned with getting away and rescuing Izzy; however, the seer C’sorr, cursed or gifted with the ability to foresee the future, seems to believe that the Doctor will have a part to play in the events to come nonetheless.

Much to the Doctor’s shock, he runs into Destrii, who reveals that, although the Mobox can disintegrate their prey, they can also store the patterns of that prey and reconstitute it later if they so choose.

B’rostt reconstituted Destrii in the jungle and dropped her in a pool full of pirahna-like mykkadon to die slowly, but somebody poured poison in the well and left her a rope so she could climb out; she’s been fending for herself in the jungle ever since. 

 

The Doctor is furious with himself, for if he’d researched the biology of the Mobox he could have saved Izzy months of anguish. 

Ophidius’ central neural processor is reactivated, but the world-snake has an intelligence of its own, and it slaughters the Mobox and Ophidians inside itself and begins to destroy the city beneath it, calling for the Saviour. The Doctor realizes that the Saviour whom Ophidius is seeking is Destrii, who killed the Gorolith and freed Ophidius from its control. 

The Doctor returns to the TARDIS, where he coldly informs Destrii that, despite her terror of the place she came from, she’s going back with him and Fey whether she likes it or not. The Doctor is going to save Izzy and restore her body to her, and nothing and nobody will get in his way... 

More excellent work from John Ross as Fey and the Doctor team up to find their missing friend, but a curiously lacklustre return to Ophidius. It's difficult to really engage with the Mobox, and whilst the awakening of Ophidius is a fun development, like the first story in the arc, what's happening in the 'main' story is really a by-product, a background, of the continuing story of Izzy - and Destrii, whose return not only makes for a great first cliffhanger but also energizes the arc with hope. It's satisfying to see the darkening of the 8th Doctor when his friend is threatened, and his refusal to take any nonsense from Destrii is great stuff. Overall, a weak entry that serves its arc twists but not a very memorable story in its own right. Rather it seems a willfully delayed resolution to the earlier story, and engineered to prevent the following 6-parter from becoming too bloated and over-long, making as they do together, a 10-parter of sorts. Could have done with tightening to 2 or 3 parts, this, but undeniably strong on characterization and artwork.  

6.5/10

23: Oblivion

6 parts (DWM 323-328)
Writer: Scott Gray Pencils: Martin Geraghty Inks: David A. Roach 

Izzy awakens in the court of the Matriax Scalamanthia, who orders her “daughter” to prepare for her coming wedding.

Outside the court, the TARDIS materializes and Fey sets off in search of the real Izzy, but the real Destrii then flees.  

The Doctor is rescued from some angry peasants by the leonine Jodafra, Destrii’s uncle, who is also the scientist who built the chronon capsule that enabled Destrii to escape Oblivion.

Scalamanthia orders Helioth and Hassana - the twin energy-based beings who kidnapped Izzy from Kyrol - to destroy Fey, but outside the city, they're no longer bound to obey the Matriax, and instead they greet Fey as one who is like them, two minds co-existing as one. Fey explains why she’s here, and the twins return to the city to “fix” the broken Destrii, switching Destrii and Izzy’s minds back into their own bodies. 

In the process, they momentarily share each other’s memories. Destrii sees how Izzy withdrew into herself after learning she was adopted, and was never able to trust herself or reveal her feelings for other girls; Izzy sees how Destrii was punished and abused all her life, forced to fight duels to the death in the arena and treated with reverence and fear by everyone but her uncle Jodafra. 

The Doctor and Jodafra arrive in the arena just as the enraged Scalamanthia begins to beat her daughter for making a mockery of their traditions - but Destrii, finally pushed too far, stabs her mother to death. At the moment of the Matriax’s death, a horde of creatures just like the twins, ten billion strong, descends upon the city, melting away anyone and anything in their path. 

Destrii, shaken by her experiences, surrenders to the Horde, and they pour all of their energy into her. 

Realising that even her uncle has used her, Destrii makes her own decision what to do next - she grabs the capsule with Jodafra inside, carries it up above the city, and draws the Horde into it. 

The capsule vanishes in a burst of psychic energy, and Destrii recovers inside, mortal once again. Now she and her uncle are free to travel throughout time and space together. 

Izzy has come to terms with who she really is at last, and after kissing Fey farewell she asks the Doctor to take her home so she can set things right with her adoptive parents. 

The Doctor returns her to Stockbridge at the moment her younger self first started travelling with him, and after bidding him a fond farewell, she returns home, having grown and learned from her travels.

Martin Geraghty returns to conclude the arc, and to see Izzy return to her rightful body and her home, with - what is, she has finally come to realize - her real family.  Geraghty, bolstered again by some intelligent and sensitive colouring by Adrian Salmon, delivers the goods, not only with the scale and character of the world of Oblivion but in the action and character design of new characters (Jodafra being the standout) and monsters. Scott Gray brings the arc to a strong conclusion, though one that doesn't forget that character - Izzy and Destrii in particular) is all when flirting with the epic. We still have brilliantly realized monsters in the ten billion strong Horde (the scenes of them swarming all over the sky a precursor of even better things to come!), but the resolution and restoration of Izzy are naturally the more satisfying elements. She finally knows who she is - and indeed always was - and is not only relieved but comfortable to be herself. As an arc conclusion, and a story in its own right, this doesn't quite hit the heights of Wormwood or The Glorious Dead, but it's very much the ingenious and inventive stablemate of those tales, and frankly anyone that isn't touched by Izzy's return to Stockbridge and acceptance of her parents is dead inside.   

8/10

Character Assassin

1 part (DWM 311) 12th December 2001
Writer: Scott Gray, Artist: Adrian Salmon
The Master arrives at a mansion, serving as a social club for all the villains and horrors of Victorian-era fiction.

He wants to join the club and meet the elusive Chairman - none other than Professor Moriarty! 

Moriarty's belief in himself to allow him to find the controlling headband used to control the Land of Fiction.

He has decided to surround himself with peers. The Master defeats Moriarty, and is briefly tempted to remain in the Land and use the headband's power to rule as a god.

He dismisses this thought: he'd never be satisfied with a life of mere fiction... 

Our third and final one shot of the volume, and one that has nothing to do with the arc; once again evoking the classic back-up strips, this is instead a solo outing for the Master, seemingly in his Delgado incarnation, and brought to action-packed life by the ever stylish and stylised Adrian Salmon. As a one-off strip that really only serves to give us a Master flexing his muscles to effortlessly best his fictional peers, this is enjoyable if throwaway stuff that nevertheless stands up to re-readings by virtue of Gray perfectly capturing the urbane super-cool side of the Delgado Master and Salmon the mephistophelean magnetism. Not an 8th Doctor strip by any means, but one that's worth its place here as a contemporary in a run that by now maintains the high standard it' set for itself. Of course, the best is yet to come...   

8/10

TTFN! K.
Coming Soon: The Flood