Pete’s World! Pete’s World! Party Time! Excellent! in Titan’s Doctor Who Comics #2

Unexpected reunions dominate Doctor Who Comics #2. Written by Jody Houser, penciled by Roberta Ingranata, colored by Enrica Eren Angiolini and Shari Chankhamma, and lettered by Richard Starkings and Sarah Hedrick, the issue finds several familiar faces popping back up. Faces like the Skithra Queen, who joins forces with the Thirteenth Doctor and her fam, and Rose Tyler, who is given a new chance to travel with the Tenth Doctor to “fix” her world. Join us once again as we examine these “Alternating Currents.”

Justin Partridge: WELCOME BACK to Time and Relative Opinions in Space. I am Justin “Celestial Toymaker” Partridge. With me as always is Tony “The Gunfighters” Thornley and Dan “Sabalom Glitz” Grote on the controls upstairs.

[Grote’s note: I had to Google who Sabalom Glitz is. According to the Wikipedes, “Glitz’s first love is money, and he is often engaged in mercenary acts and profiteering.” Sounds sexy. I’m in.]

Tony Thornley: By the time we’re done with this column, I think you’re going to have me watching all these old serials. Then we’ll have to talk about those.

JP: It’s a Good Show, Tony. And we are here to once again discuss Doctor Who Comics, which dropped its second issue last week amid a stacked release schedule. But even WITH all the other “bigger” books hitting, Doctor Who Comics #2 delivers some pretty solid Doctor Who action! On top of some wonderful exploration of both the Tenth and Thirteenth Doctor’s relationships! What could be finer? But let’s get to it, shall we?

Return of the Queen(s)

JP: So let’s start with the two biggest-ticket items from this issue; the full return of Rose Tyler and the reappearance of the Skithra Queen from the Series 12 episode “Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror” by Nina Metiver.

TT: Definitely! So the two different TARDIS crews — Thirteen’s family and Ten trying to reconnect with Rose — are still scrambling to figure out where the timeline went wrong. Ten has an easier path — he simply needs to convince Rose that they knew each other in (literally) another life, and that she needs to relax a bit with the massive laser rifle.

Thirteen and fam, though, need to figure out how to escape the Sea Devils (that name Jack and Pete used for them has to be a red herring, right?), and get back to the TARDIS. Which is where our Skithra Queen shows up!

I really dug this issue. Even without me knowing a few of the details of the alien races showing up, it felt so classic Who that I had no problem following. This is something I love about Houser’s writing. She’s always able to make a story accessible for anyone picking up an issue for the first time, and satisfying for longtime fans. It’s something that’s made me a fan of hers, dating to her run on Spider-Man.

JP: The Rose stuff I think is especially strong (doubly so as it’s JUST focused again on Ten and Rose without everything else), but the appearance of the Skithra Queen, not even a year removed from her debut on TV, was genuinely shocking! And something I had NO idea was even in the cards! What did you think about this stuff, Tony? Did you like “Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror”? I just realized that we’ve been working on the Doctor Who beat together for a bit now and I genuinely don’t know a ton about your opinions on the current(ish) TV stories. LAY ‘EM ON ME! 

TT: So I’m totally behind on season 12. I bought it on Vudu two weeks ago and need to sit down and watch it! I’ve watched enough of Jody’s stories to know that I think she’s on her way to being one of the greats (despite the haters). I was able to get enough context from the issue itself about the Skithra that I got the gist, though.

This was interesting to see, though. The Doctor has so many enemies that seeing one play against type here was a lot of fun. I also LOVED their design and how Ingranata depicts them.

The Trouble with Tylers

JP: Further complicating matters is the fact that both Jackie and Pete Tyler are still alive in this “new” timeline. This not only throws a wrench into the Doctor’s theories that this timeline had some connection to them and their adventures, but also adds a neat Paul Cornell-ian moralistic wrinkle to the story.

TT: These are some of my favorite Doctor Who stories. It’s not just that we see a problem that needs to be solved, but it gets extremely complicated in the solving of it. Cornell was great for it, and Houser DEFINITELY seems to be channelling his Who here. I would be surprised if “Father’s Day” wasn’t one of her favorites.

JP: For those who might not remember, the history of the Tylers post-Doctor is … a bit complicated. Though Jackie and Rose lived in relative happiness after the death of Pete in their world, the episodes “The Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel” brought them to a world in which Pete was still alive … and married to another version of Jackie. The fallout of that episode claimed the life of the other Jackie and left Pete somewhat stranded in the other universe (cheekily nicknamed “Pete’s World” by the Tenth Doctor). That was until Tennant’s finale two-parter “The Army of Ghosts/Doomsday,” which found Pete breaking the threshold of our world, reuniting with “our” Jackie, and then fully reuniting his family with Rose in tow after she was trapped on the other side of reality, cut off “forever” from our world (at least until Tennant’s final season, which found her returning thanks to the help of Donna Noble, the Most Important Woman in the Universe).

So now BOTH Doctors are stuck in a character-based Gordian knot — Tenth with the idea that he is now reunited with a Rose that has no idea who he even is, and Thirteenth with the concept of these Tylers being somewhat “wrong” in this new timeline, having avoided BOTH of Pete’s “set-in-stone” fates of dying when Rose was young and ascending to riches on “Pete’s World” (seen in the Ninth Doctor story “Father’s Day” and Tennant’s Cybermen two-parter, respectively). 

I think the IDEA of this is really strong, but I’m not sure how well it actually comes across on the page. What do you think, Tony?

TT: I liked the moral quandary presented here. While Thirteen seems to make a pronouncement that seems pretty definitive — Pete did die, but everyone ends up with a happy ending — you can tell she’s thinking it through. It’s not that she seems torn — at least not in the way that Ingranata draws her facial expression — but there’s a thoughtfulness there. It’s almost like Houser and Ingranata are setting up Thirteen to try to find a way for everyone to live while also restoring the timeline. The Gordian knot is exactly how I’d think to describe it, too.

Ten, though, definitely seems to be glad to be reunited with Rose. I don’t get the “Time Lord Victorious” feeling that he had at the end of “Waters of Mars,” but something different. It’s not quite “one last adventure” but also not “I’ve gotta keep her at all costs.” I’m not sure where the Ten side of the story is going to go, so I’m a little more curious about that plotline.

Good grief, what a setup!

Different Paths through the Same Story

JP: BUT one thing I DO think Doctor Who Comics continues to do very well is provide us a multi-Doctor story that almost ISN’T a multi-Doctor story. Meaning that while Houser is still very much writing the hell out of both Whittaker and Tennant’s incarnations, she is also very much keeping them on opposite sides of the narrative working inward (hence the cheeky arc name “Alternating Currents”).

TT: Oh good grief, I didn’t catch that until just now! HAH!

JP: I’ve seen some people online grouse about this choice and pooh-pooh the way she is distancing both Doctors away from one another intentionally, but I have to say, I love that. It’s almost like we are getting two different versions of the same story, told from two different viewpoints (which I am sure was the intention to start with).

What about you, Tony? Are you enjoying seeing these Doctors work together without … actually working together (yet)?

TT: Look, even though I’ve only seen/read a couple multiple Doctor stories, they always seem to go kind of the same way. Telling it in this way, with the parallel but connected storylines? I dig it. It’s so unique and really sets up a resolution that’s going to be unexpected.

In the end, I think that’s what I like most about this story. It’s all been VERY unexpected. This isn’t Ten reuniting with his Rose. Thirteen is off her game because the paradox isn’t coming from where she expected. Even an enemy has become an ally. There’s no predicting what’s going to happen in it because the setup by Houser is entirely “whatever you’re expecting is wrong.”

And I love that.

Give me more of it.

Short Trips

• Seriously though, the Sea Devils demanding that they’re THE MASTERS, with Jackie and Pete using that phrase in italics? That has to be a red herring!
• It was revealed recently that “Revolution of the Daleks” (the incoming “Festive Special”) will be Ryan and Graham’s last trip in the TARDIS, so this series is also likely to be their last hurrah in the comics as well. It is bittersweet. I like Ryan and Graham a lot and think that their evolving relationship was/is one of the highlights of the Whittaker and Chibnall Era, but at the same time, I am very excited to see some solo Yaz and Doctor dating … I mean, adventuring.
• Christopher Eccleston also on his and the Big Finish Productions Instagram revealed he has started recording the new Ninth Doctor Adventures range with Big Finish. The first volume’s title it seems is “Ravagers,” opening with an episode titled “Sphere of Freedom,” written by the voice of the Daleks himself, Nicolas Briggs. This episode will also mark the debut of his audio companion known simply as Nova, who is still very much shrouded in mystery at this point. It is all very exciting.
• “Time Lord Victorious” is still spinning along. All the audios, both books and various other toys (like our boy the Dalek Prime Strategist) have now all been released in case anyone needed any last-minute Christmas gift ideas.
• Filming has also resumed on Series 13. WEEPING ANGELS and Classic Era-as-hell armored Sontarans (“Sontar, huah!”) have been spotted on set, as well as a new slight redesign of the TARDIS exterior (It’s a deeper blue, and the backlight is gone from the “In Case Of Emergency” signage on the door). Not-So-Breaking news I know, but we will keep an eye on it as they continue filming!