The Lodger

"When he gets killed, he just comes back better-looking..."

Writer: Gareth Roberts 

Format: Comic Strip

Released: April 2006

Printed in: DWM 368

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Mickey

Synopsis 

The Doctor lands the TARDIS in present-day London, but before Rose can emerge the TARDIS dematerialises with the time settings not locked. The TARDIS jumps a time track and moves ahead several days, leaving the Doctor to live with Mickey as he waits for the TARDIS to return. 

Verdict 

The Lodger was a great little comic strip adventure! It already seems quite a while since I listened to Living Legend last Friday on the train back home from university and after the effect of being home has now calmly cooled down, and my hectic schedule has now cleared, I was glad to be back blogging another story! I was travelling for a football away day on Saturday, we had a meal on Sunday, I had a darts tournament on Monday and I went to watch wrestling on Tuesday so I really have struggled to fit things in as well as spending time with the family. It was only a short read at one part but actually the story was quite a significant one! You may have been expecting a completely different blog judging by the story's name, expecting a certain Eleventh Doctor TV story. But instead you get the comic strip adventure that inspired that superb episode! I thought this was a really intriguing read having obviously seen the television version of The Lodger and whilst that was quite different to what we got here, the fundamentals of the episode could be seen as clear as day here. We had the Doctor unexpectedly showing up at Mickey's house this time instead of the unsuspecting Craig. Now, that's not to mean that Mickey was expecting the Doctor to just show up and stay with him for four days! Judging by the Doctor's comedic arrival, Mickey was none the wiser as to who was inside his house. His toothbrush had been replaced by the sonic screwdriver and that had quite drastic consequences for Mickey and his teeth. It was nothing the screwdriver and the hands of the Doctor couldn't put right though. As with Amy in the televised adaptation of this story, Rose as the companion got stuck on board the TARDIS. Now, there was no communication between her and the Doctor and I really liked how the whole thing took just a few seconds for Rose while Mickey had been driven mad by the Doctor for the last four days! He'd one-upped him whilst playing football, which was something that was nicely kept for the TV episode. I'm a huge football fan so to know that the Doctor is rather good in at least two incarnations is fantastic for me! I could probably more so see the Tenth Doctor being skilful than the Eleventh but both were good which was great to see. Whilst simply being at home with Mickey, I thought it was pretty incredible that the Doctor thwarted the Bandrigans with nothing more than 2006 electrical household equipment! He made it sound so simple and sounded so smug when explaining which I adored. The characterisation of the Tenth Doctor was magnificent and David Tennant's likeness was captured very well. I thought the representation of Mickey was interesting though and it was good to get a different insight into what the character was like at home whilst his girlfriend was out travelling the stars with a man who changes his face. The comment about regeneration which I chose for my opening quote was something I really enjoyed. The Doctor winning the shooting and violent video game without shooting or violence of any kind was magnificent. That was a superb touch. I also liked the honour involved with the Doctor altering the television signal to receive programmes from ten years in the future. So, what we watch next year should be part of what we saw come through on screen in this story! It's not quite a Back to the Future hover board thing though. The cameo of Rose at the end was nice and along with the Rose and The Christmas Invasion references, I do feel for Mickey and what Rose puts him through! He was just grateful to have her back with him at the conclusion. Overall, a very good little comic strip story and it's nice that it got to be adapted into a full length episode! 

Rating: 8/10