Body Snatched

"It's a house of the dead - they just haven't stopped moving yet."

Writer: Tony Lee
Format: Comic Strip
Released: October-November 2011
Printed in: DW11 #10-11

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Amy, Rory

Synopsis

Finding themselves inside an alien asylum, the Eleventh Doctor, Amy, and Rory discover that many of the human patients within actually house the minds of some of the Doctor's most terrifying enemies! As the Doctor tries to work out who has done this hideous body swap, the inmates riot... and two certain travellers will never be the same again!

Verdict

Body Snatched was another very good continuation of the Eleventh Doctor Archives! This first volume of adventures has been very impressive and this one was no different. I really enjoyed the Doctor's enthusiasm at the Trans-Universal Union and it just seemed right that the Eleventh Doctor would be so excited by post. Amy wasn't sharing in that which was unexpected but I really liked how the Doctor hadn't even set up his account yet but received mail from an old friend. The Horse Lord of Khan was quite a name, as Rory acknowledged, but he was better known as Trevor and the Doctor was soon enacting his plea for help and travelling to Bedlam. The planet. When they arrived, the revelations about what the planet actually entailed were hugely surprising and quite disturbing! It was a planet for the Biogrowers once their usefulness had run out which was just horrific. But I think their very nature was more horrifying as they were grown from a pod into a non-ageing person within a week and a guaranteed lifespan of a century. Now, that seemed pretty appealing to me and if I had one wish it would probably be to never age from where I am now and to be immortal, but what wasn't so appealing was the prospect of going braindead halfway through that period. This turned the Biogrowers into vegetative state and that allowed Rubin to have the idea for his awful schemes. He was into the mind-swapping business and these Biogrowers were the perfect potential hosts for those injured or dying to continue anew with a guaranteed fifty years. The Doctor was quick to realise how this could be misused and assumed authority to find out what was going on. The relationship between Amy and Rory was wonderful once again and the latter's love for the former was evident in abundance for another successive story. It was lovely to see. However, that was tested to the extreme following the story's cliffhanger as the Doctor and Amy ended up swapping bodies! It was a wonderful concept and the delivery was superb. Having Rory there really complimented what was going and I was quite stunned with how amazing he was towards Amy. I mean, he knew some things (sex) would be difficult but he was always going to be there for her which was wonderful. The Doctor reacting to being a woman now was terrific, especially as it predated the arrival of the Thirteenth Doctor by quite some time, and he proudly proclaimed them to be cool. Quite the compliment from the Eleventh Doctor. Amy was struggling to deal with a Time Lord body but she was managing to learn to handle the respiratory bypass system to thwart the Horse Lord when it was revealed that he wanted the Doctor here to take his body and apparent remaining regenerations. The Doctor was quick to reveal that he might not be so lucky as we would later learn in The Time of the Doctor that his regenerations had run out. The Doctor and Amy getting some strange help from the assorted aliens who had been forced out of their bodies and then forced to watch them burn by Rubin was good and I thought the conclusion was handled very well even if it was a bit simple. Overall though, a very good adventure!

Rating: 8/10