Spam Filtered

"I have a floating cartoon stapler now."

Writer: Tony Lee

Format: Comic Strip

Released: January 2011

Printed in: DW11 #1

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Amy, Rory

Synopsis

The Eleventh Doctor era starts here! When the TARDIS becomes infected with holographic spam, the Doctor, Amy, and Rory are forced to land on an alien world, but it's been targeted for invasion by intergalactic mercenaries!

Verdict

Spam Filtered was a very good start to the Eleventh Doctor era from the IDW comics! It kicked off my reading of the first volume of the Eleventh Doctor Archives and I thought it captured the era of Series 5 very well. It was clearly set sometime soon after The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang with many references to Amy and Rory's wedding. The Doctor was not impressed with the latter though after he had been fiddling with the mobile phone that could call anywhere at any time. But that was not what he'd been using it for as he wanted to have a little look at its data plan which I thought was very humorous and perfectly typical of Rory's personality. The characterisation of all three of the TARDIS crew was superb from start to finish which was a massive bonus. When it turned out that Amy had actually done something similar, the reactions were terrific. The concept of junk mail linking with the TARDIS and manifesting in the form of holograms was very unique and I thought it worked very well. There was a lot of comedy and some second guessing whether a person was actually real or not which was great. It didn't get confusing which was most welcomed as that is often a danger in that type of scenario. The TARDIS needing time to reboot and basically flush out its systems was good and that meant a mandatory stay on Phayke, a cleverly named planet of holograms. However, it was wanted by the Scroungers despite technically not being anything at all and they knew of the Doctor which made things even more interesting. The scenes in the TARDIS with Amy and Rory conjuring up Claude and Joanne were very funny and I loved the relationship between the pair when they both realised they were as guilty as each other. I would have maybe liked to have seen a bit more of a threat from the Scroungers than their typical 'destroying the planet' plan but I did like them as the enemies. The Doctor gave them some credibility which was good and I liked how they went off with the phishing Doctor instead of the real article. I thought there needed to be some elaboration on the blue pills that they were left as they went back victorious and I think a tad more on their willingness to abandon the planet was needed but it still worked well. Amy and Rory getting blocked and their potential other suitors becoming dinosaurs was quite something but the use of the cartoon stapler for assistance was magnificent. Overall, a very good comic strip!

Rating: 8/10