Tuesday

"King Rory. The First."

Writer: Dan McDaid
Format: Comic Strip
Released: August 2011
Printed in: Doctor Who Annual 2011 (Comic)

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Amy, Rory

Synopsis

An exiled royal has made an alliance with an alien race. Rory is the King of England. The Doctor is stuck in a prison cell on the rock of Gibraltar. Amy is causing a rebellion on a Vroon warship. What is all this? Just a regular Tuesday in the TARDIS.

Verdict

Tuesday was a fantastic comic strip adventure and a great way to finish my reading of the first volume of the Eleventh Doctor Archives from IDW! I really was impressed with this one and it seems to have ended the comic strip edition of the 2011 Doctor Who Annual in a terrific way after a somewhat shaky middle. I was delighted to see that Amy and Rory were back alongside the Eleventh Doctor and the format worked really well. I loved the Amy narration in the form of a letter to her mum about her time in the TARDIS and it seemed to almost foreshadow the arrival of Gabby to the comic strips with the Tenth Doctor with Titan Comics a few years after this one was released. This was obviously not quite as long as a usual feature-length story so there was not the same amount of narration but it was nice to get an insight into her character and the role she played as companion. The separation of all three main characters worked brilliantly and I loved how Rory had ended up being the King of England. It was quite surreal and the humour that came with it was just magnificent. When he was reunited with both the Doctor and Amy they had to each stop their conversations or statements as they realised that Rory was on the British throne! It was madness and he wasn't even sure what was going on. Who knew how well the psychic paper could work! Troupe made for a good villain and I was a big fan of his appearance to go with his overpowering demeanour, but the Doctor was having none of it. His confidence was wonderful to see and he really didn't seem too bothered by the fact that he was locked in a cell in Gibraltar. Just another day at the office. One thing I wasn't a fan of was the Doctor's lack of compassion for one of the guards that his walkie-talkie still connected to the power supply ended up presumably killing. He seemed to make light of it which was not in character of the Doctor in my opinion, even when concocting an escape. The Vroon were an intriguing race and I really enjoyed how Amy was able to get them to rise up and revolt despite their archaic attitudes towards women. She was Amy Pond and she just oozed authority. If anyone could stir an uprising, it was her. Troupe seeing his plan fall apart as the Doctor, Amy and Rory were reunited was fantastic and he would no longer be able to sell the Earth to the Vroon in his horrific plan. I did enjoy the moment of defeat, but I do wish that there was an extra page to enable a more coherent ending rather than just the police taking Troupe away. I doubt he would have accepted losing too well and would have attempted to escape. But, pages are limited and it was still a decent conclusion! Overall, a very good comic strip adventure to finish things for now with IDW. But it won't be long until I revisit for the second volume of Eleventh Doctor Archives.

Rating: 8/10