Izzy's Story

"Issue 56 - nobody's seen it!"

Writer: Alan Barnes
Format: Audio
Released: July 2009
Series: Monthly Adventures 123c

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Izzy

Synopsis

TARDIS travels opens one's eyes to a universe of possibilities, reckons the Doctor. For geek girl Izzy, it's also a fantastic way to track down ultra-rare back copies of Aggrotron!, the most dangerous comic in history...

Verdict

Izzy's Story was a somewhat average continuation of The Company of Friends audio anthology and certainly a sharp drop in quality from the first two outings featuring Benny and Fitz. I thought the comic strip theme was a clever idea given that is where Izzy is the companion within the pages of Doctor Who Magazine, but it just didn't quite sit right with me and I can't quite put my finger on what exactly I didn't enjoy. This is nothing against the performance of Jemima Rooper, but the actress really didn't meet my expectations of what meeting Izzy in a performed story for the first time would be like. She just sounded a little off and although this sounds harsh, her voice just seemed a bit too old for Izzy. Now, I first encountered her in the Oblivion graphic novel and recently met her chronologically for the first time in the Endgame collection so I feel I have a good grasp of her character, and it just wasn't the transformation I anticipated from comic strip to audio which was a shame. Maybe once I read through The Glorious Dead graphic novel I will perhaps understand better? I did enjoy the twist at the start with the events we heard featuring The Man and Courtmaster Cruel not actually being part of the story, but what was on the pages within Izzy's issue of Aggrotron! I like the idea of Izzy requesting to return to Stockbridge in 1982 to solve a mystery of her childhood relating to the 56th and final issue of this comic series. The description of the Wrangler as two wrestlers squaring off but being struck by radiation and fused together was great, but before the merger she wanted the elusive issue 56. When she was a child, she'd come to collect it but found that her local shop's only copy had already been sold, so she was here to make sure that it was her that got it. I was a bit put off by just how obsessed Izzy was with getting this issue and her grunts were quite uncomfortable to be honest. I can appreciate being inundated with fandom and collectables, but this was far too overboard for me. She seemed consumed by getting it which just felt off. The way that the story shifted into the contents of the comic strip series coming into reality was good, but then that made me dislike the swerve at the start slightly because I was thrown off again. The Suits coming for the issue to prevent Izzy and the Doctor seeing the truth behind the identity of Courtmaster Cruel was good and I enjoyed the concept of that very much. The references to the prescribed pamphlet describing the comic was also fun and the idea of the ink exploding was good. Quite the defence mechanism! The mind wipe that followed was interesting and it was good that the Doctor recovered much quicker than Izzy being a Time Lord. The same thing was happening all over the country regarding the issue which I liked and the scale could have been explored a bit more. The use of going for the original artwork was very nicely done and something I was a real fan of as that seemed a good way to combat the rarity of the issue. The way it was tracked down and Izzy finally got to see the identity of Courtmaster Cruel was good, even if the moment and the identity was pretty underwhelming. The Courtmaster was a girl and Izzy was devastated. She was mostly annoyed because she didn't see it coming, but it just all seemed a bit out of taste and probably dated with the comment about girls not belonging in boys' comics, even if Izzy herself was reading them. Overall, a decent and fun concept but it was a little jumbled and I wasn't a fan of the performed representation of Izzy. Generous rating.

Rating: 6/10