What He Wants...

"Davros, for instance. On first glance you don't go: 'now there's someone who's a whizz at reality bombs'." 

Writer: Rob Williams

Format: Comic Strip

Released: 23rd April 2015

Printed in: DWC #3

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Alice, Jones

Synopsis 

Alice Obiefune was at her lowest ebb when the Doctor crashed into her life - now she's travelling through the universe at his side! Their first stop? The planet of Rokhandi, a verdant paradise before SERVEYOUinc (and their pet protoplasmic mind-controller) turned it into a creepy theme park. After defeating the protoplasm with an overload of data, the Doctor and Alice are off travelling again!

Verdict 

What He Wants... was a great little comic strip adventure and surprisingly introduced us to another brand new companion for the Eleventh Doctor! I'm not convinced Amy and Rory would be too pleased to find out that whilst they were enjoying their honeymoon after being happily wed, as seen in The Big Bang, the Doctor was off having numerous adventures with brand new companions! Of course, I doubt they ever would find out. One thing I am hoping for with these comics is that we get to see an appearance from River Song! That is something I really would love and I think it could fill in some gaps with the TV story between the pair. There's plenty of room for a River story in there in my opinion! Anyway, back to the comic strip at hand and if you think the TV story surrounding the Eleventh Doctor and River was complicated, it looks like this segment of the UK Doctor Who Comic is going to be rather complex itself! I liked it that The Friendly Place was referred to on more than one occasion here and I was surprised that SURVEYOUinc appeared again so quickly after their debut last time around. I liked that the Doctor acknowledged that he'd ran into the same bunch of people, albeit some time in the past, and he wasn't convinced that bumping into each other again was a coincidence. I'm not sure if I like that the story was a tad similar to the opening part of The Swords of Kali with what we see at the start being led up to in the proceeding pages. I did like though that it gave us a snapshot of Jones already being companion, as mentioned in The Friendly Place as well. I absolutely loved the Doctor's reference to Journey's End with Davros being namedropped. I thought that was quite a big deal though I do hope that this may lead to a possible return in comic strip format for the great villain. In saying that, I found it quite ironic how on the day I found out about the strong Davros rumours for Series 9, he only goes and gets mentioned in the one story I do today. Speaking of which, the story was pretty good, though I am getting a little tiresome of Alice constantly mentioning her mother and what she was like and what she loved. I get that she's obviously upset and I do think it's nice that the Doctor is trying to cheer up but I just find it slightly boring now and I'm starting to lose my sympathy towards her, as cynical as that may sound. I'm not convinced about the revamping of Bessie into a monster struck! The idea is pretty barmy but I don't think the Third Doctor would have approved! It did provide Alice with her most humorous scene though. Jones being a semi-chameleon was something I found very intriguing and I do hope it is explained a bit more. I liked the character of Robert Johnson and he was almost like a lite-companion in the story. He brought some decent comedy. I loved the scene where the Doctor is asked what he wanted most and a Time Lord appears! Was this the company that projected the Time Lord we saw in the shadows in After Life? I would certainly think so. The way Alice used the sonic screwdriver amplified using the TARDIS was a pretty good climax to a very good little story. Welcome aboard Jones!

Rating: 8/10