Bazaar Adventures

"Dozens and dozens of police boxes!"

Writers: Scott & David Tipton

Format: Comic Strip

Released: February 2013

Series: Prisoners of Time 02

Featuring: Second Doctor, Jamie, Zoe

Synopsis 

Our yearlong celebration of Doctor Who's 50th anniversary continues! Oh my giddy aunt! It's time to break out the recorders, as the Second Doctor takes the spotlight in this issue of a 12-part epic adventure featuring all 11 incarnations of the Doctor! 

Verdict 

Bazaar Adventures was an excellent continuation of the Prisoners of Time epic and was, as the story name indicates, a rather bizarre adventure! It has been far too long since I've done a story of any kind solely featuring the Second Doctor with the last actually being the Little Doctors audio that I blogged nearly six months ago now. I think that's far too long for me to not experience an incarnation of the Doctor and although he did appear in The Eight Doctors novel, this was like a breath of fresh air to me. The characterisation of Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor was sublime I must say. The writers really captured his likeness which made the comic an absolute breeze to read. Both companions were also presented wonderfully well which just made this a dream in terms of the TARDIS team. This trio really is one of the dream teams that have been at the helm in the TARDIS and the contrasting nature between the companions just makes them brilliant. Zoe is super intelligent and Jamie is well, a bit of a buffoon but I think the thing that makes this trio work so well is that the Doctor is a mix of both! He is an intelligent buffoon in this second incarnation and that was made abundantly clear in this story which I loved. I'm not a huge fan of the story name but it does deliver exactly what it says on the tin. The Frenko Bazaar setting was really good and I loved the opening image of the TARDIS materialising amongst countless other police boxes. That's where my opening quote comes from and it was just magnificent to see the Second Doctor's TARDIS arrive in between two police boxes that looked suspiciously like the version of police box that the Eleventh and Fourth Doctors respectively travelled through time and space in. The setting didn't really seem to fit in with the style of adventure this trio had during Season 6 but it was nice to see them brought into a more modern and colourful world. Unnatural Selection was quite dark and gloomy with the London Underground setting but it was still great to see the First Doctor and co in colour and that feeling was shared here. The availability of 1960s comic strips is currently scarce so seeing these first two Doctors in colour is a real treat. The Voraxx served as a very good enemy and I liked how efficient they were in their actions. As criminals involved in the intergalactic slave trade they really needed to be. Their scanner accidentally registering Jamie as a rare antique was excellent and they would soon be swiping him from out of nowhere to sell on. Brilliantly, the Doctor had already anticipated that and was actually waiting for it to happen. He'd placed a tracker on Jamie and that would lead him to put a stop to the whole scheme. With the help of some recently awoken Ice Warriors, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe soon put the slave trade operation into shut down. Up to this point, I thought the comic strip was on full course for full marks but sadly it just fell short. I have had my qualms with the Ice Warriors being used for good ever since The Curse of Peladon but one thing I was really against was the Doctor claiming that they weren't actually called Ice Warriors! Considering this story was written over four decades since their debut and countless returns, that was a real flaw in my eyes. I get that they're Martians and these weren't acting evilly, but for the Doctor to say that really struck a chord with me. That was a shame because we had an excellent plot, superb characterisation and great references to The Ice Warriors and The Seeds of Death. Overall though, still an excellent comic strip and the ending seems like it's going to become very familiar with the companions disappearing. I'm intrigued to see who is behind these abductions but it looks like I've got some way to go yet! 

Rating: 9/10