Quiet on the Set

"This movie will allow us to turn human beings into a perfect race of slaves."

Writers: Scott and David Tipton

Format: Comic Strip

Released: October 2013

Series: Prisoners of Time 10

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Martha

Synopsis 

Our yearlong celebration of Doctor Who's 50th anniversary continues! Brilliant! The Tenth Doctor takes the spotlight in this issue of a 12-part epic adventure featuring all 11 incarnations of the Doctors. The Doctor brings Martha Jones to 1950s Los Angeles and the Griffith Observatory to give her a glimpse of Gallifrey, but soon encounters a film crew whose members are mysteriously disappearing! 

Verdict 

Quiet on the Set was a simply superb continuation of the quite epic Prisoners of Time adventure! Ten stories into this overlapping comic story and we're still far from done. The journey has been magnificent and there's still so much to cover but I was thrilled by what I read here. It has immediately rivalled Façades for the award of the best story in this collection and it's just the second of the ten comics to receive the perfect rating. In saying that, a lot of the other eight stories have been very close and as a whole this adventure would surely be getting that perfect score had I decided to judge it that way. Some may argue that this is just one story and I can see exactly where they're coming from but for me it's twelve independent stories all interconnected by an umbrella title. I blogged in the same way for Children of Earth and Only the Monstrous so I felt I should continue with that here. I must start by saying the characterisation of David Tennant's Tenth Doctor was simply sublime and I would say was the best capturing of a Doctor's likeness from the ten stories thus far. It really was excellent. And as I've mentioned before, having a good characterisation of the Doctor really makes a huge difference in story quality. It's impacted my ratings on countless novels and comic strips in the past and I think it definitely had some bearing on my score here. Bravo to the writers who have had a rather tough but exciting challenge to write for every Doctor. Despite each incarnation being the same man, every one is different from the last and stands out as being unique. But they got the Tenth Doctor spot on which was wonderful. Martha's characterisation was also very good and I do love this TARDIS pairing, particularly in their run in the novels of which I still have quite a few more to get through yet. Hopefully I can get through a number of those over the summer but first I have two university exams and an exhibition presentation to get through. The Doctor showing Martha Gallifrey was something I did not expect and with that I like to think that this story was set between Gridlock and Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks after Martha learned of the events of the Time War and the Doctor's home planet's destruction. It was quite emotional to see the Doctor not want to look at his home planet though, foreshadowing the events of The Day of the Doctor. The 1950s Los Angeles movie set setting was magnificent and the era really was captured marvellously. However, I did not suspect this setting to be the catalyst for a return of the Dominators! I was thrilled to see them return after such a long time away and the subtly in which their return was done was magnificent. Showing the Quark as just a prop for the movie was really clever and for fans who are yet to discover the gems of the Classic era, they may have just not even noticed it or understood its importance. But I'm quite the fan and I immediately noticed the little robot. And it was nice to see that the Doctor did as well but left things be for a little while. Once he had learned that movie stars were disappearing, he wouldn't hide his knowledge of their presence any longer. He soon stumbled upon the Dominators and was quick to remind them of who he was with a great reference to The Dominators. The idea of the Dominators using a movie to transmit an impulse to the human brain that would make them want to submit to them was wonderful. Their machine to improve the film was humorous but the thing I enjoyed most about this story was the Doctor defeating the Dominators with nothing other than words. That was truly wonderful. Martha almost became an actress and excellently referenced The Shakespeare Code but she would soon be taken elsewhere as Adam returned to swoop Martha from the Doctor. That soon took us to the moment the Tenth Doctor brilliantly contacted Frobisher and with just one more Doctor's story to be told, I can't wait to see what occurs in the closing stages of this epic adventure. We're almost there now, and this was a superb continuation. 

Rating: 10/10