The Steampunk Conundrum

"19th century San Francisco. With robots!"

Writer: James Peaty
Format: Comic Strip
Released: August 2018
Printed in: The Road to the Thirteenth Doctor #2

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Alice

Synopsis

The Eleventh Doctor and Alice visit 19th century San Francisco, but there's one problem - it's full of robots! Do they come in peace? Or does their displacement in time signal something sinister? Or might they not be as threatening as they appear?

Verdict

The Steampunk Conundrum was a very good comic strip story to continue along The Road to the Thirteenth Doctor series! It was a much improved adventure following on from The Ghost Ship and I was very impressed with the writing of the Eleventh Doctor and Alice. Matt Smith's likeness was terrifically captured on the page and I think this one of the best examples of his characterisation from any Titan Comics story yet. It was honestly that good. His relationship with Alice was enjoyable and I really liked that it was just the two of them travelling alone. That is something I've wanted ever since their first year of stories started but the likes of Jones, Arc, Abslom Daak and the Sapling all got in the way so this was a great relief for me personally. I thought the 19th century setting was excellent and I really liked that San Francisco was the location. It is not the place you'd usually think of when it comes to a historical setting so going somewhere that hasn't really got a major historical event was refreshing. The Doctor and Alice fitting into their environment was delightful and I loved how similar her uncomfortable dress was to a Dalek. I was a little confused by that reference until the panel panned out and it was really uncanny! Even the shape was scarily similar. The pneumatic men were really intriguing and just seeing them strolling around San Francisco was quite incredible - some were even walking dogs! That didn't quite seem in line with the setting but I did enjoy Alice's reaction to them. The Doctor wanting to find the inevitable trouble they'd run into was good and it was good that the coordinates came from the psychic paper. Schwartz, or Brady, made for a good villain and the use of perception filters in the adventure was really good. The Doctor instructing Alice as to how she could see the truth was really great. The plan of infiltrating the USA before it became a global superpower was fantastic and it was more of a staggered and gradual invasion. It's been done before but never for America so I quite liked that. The ending was very good with the pneumatic men recognising that their cover might be blown by Schwartz himself so they ended up destroying themselves to protect their identity and became junk at the bottom of the sea. Overall, a fantastic little story!

Rating: 8/10