Escape into Alcatraz

"Don't want to miss the alien invasion and the prison riot!"

Writer: Tony Lee

Format: Comic Strip

Released: September 2012

Printed in: Doctor Who Annual 2012 (Comic)

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor

Synopsis

It's 1962 and the Doctor is locked in Alcatraz Prison. There's no telling why, but he has a plan and it involves his old chum Mako. He hasn't seen him since a good few faces ago, but together they orchestrate an escape from the inescapable confinement with the Doctor bending some rules of time...

Verdict

Escape into Alcatraz was another average comic strip story from the comic strip version of the 2012 Doctor Who Annual. It seems that the second volume of IDW's Eleventh Doctor Archives is becoming something resembling inconsistent and with Tony Lee back penning a story, I can't say I'm too surprised! This once again had a feeling of being aimed at a younger audience and that's just something I cannot quite wrap my head around. It really doesn't make sense to me. Surely an Annual would just be a celebration of the monthly series that is produced and would follow in very similar circumstances? I just don't understand why this deviated so much from the ongoing series. Anyhow, another thing that annoyed me with this adventure was the lack of Amy and Rory and it seems to be something that is becoming commonplace in the Doctor Who Annuals from IDW. Surely consistency would be the way to go with the TARDIS team? Or at least an explanation of where the companions are when they were so clearly involved in the overall story due to their 'Amy 4 Rory' being used as the X that marked the spot on where in the cell to facilitate the escape. Something else that annoys me with Doctor Who stories, and it certainly wasn't limited to this one, was when the Doctor meets an old friend or acquaintance that actually has never appeared in a previous story. There have been very few occasions where I felt that has worked and it's just something I don't get. It occurred here with Mako and I just don't understand the value it has. The Doctor almost certainly has a new face but the catch up part of the dialogue is completely wasted because we don't actually know the character so we don't really care. Things would be much better if there was a returning character! Right, slight rants over. This one wasn't bad at all to be honest and the concept of the Doctor having to escape from Alcatraz is excellent and was actually portrayed decently well. I loved that he just sauntered up to the leader without a thought in the world and had gone a long way to saving his friend here. I'm not quite sure how he so easily broke the Laws of Time by going back and saving the life of Mako, who he saw had died in the riot in the next week's newspaper. That was quite uncharacteristic, but I did enjoy his meddling with the blueprints to get things exactly where he wanted them in order to escape. The involvement of Malone could have had more of an impact and I do think this story suffered a little from a short page count. It was though full of action and while the actual depiction of the riot was a little childish, I liked how the Doctor called those who were after Mako to the TARDIS after escape just for them to run away because the Doctor threatened to go around following them for eternity. Overall, an average story that had its moments but just wasn't quite what I wanted.

Rating: 6/10