The Hypothetical Gentleman

"The Great Exhibition awaits!"

Writer: Andy Diggle
Format: Comic Strip
Released: October 2012
Printed in: DW12 #1-2

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Amy, Rory

Synopsis

A shadow being has emerged from a machine used to view alternate realities, and is stealing time from those he touches in order to become "real." Can the Doctor save the Hypothetical Gentleman's latest victim?

Verdict

The Hypothetical Gentleman was another very good comic strip adventure in my reading of the second volume of IDW's Eleventh Doctor Archives! There was no returning enemy this time around but it was another great story. I thought the predominant setting of the Great Exhibition, or rather the day before its official opening, was terrific and I was glad that the Doctor mentioned his previous visits that have occurred across the formats and had to ensure that he would not bump into any of his past selves. I'm a sucker for a multi-Doctor story though so I'd have loved for that to be the case! However, it didn't come to be but we had the Eleventh Doctor on top form so that was good to read. I thought the characterisation of Matt Smith's incarnation was once again brilliant and I definitely feel that IDW has done a better job in that regard than their successors at Titan Comics achieved. I do understand that the inclusions of Amy and Rory may have something to do with that though as they have also been written excellently. Their desire to have some alone time was welcomed as that would obviously be quite high on their priorities but I imagine things become difficult with the Doctor around. The way he poked into their moment was hilarious and exactly what I'd imagine would happen on television so that was a positive. The visit to 1936 and the mini story with Kriemhilde Steiner was an exciting start to the comic strip and I was very intrigued by another Nazi mention. Is this a foreshadowing of things to come? I do hope so but I guess only time will tell. I am optimistic though as this seems too much of a coincidence given the track records of comic strips. And as the Doctor knows, there's no such thing as a coincidence. His continued denial of the existence of ghosts was very good and in character and I loved how he checked if the Mummy that we saw in Pyramids of Mars was deactivated when seeing it as part of the Great Exhibition. The concept of the Hypothetical Gentleman was fantastic and one I think could have been developed even further. Like the Doctor, not knowing is something I quite despite so I was a little annoyed that we didn't actually get to know who it actually was because of Amy's understandable interference to save her boys. With the little reappearance in the TARDIS at the end though, I doubt this arc is anywhere near being just a one story thing. That's very exciting and I do hope I am right. Its taking the life of those in reality to try and manifest itself from being pure hypothesis was really good and something quite disturbing. It made for a very good enemy. The Fairfaxes were good characters too and the Doctor realising that Emily was in fact a telepath rather than a spiritual guru was good. The ending was full of mixed emotion as the Doctor wouldn't have his curiosity satisfied but his life, along with Rory's, was saved thanks to Amy smashing the window gateway to the other dimension. Overall, a very good story!

Rating: 8/10