‘Doctor Who: The Lost Dimension #2’ Review
Written by Cavan Scott | Art by Adriana Melo, Cris Bolson | Published by Titan Comics
The good thing about ‘event’ series is that you don’t have to wait a whole month for the next episode, and that’s the case here. One week ago the first issue kicked off The Lost Dimension series, and it was a doozy. I think at last count George Mann and Cavan Scott managed to squeeze in six incarnations of The Doctor and multiple companions. Although the novelty of multiple Doctor’s is always strong, that does soon wear off and you need a decent story to sustain that initial interest. This story, involving the appearance of mysterious white holes that are absorbing and destroying whole planets, seems to have that magic, as does the multiple predicaments for multiple Doctor’s.
This issue starts with the Ninth Doctor and Rose turning up on a ship in 1886 where, cameo alert, who should be captaining it but Madame Vastra, the Silurian London detective and now apparently this ship’s captain. We’ve met her before, The Doctor obviously has, but not Rose. Rose probably gets used to that, as it happens a lot. So what is Vastra doing in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? Looking for other Silurians it seems. A previous explorer had brought back to London a strange body, which on inspection seemed to be a dead Silurian. Vastra is heading out to find where it came from and to see if there are any other surviving Silurians in hibernation.
Which makes it all a bit awkward when Rose puts The Doctor right in it when she says they are looking for a three eyed wise man in this same area. Of course, as Silurians have three eyes Vastra realises The Doctor has been hiding the existence of other living Silurians from her. Not happy. Things go from bad to worse when the ship is attacked and destroyed by a Myrka, a creature extinct for 65 million years. Turning out to be quite a day. And then the Silurians turn up, and the first thing they do is attack Vastra, and take The Doctor and Rose prisoner.
As it turns out though, once their leader, Horlak, realises it’s The Doctor all’s well. Which again is quite rare, as more often than not people are not so pleased to catch up with The Doctor. The Doctor explains Rose has been having flashes of memory that are not her own, and asks if Horlak can help. Horlak does, and manages to unlock the images and psychic projections in her head. Captain Jack is one of those psychic projections, and manages to make contact, explaining him and Tara are trapped where they are but have found help in the shape of a colourful scarf wearing, jelly bean munching Fourth Doctor. He reiterates what The Eleventh Doctor said at the end of last issue, the end of space and time is coming as the universe is being devoured.
Cue an angry Vastra reappearing, but she calms down once The Doctor explains the reason he kept this colony secret is that they are sick. They harbour a virus that could kill Vastra. That has nothing to do with why a lot of them are suddenly possessed by the same force that threatened The Eleventh Doctor last issue, chanting ‘peace, peace’ and lurching at them The Doctor manages to disrupt the signal and free everyone from this infection or whatever it is, and leaves the island. He drops off Vastra in the TARDIS back to her Victorian London home, and asks her to look after Rose while he has an important job to do. One from which he may not come back from. As he leaves, the virus reappears again to possess Vastra…may be Rose should have gone after all.
Another excellent issue. A bit less frantic than last issue, and just the two Doctors to enjoy, but great fun and more weaving of plot threads. Cavan Scott paced this out nicely. The art was also very good, a lot of dialogue being seamlessly integrated into panels on every page. When a dramatic splash page was called for, it was delivered, along with near perfect layouts.
Two issues in, this series looks like being an instant classic.
****½ 4.5/5
