City of the Damned - ★★★½☆

It's is an interesting story. It has strong brutal emotional moments that take advantage of the very bleak nature of the scenes to make its point. It works, a lot of pages stuck in my head; the opening scene is a punch to the gut and the ending however optimistic is also very bittersweet. There is a very unique kind of grief that will haunt the people of this city of the damned for the rest of their lives.

City of the Damned is a tale of a city its people let go of their emotions for the greater good. It's a cautionary tale of how hurtful that can be, of how important emotions are to our sense of self - and of how that self itself is something so much valuable. And of course, the Doctor arrives at the heart of the matter, making it his mission to bring back emotion to a souless city.

With a premise like this it's really hard not to think of the Cybermen, since they have already a strong hold in an extremely similar premise and are one of the most iconic recurring villains of the show. So I question a bit if this shouldn't have been an actual Cybermen story, but I also think there is interesting arguments to make about how humanity can perpetuate in very distinct scenarios the worst it has to offer.

I like the characters. The habitants of the city are for the most part very stoic, which is the point and hits HARD. As I just said, the opening scene is powerful. I am not sure I love ZEPO as comic relief characters, but I appreciate that they give a single emotion to each of them - it makes so much sense that after living an entire life without feelings there is something you feel so strong about you'll latch to it. I also love the Brain Trusts design. I really like the slugs But the strongest character is surely the city itself.

I have a bit of a problem with the designs though. I love the city itself and there is nothing wrong with the designs in a vaccum (they are really good, actually), but the aesthetic brings a lot from 2000 AD/Judge Dredd (which is to be expect with a creative team made of John Wagner, Patt Mills and Dave Gibbons). That can be felt in other stories in this run too, but City of the Damned and the later The End of the Line is when it's most noticeable. And besides I not being the biggest fan of it (just not usually my cup of tea), I have mixed feelings if it fits Doctor Who. I like to think that anything can fit in Doctor Who, but I don't know.

But please don't misunderstand me - the art is gorgeous.