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Review of Revolutions of Terror by dema1020

13 May 2024

Wow, what a treat. I checked this out wanting to learn more about Gabby, a comic exclusive companion I've seen crop up a few times, and so Revolutions of Terror really proved to be an exceptional proper introduction to the character I quite enjoyed on most every level.

The overall plot is pretty great - it is not only creative, but full of some very savvy details that blend very well into the continuity of Doctor Who. This goes on a couple of levels - at the most basic, there are many references as the Doctor is battling psychic entities in this story that manifest some of his greatest fears - like the Weeping Angels or Sutekh. On a deeper level, this story has a good sense of where the Doctor is emotionally - between the Waters of Mars and End of Time where he was normally avoiding companions. It also really does a good job at explaining how psychic phenomenon might work in the Doctor Who universe, introducing this concept of a psychosphere - a sort of psychic field on Earth no different than our atmosphere that can affect all living things on the planet. That really blends nicely with stories like Sound of Drums so I appreciated the details here.

Gabby is also quite exceptional as a companion. We get a decent sense of her life, her family, her perspective on things - at least a lot more than your average companion introduction story. It's done pretty well even if it does kind of make her super-special companion-worthy like so many others in the New Who era by the end. Plus it is a lot of fun to have a character unapologetically American, and as a member of a Latinx family living in New York, that really made her feel like a bit of a stand-out compared to most any other companion in Who history.

The weakest aspect to this comic is the dialogue though - it is hard to get Ten's voice down right and this comic often makes him feel a lot cringier than David Tennant ever really was in the show.

I also really like the art in this comic. Some panels are more detailed than others and that can affect the presence of some characters like Gabby's dad pretty heavily, but there is a lot of creativity to the visuals and a lot of cool covers along the way. Overall this was a very impressive three issues and left me excited to see what other adventures Ten and Gabby have gone on.

Review created on 13-05-24