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TARDIS Guide

Overview

Released

Thursday, January 2, 2020

Written by

Jody Houser

Publisher

Titan Comics

Pages

112

Time Travel

Past

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Earth, England, London

Synopsis

A Little Help from My Friends

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3 reviews

This review contains spoilers!

Weeping Angels and Martha Jones and the Doctor owning up to Ten’s shitty behavior towards her. What could be better?


InterstellarCas

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This review contains spoilers!

The main feature of this story is that it's a multi-Doctor story: as you can see from the image, in addition to the Thirteenth Doctor, the Tenth is also present (of course, who else would be). And for all my dislike of shoving the Tenth and Tennant in everywhere, this is a great move. After all, Jody Houser (the scriptwriter) has chosen a good time in the Doctor's life during which the events take place.

The Thirteenth and her companions arrive in London (by accident) at the exact time that the Weeping Angels left the Doctor and Martha in the episode ‘Blink’. So if you've always wondered how Martha and the Doctor lived all that time while Sally Sparrow was solving riddles and running from statues, this volume is for you.

In fact, the look at that life is the most interesting part of the comic - while Martha goes to work and pays the rent and bills, the Doctor does nothing but hang out at home and builds some pointless things that are supposed to help them both get back.

Although the story repeats the plot elements of the two-part series Human Nature and Family of Blood, it gives an interesting perspective, because now Thirteen is observing this situation and her behaviour from the outside. This makes her realise that in her Tenth Incarnation, she may not have been the best version of herself (we can understand this as well). And secondly, the fact that Martha was running the entire household in the two-parter could be explained by the fact that the Doctor was in disguise and not fully himself. In addition, John Smith went to work and definitely received the money he spent on living and paying Martha for her work, which could possibly soften the attitude, given the time in which the plot of Nature and Family takes place (late nineteenth - early twentieth century). Instead, in A Little Help... the Tenth is entirely the Doctor, with no hint of personality change. That is, nothing but his own selfishness prevented the Doctor from working on his devices and helping Martha.

It is also interesting that the Doctors de facto change their teams. The Thirteenth, in order to avoid the paradox of interacting with her past self, sends Yaz, Graham and Ryan to follow the Tenth, while she goes to follow Martha, because something drew her TARDIS here, and not to Woodstock, where they were really going, and what else but Martha and the Doctor could be the reason. The surveillance quickly turns into interaction, and the Tenth and the Family expose the angels in 69`s, while Martha and the Thirteenth find the Autons and the Nestine Consciousness.

After a quick meeting, both problems are solved by one team of two Doctors and four companions, which actually creates a paradox. It's worth noting here the great interaction between the Tenth and Thirteenth, who behave like chaotic siblings with one brain cell for two. You could say that this is logical, because they are, in fact, one person. And I agree with you about the one brain cell for two part, but the fact that the Thirteenth and Tenth interact together like chaotic siblings is still a feature of them, because think of the First's attitude towards the Twelfth in Twice Upon a Time, the interactions between the Tenth, Eleventh and War Doctor in The Day of the Doctor, or the Doctors' interactions in the multi-Doctor stories of the classic era.

All in all, the story is very good and I would advise you to buy it and read it, if only for Martha and the chaotic siblings.

This review is a translation of a part of my Ukrainian-language text, the original can be found here: https://www.mzut-podcast.com/post/2-paradoksy-4-doktory-1-dalek


Yar_Nazarenko

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This review contains spoilers!

Really enjoyed 13 apologising for 10's shitty behaviour towards Martha!


Jamie

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