The Doctor acquires a new companion, Gabby, a Hispanic girl from Brooklyn. Fairly standard Dr Who action.

library book read 10/5/2023 ( )

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/revolutions-of-terror-by-nick-abadzis-elena-casa...

The Doctor visits Brooklyn, and ends up with a new companion, Gabby Gonzalez, fresh from working at her father’s laundromat – where it is the washing machines that provide the terror of the title. I must say I’ve always thought of them as potentially a gateway to another dimension; there’s something primordial and strange about the rotational sloshing of the water. The opening three-part story is very good, the other two parts are a new story, “The Arts in Space” which is a bit sillier but still gives Gabby some more characterisation as well as just being fun. This series clearly had a lot of vim. ( )

Cape may ( )

The Tenth Doctor is travelling solo after returning Donna Noble to her home time and place, and ends up in Brooklyn around the Day of the Dead. Gabriella Gonzalez is an aspiring artist who is helping her parents make ends meet by helping them run their laundromat and serving food at their restaurant, but she wants more out of life. An alien invasion certainly brings her that.

I liked having a companion who could fend for herself and rolled with the weirdness very quickly. I did find some of the main art a bit “sketched in” and found it hard to tell Gabriella and her sister Blanca apart when they were in scenes together, especially when they were both wearing their restaurant uniforms. The dialogue was very good, though, and I liked how Gabriella’s art was woven into the story. ( )

Unlike IDW, which usually just published an ongoing featuring the current Doctor and TARDIS team, Titan publishes multiple ongoings, plus miniseries, featuring the current Doctor and past ones. It all launched with this, Revolutions of Terror, featuring the tenth Doctor and a new companion, the American would-be art student Gabby Gonzalez. This collection contains two stories; the first, "Revolutions of Terror," is a very effective pastiche of a Russell T Davies new-companion episode (e.g., "Rose," "Smith and Jones"), telling the story of alien parasites in New York City on the Day of the Dead from the perspective of Gabby and her family. Nick Abadzis's writing is decent, but the real star is Elena Casagrande's artwork, which really brings the whole family and their environment and the Doctor and the monsters to life. This was a fun, nostalgic tie-in: you won't be bowled over by this, but if you enjoyed Doctor Who from 2005 to 2009, you'll probably like this take on it. I found the rules of the parasites overly fiddly (I think Russell himself could have handled it more elegantly), but otherwise, it was on point.

The second story, "The Arts in Space," was less effective. Clearly also pastiching an RTD genre, the throw-the-companion-into-the-crazy-future one (e.g., "The End of the World," "Gridlock"), but I got lost amidst all the stuff about block transfer computation, and the actions of the villain didn't ring true emotionally. I did really love the bits drawn to look like Gabby's own drawings, as she writes about her journeys to her friend Cindy. But otherwise, I struggled with this one. It's just two issues compared to "Revolutions"'s four, so maybe Abadzis's stories need more time to breathe.

Elena Casagrande used to do a lot of fill-in work on IDW's Star Trek titles, often hired to imitate the work of David Messina, so I was really gratified to see her get to soar in her own style here.

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