Monday, December 23, 2013

Doctor Who Classic Comics #15

 photo DWCC-15-Thumbnail_zpsa39a45f1.jpg

Doctor Who uses magic to fight a demon in order to protect Santa Claus. Yes, seriously.




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76 comments:

Lazoor said...

That ending was awesome! I can just see that Linkara has his moments of, "Why do I let this guy live here"?

The review was cool. The comic not so much. Were these people even aware of Doctor Who beyond a vague description?

LucasChad said...

Even as a non-Who fan
This comic is about as weird as it get
At least with something like Monty Python
It made me want to be a Brit!

Oh no...I'M STILL SPEAKING IN RHYME!!!
(goes outside and shout to the heavens)
BLAST YOU WHOS!!!

Anonymous said...

I hate Doctor Who. I know it is nowhere near as ubiquitous as your Star Trek reviews, but those are funny, while I hate Who with a passion. Which is fine, my first exposure to it was the novel "Night of the Humans" which hates me, and anyone who doesn't believe in Dawkins style cessation of existence atheism. So yeah, a Christmas special? Hypocrisy, thy name is Who writers.

Locuas said...

"Which is fine, my first exposure to it was the novel "Night of the Humans" which hates me, and anyone who doesn't believe in Dawkins style cessation of existence atheism. So yeah, a Christmas special? Hypocrisy, thy name is Who writers."
so...a novel, from a writer who has only worked in the EU of doctor wh, is proof that ALL doctor who writers hater people who are not atheist? and you believe that being atheist means hating christmas?

How about Liza the Liard?
also, is she going to be a love interest? or maybe a feminist PoW?

Kaze Koichi said...

"I think this must be a new planet thrown out by one of the constelation."
Or that could just be orbital wobble.

Felix Brunschede said...

"You have created life from foam and wire." <- That line right there recreated my moral structure, vibrated the essence of my being let my life shrivel in pain and fear. Never examine something crated by Linksano ever again, Linkara. @__@

Unknown said...

Wait, what? He just fired a lazer out of his computer… thingy… since when could… how did he know it could do that? Did he just make that up on the fly? SCIENCE DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY!! You can't just make up sciency powers with no explanation like this!

Anonymous said...

If it's "christmas-land".... does that mean they are on Trenzalore ?

Unknown said...

Oh your "Dr.Who is goofy" comment was great. Part of the reason why I like watching it when I can. What can I say I enjoy the eccentric.

Also what are the limits of your(character's) magic?

Adam said...

A weirder Christmas comic than last weeks, a Time Lord riding a squirrel, a creature almost as creepy looking as Mr. Computer, a brand new character (let's call her Sally Gator), and a Patrick Swayze Christmas song by a group of young adults with MST3K's Joel Robinson at the end. What a way to cap off the final Christmas episode before the big day. ^_^

Merry Christmas, Linkara!

Lostshadows said...

I suspect the Doctor was making a cricket reference, rather than a bowling reference. No idea if it makes any more sense, I know just enough about cricket to make the association.

That lizard is really cute. Love the sunglasses. :)

Zachary said...

Name the foam lizard Janet.

AmazedSatsuma said...

Heh, you should have waited with you Great Intelligence reference until the killer Snowman showed up

Anonymous said...

Hope you read this. As far as a name for the lizard. I would suggest something from Arthurian Mythology. Something like Guinevere. Although I would imagine you have already considered this.

Anonymous said...

I'm going to assume this is not the real doctor WNO and is just a "genius" from the RPG genius the transgression who was a fan of doctor who and took the name.

SMAXZO said...

Great, they just made the Doctor into freaking Doraemon. For those of you who didn't know what Doraemon is, it is a character from a Japanese manga titled Doraemon which is about a kid suddenly getting help from a robot cat from the future who have lots of futuristic gadgets from his pocket which incidentally is bigger on the inside. And for those who know about Doraemon, yes I know that Doraemon was made in December of 1969 but still...

Gibbeynator said...

Is it just me, or does the Demon Magician kind of look like Malekith from Thor?

Unknown said...

The reveiw was really good but the comic was just mind-boggling. Its weirdness managed overshadow the weirdness of the science regarding Dr. Linksano's Christmas present.

As for the new lifeform that Dr. Linksano somehow made from completely inanimate objects and non-biological chemicals, how about either Dindrane or Morgan as a name?


Although this is a bit early, I hope that you and yours (both atop and off the Fourth Wall)have a Merry Christmas, Mr. Lovhaug.

M. L. Martin said...

I am no Whovian, but some of the bits in this comic ("Dr. Who" as the name, grandchildren, reference to him as an inventor) remind me of what I've heard about the Peter Cushing films. Could those and this comic have been coming from the same set of misinterpretations or planned revisions of the character?

Unknown said...

That lizard is freaking awesome. I can see how it could have had such an impact on your childhood.

And wait, did Doctor Linksano's coat always have his 'name' stitched into it?

SotF said...

With the Doctor being referred to as Doctor Who, there is a possibility that this was based more off of the old radio series that was still just plain weird anyway.

I believe it's the same as the Dr. Who and the Daleks universe

JFinley91 said...

I was waiting for a Narnia reference this review.

Movie-Brat said...

Okay, so this isn't the formerly known as Jeff Santa Claus The Doctor mentioned in A Christmas carol.

Anonymous said...

Well, to be fair, I don’t believe that the Doctor would doubt Santa’s Existence. Considering one of the Sonics was made by Santa and the Doctor likes to take Santa to Frank Sinatra’s Christmas Party with Einstein.

Tobe fair that this was early in Doctor Who, before all the mythos of Gallifrey or the Time Lords were even thought up.
Although, they could have checked the plans, like how Susan was actually a Princess and the Doctor was a Duke and he was trying to hide her from an Evil Overlord…I’m not joking, that was the original plan for the Doctor’s Backstory.

With the Yeti Joke, I’m surprised you didn’t make a Marco Polo joke or if the Great Intelligence really is in an Alternate Continuity…does this mean this is the Universe which Scream Of The Shalka is set in?

So…What? Before the Sonic Screwdriver was invented, the Magic Box was the Doctor’s Dues Ex Machina?

This is without a doubt, the WEIRDEST Doctor Who Story EVER! And I’ve seen an episode where the Daleks are defeated by Dracula and Frankenstein!

Merry Christmas, Linkara.
Loving the Scarf and Looking forward to seeing more from you! ;3

MsMoonlight said...

C'mon Linkara, don't be such a sourpuss. The foam lizard was a very heartfelt gift! Do you know how much science it takes to screw around with reality like that? At least 8 science. There are lot of kids this Christmas who would appreciate a new friend like that.

Unknown said...

I don't know what to name the foam lizard. I'm tempted to call it Idris
since, it appeared in a Doctor who comic review and its blue . Not surprised that crazy Dr.Linksano played God. I just glad that he played God in order to create a gift for a friend. Not, that I'm okay with Dr.Linksano playing God.
I think,I'll stick with watching the Doctor who Christmas Specials.

Anonymous said...

actually Santa Claus, or rather said Saint Nicholas, was Greek, and lived in today's Turkey

also, whatever happened to Fat Grandma?
are you that blackhearted that you won't see you'r own loving grandmother on Christmas?

Jesse said...

The reason why it never works is because you don't BELIEVE it will enough Linkara!

PS Merry Christmas!:D

Kth-77 said...

That ending was glorious, I need an excuse to use "Science bless us!" sometime. I also hope Foam lizard makes a return for future episodes.

The NPC said...

I hope he keeps the lady foam lizard.

Grendel said...

I hope you and your family also has a safe and Merry Christmas Linkara.

Xel Unknown said...

Oh I love this. "I am a woman" the foam lizard said. It was just gold. I love this new character and I love it's orginion as a kind hearted gift form the insane mad science man. And I disagree with Linkara... CHRISTMAS TIME IS PERFECT TIME TO PLAY GOD!

Anonymous said...

Still a better Doctor Who Christmas special than The Snowmen.

N. said...

First, congratulations on introducing another female-identified character to the show. However, despite his status as a villain, is Doctor Linksano's transphobia integral to his character? While I admit it could be a powerful character arc, it risks otherising your trans* audience by subjecting them to transphobia and redeeming the socio-hegemonic character by "learning his lesson."

Additionally, I would like to raise an alternative read of this week's comic. This is clearly proto-Thatcherism being championed. Santa and the Doctor represent the entrepreneur, able to create and improve upon inventions. The Demon Magician, as you suggested, is representative of the Elves, that seek only hand outs and to destroy prosperity. It is a relief to see Anarcho-Capitalism being given such a heartwarming feature, and spreads the need for the capitalist ethic in children reading it

Anonymous said...

Let's call the foam female lizard "L'taah" (which means "Lizard" in hebrew [because Linksano played Judah Loew ben Bezalel], but sounds like it's a klingon word. so it's awesome.)

BTW Merry Christmas to you to Lweis :)

FugueforFrog said...

Considering that the "Magic Box" appeared in '65, you could probably get some sort of idea of giving the Doctor a "weapon of sort". It isn't the Sonic Screwdriver but it is a start I say. Otherwise, you're right: really weird comic with giant squirrels, green/blue magic demon elf things and...Santa Claus, sort of.

As for the living foam lizard, why not just Susan? Considering this is a review based on a Hartnell comic and it's female...

Leor said...

Lewis, what are you going to name the foam lizard? How about Eliza?

Synchronist said...

You know what, I think this comic is based on that stand-alone movie. The one where the Doctor's actual name was Doctor Who. He did have grandchildren and ended up stranded on a planet with the Daleks.

Gabriel Godinho said...

From now on, I'm going to watch this review every December.

Unknown said...

I wasn't sure how it would happen but this was weirder than last week.

WOW.

I love the lizard. (Also glad Dr. Linksano wasn't upset with your reaction).

I think for a name either Lizara (or Lizdara)

or going with a previous suggestion, I second Guinevere (though possibly Guinevere the Green?)

As for the comic again, I know I've not seen a lot of the 1st Doctor but I don't remember him being quite so... giddy.

I agree with your comments on the 50th, while I really liked it (and was glad someone like me who's not watched a lot of 11th doc, and it has nothing to do with Matt Smith, I love him as the doctor) I do wish there was more involving the Doctor's whole life other than the solution and then the end shot.

Though (and am trying to not spoil those who've yet to be able to see it) who that had as the curator of the painting was AWESOME, was nice to see him being okay with the roll.

Having not seen the 7th Doctor since his death in the telefilm (TV movie from the 90s) it was sad to not get to see him really do anything.

Yes I am aware of the short with him, 6 and 5, have not seen that yet.

Your little 'shh' and then touching the side of your nose totally made me think of 7th Doc at the end of Silver Nemesis (my favorite 7th Doctor ep).

This was an extremely fun run of Christmas comics this year, kudos.

@dragons_dusk

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"First, congratulations on introducing another female-identified character to the show. However, despite his status as a villain, is Doctor Linksano's transphobia integral to his character? While I admit it could be a powerful character arc, it risks otherising your trans* audience by subjecting them to transphobia and redeeming the socio-hegemonic character by "learning his lesson.""

Dr. Linksano is not transphobic. He simply had no means of identifying the gender of the lizard by appearance and, per standard irritating assumptions in sociology, presumed it was male by default.

MCBANE: THAT'S THE JOKE.

Megan said...

Name the lizard Mabel.

This comic was...umm....unique? Yeah, we'll go with that. Like you said, it has an interesting enough premise, but then it just goes into WTF territory with the Magic Box and the Demon Magician, who didn't look demonic so much as just furry, and whose magic apparently consists of being able to create Frosty and roll down a mountain in a snow ball.

By the way, am I the only one who was kind of creeped out by the smile on that snowman? That wasn't cheery, that was "I want to eat your flesh." (Incidentally, this is also how I feel about The Elf on the Shelf)

Anonymous said...

Disappointed we didn't see any of the other characters activities around the apartment.

Occasional Webisodes of your characters interacting in their daily lives or in the real world would be AWESOME! It would also fill the gap of them being underused in the story arcs.

Think about it, Snowflame and 90's Kid go to a 7/11. The jokes write themselves.

Also, WHERE IS BOFFO?!

Anonymous said...

Do all your friends live in your apartment? Do they sleep in separate rooms or do they share bunk-beds? Do they pay rent? Do you ever sleep in your spaceship to get away from them sometimes? Do you ever get questions from your tenant about all the nuisances? Do you still keep the android's hand? Do you have any regrets? Do you have any doubts? Do you have any fears? Do you still think of him? Do you still think of him? Do you still think of


Do you still think of me?


:≈≈I hope you do≈≈:

Unknown said...

I hope the talking foam walking lizard becomes a regular in the show.

David Dauz said...

It's possible that this whole Magic Box deal is a reference to an old British children's novel, John Masefield's 'The Box of Delights'. A kid comes home for Christmas from boarding school, and he ends up with a magic box that, among other things, can travel through time and cause things to shrink. I hear there's a pretty good BBC adaptation from the 80s with--PATRICK TROUGHTON? WHAT THE COINCIDENCE?

David Dauz said...

Oh, and the villain of 'Box of Delights' was a wizard, apparently. (I never finished reading it when I was ten. Maybe I should take a look again...)

Anonymous said...

Hmmm... Early days Doctor Who comic... The first 2 words of that sentence gives it a pass in my book. Still weird even by the standards of the show, though.

Speaking of weird... Any time I think Linksano couldn't possibly get any stranger, he does something like... the... lizard... thing... This will be part of my dreams for the next day or so...

Fiery Little One

Tracey said...

gotta live when people who know nothing about the original try to make an adaptation/spin-off

that's also the reason why the My Little Pony and Godzilla comics by IDW are so good, they are written and drawn by actual fanboys and fangirls
(many of them started out doing fanart and fanfictions on DeviantArt)


by the way, are we going to see Fat Grandma become a regular?
*puppy-eyes*

Starman said...

Great review, but I don't know why you're so surprised about a demon magician going out of his way to annoy Santa for evil's sake. Isn't that the whole plot of that Santa Claus movie they showed on MST3K?

Anonymous said...

So I have a name for the lizard: Margret

Anonymous said...

I'm embarrassed to admit it took me a day to get the joke that Iron Liz is voicing Foam Liz. (That is her, right? I'm not going deaf?)

Also, Merry Christmas, sir!

Gareth said...

Merry Christmas Linkara

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"I'm embarrassed to admit it took me a day to get the joke that Iron Liz is voicing Foam Liz. (That is her, right? I'm not going deaf?)"

As indicated in the credits, no it is not.

Anonymous said...

It's sort of fascinating to see when DW was more of a blank canvas and you could make up whatever crap you wanted...well, DW writers still tend to do that anyway, but you know what I mean. I think at the time the show was just another thing the BBC had on the time, so they presumably just gave the comics duty to any old schmoe bidding low enough, from the looks of it.

I think a lot of tie-in comics for kids from the 60s/70s, from Trek to more obscure things, tended to follow a similar pattern; like the ST: TOS thing you did a while back.

In any case, merry christmas, happy holidays, whatever you want, and look forward to more of the show in 2014!

Anonymous said...

Neither bowling, nor cricket as someone else suggested. Bowls is actually a different thing entirely, involving landing several small balls, thrown either a bit like a bowling ball or like a shot put with the intention of landing them nearer to a target than your opponent's balls.

Doesn't necessarily make a TON more sense in context, but it did involve getting a small ball into a small target field, so...close enough?

As to the lizard...okay, bear with me, but I'm going to suggest Eliza. One, it does have 'liz' in there, so that's nice, but more importantly we've got Eliza from My Fair Lady, which is a modern variant on the Pygmalion story, and Pygmalion created a woman from inanimate material. Also connected to Wonder Woman's origin, so comics, too. So look at that - Puns, Musical Theater, and Comic Books, all worked in with one name.

I mean, you could use Galatea if you wanted to go old school, but then you don't get the 'liz'/lizard thing.

Last thing, because I haven't the time to check another video right now...was she voiced by the same woman who does Nimue? Sounded like, but wasn't sure.

Ming said...

Loved your funny review of this bad Doctor Who comic. Loved the funny end scene where Linksano actually brings a foam lizard to life with SCIENCE . . . and a magic box.

Anyway, merry Christmas and a happy new year to you, comic book reviewer/champion.

Bill said...

Been spending most of the day catching up on Doctor Who on BBC America and I can honestly say I'm confused by your comments that the 50th Anniversary Special only focused on the series since the reboot. From the opening which echoed the opening of the very first episode in 1963 to the inclusion of UNIT and mention of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart to the mini-episode with Paul McGann and the scene with Tom freakin' Baker (the Doctor of my childhood), there were tons of references to classic Doctor Who. To each their own, of course, but I really enjoyed the episode.

As far as the comic book, well, that was just weird.

Unknown said...

Merry Christmas (or day after...know what, have a merry life).

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"To each their own, of course, but I really enjoyed the episode."

I enjoyed it, too.

But the things you listed aren't focusing on its entire 50 years run. Those are pieces of fanservice. The 50th anniversary should have been about the Doctor's overall life, something big that we didn't know about him before, not about the Time War. "Night of the Doctor" was indeed great, but that's not part of THIS episode. Not to mention yeah, it's great that we had Tom Baker, but what was even the point of including all of the past Doctors in stock footage if you weren't going to have the living actors record NEW dialogue for that sequence? Not having them be there physically due to age, I get that, but why the hell not a little bit of voicework instead of ALL stock footage?

Anonymous said...

Strange thing. The other video I have paused is one from SFDebris with Martha looking incredibly sad. Very fitting.

And I hear people say demon magician so many times that I'm flashing back to a movie Bennett reviewed where everyone said girl genius once every five minutes.

Shanethefilmmaker said...

I'd ask what your deal was with the foam walking Lizards, but I had a few carnival memories myself that are just as weird. When I was a kid, I used to have what was known as a punching balloon. Essentially it was a balloon on an elastic string and the gag was you had to throw it, let it slingshot back and then hit it. Damn thing exploded on me. Anywho good review as always and A Merry Christmas. And because Linksano did it I have to say it. "Before you knew what you had, you patented it and packaged it and slapped it on a plastic lunch box and now, you're selling it. You wanna sell it."

Unknown said...

Ahhh, Doctor Who, along with all the other stuff the UK exports ...... including pedophiles (insert own jimmy savile joke here)

Ave said...

When I heard "magic box", I was kind of expecting the ending music to be the song "Magic Bus", but oh well. It was fun anyways.

Jillian said...

Okay I know she's a foam lizard but how about Nina the Newt?
And if we have to vote for other people's suggestions While I like Guinevere I LOVE L'taah that just sounds so awesome.

Sooo, what did you get Oscar "Linksano" Schlumper? I mean he was willing to give you a pet that no one else has! You can't have just given him another junior chemistry set!

Unknown said...

And after rewatching the episode I've realized that suggesting Guinevere the Green was silly because the lizard is blue...

her sitting on the green futon flipped it in my mind when I finally got to comment

whoops...

(though I do still agree with previous poster that Guinevere would be a good name :D )

also in reference to the doctor who 50th, I agree not having them do new voice work is confusing, especially haven't all done recent audio dramas?

Anonymous said...

hello, Linky boy

I know it's late, but you may take these as a sort-of gift from me

I found these a while ago, and thought they were appropriate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSI6BQY-2os
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmK3AQ2Yozk

DriveByPost said...

Eventually I will catch up to real time.

Considering the last full Doctor Who episode I watched was "The Daemons" made this comic particularly amusing. That whole episode featured the Doctor telling people there was no such thing as magic and that everything had a scientific explanation.

In the end, the Doctor explained away what happened during the episode as psychokinetic energy that were controlled through the various rituals and incantations.

And I really, really wanted someone to turn to the Doctor and say "We have a word for that, it's called magic."

Jermey said...

I can answer that question of yours that you asked in the comments. You asked what was the point of the stock footage if they weren't going to have the actors in it. Christopher Eccleston who played the 9th doctor said that he didn't want to be typecasted if he did come back. You should also remember that sadly the actors that played the first 3 doctors are dead. Colin Backer who played the 6th doctor had quite the show because the producers wanted him to be more like the 4th doctor (Tom Baker)so I don't think he wanted to come back. As for Peter Davidsin and Slyvester McCoy who played the 5th and 7th doctor I don't know why they wouldn't. In fact Peter Davidsin did come back during David Tennant's run as the 10th Doctor's run for a little bit.Yea look up the mini episode Time crash for that. But I wonder why couldn't they let Paul McGann stay as the 8th Doctor. There is no point in making the war doctor, why not just let the 8th doctor be the one who did it instead.

Lewis Lovhaug said...

Jermey, your information is out of date.

Eccleston was on board with coming back, but there was a disagreement with Moffat over who should direct the anniversary. Eccleston left the show because he didn't like the environment while filming and didn't get along with a bunch of the production crew. He LOVED being the Doctor.

As I stated, all LIVING Doctors have done voice work as the Doctor for Big Finish productions, so you could still have the stock video but record new dialogue for them. They'd all be willing - they've promoted the 50th anniversary and participated in Peter Davison's "The Five-Ish Doctors" special. And yes, the first three Doctors actors are dead, but that didn't stop them in the Big Finish Audio's 50th Anniversary audio play "the Light at the End," which had excellent voice imitators for them for the small roles they played. Colin Baker has stated that he's actually rather upset that they didn't ask him or any of the other actors to be in it EXCEPT for Tom Baker.

And yes, I'm fully aware of Time Crash. Much like comic news, Pokémon news, and news about many other fandoms that I am a part of, I tend to know about stuff as it's first announced.

Jermey said...

Well I didn't know that so I'm sorry for giving you wrong information. But they did get Paul McGean to come back to show him change into the war doctor. So again I ask why couldn't they just use him?

chad said...

I thought even though the Doctor destroyed his home planet. At the same time he might have been a little bit happy to do it to the time lords. Remember back in the war games, the time lords forced him to regenerate. So they costed him a life. He might have wanted to do that only to the time lords not to the entire planet.

One more thing out of all the regeneration's the Doctor went through, which one was your favorite. Mine is the 4th Doctor to the 5th Doctor. With him in what looks like a spider web reminded me of a caterpillar changing. In a way it is more realistic then any of the others.

But still which one is your favorite?

Zack said...

What would be a shocker is to see Jason David Frank as the Doctor. Also in real life the 10 Doctor David Tennet is the 5th Doctor's Peter Daidsin step son. Also if you want to see classic who, just wait till series 8, because Peter capauldi, was a fan of the show and met the third Doctor. From what I heard, series 8 will be more like classic who and will be really dark.

Jermey said...

Hey Linkara, I heard Matt Smith will do a cameo as the Doctor, and what did you think of the Christmas special, and night of the doctor?

Michael said...

I heard Peter Capaldi will only be on doctor who for one season. Also his first time he was on this show will go into detail.

Kevin said...

Hey Linkara if Doctor who could have a crossover with any show, which would be your pic?

Also, back with my question's in Pokemon 4ever, I was not going to ask you about the next Pokemon movie review, I now you don't do those. I asked about that running gag with you and a game of chess, not for the next review.