It’s been 26-and-a-half years since the name The Valeyard has been mentioned in an episode of Doctor Who. Not only does the final episode of the 50th Anniversary season mention him by name, but it strongly foreshadows his imminent return. Of course that’s far from all “The Name of The Doctor” offers. We finally learn the secret of Clara (Jenna-Louise Coleman), see The Doctor‘s (Matt Smith) final battle with The Great Intelligence (Richard E. Grant), and take a trip to the one place no Time Lord should ever go – his grave. The second-half of Series Seven has been high on concept, if a little shaky at times in execution, but the season finale sets up some huge stories for the show’s 50th Anniversary Special and beyond.
Oh, goodness…it’s 1 hour and 30 minutes of Doctor Who, the week in comics, and of course a tribble ranch of Star Trek Into Darkness! Oh, and a little thing we like to call “the return of Bobby”. We don’t spoil the shit out of Star Trek because mostly we can’t articulate our thoughts particularly well, but there’s all manner of nerdraging and nerd boners.
Blackmailed by her two young charges, Clara (Jenna-Louise Coleman) gets The Doctor (Matt Smith) to take Angie (Eve De Leon Allen) and Artie (Kassius Carey Johnson) to Hedgewick’s World of Wonders, the universe’s greatest amusement park which spans the breadth of an entire planet. There are only two problems with the trip. First, on arriving the travelers learn the park is closed. And second, with the arrival of fresh young minds, a small group of Cybermen begin to awaken after being dormant for 10,000 years. Things get even more complicated with the leader of a group of soldiers has standing orders to blow up the planet if the Cybermen ever reappear and The Doctor runs off to get himself assimilated leaving Clara in charge.
Okay, so we lied. No Bobby and we blow past 45 minutes like it’s the check-out counter at Randy Quaid’s hotel*. But we’ve got a veritable SLEW of comics to cover as well as Doctor Who, Iron Man 3 spoilers, Free Comic Book Day (and how Atomic Robo totally owned that day), the wisdom of Zach Braff, and an intervention of Cap’n Carrot’s hideous carrot addiction.
Spoiler: Hawkeye still kicks ass. And Aaron still loves the Avengers and all related titles.
*If you caught that reference; congratulations and we’re sorry.
Presented mostly from the perspective of Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh) and Jenny Flint (Catrin Stewart), “The Crimson Horror” follows the Silurian detective and her companion, along with their (always amusing) Sontaran butler Strax (Dan Starkey), on their investigation of a number of glowing red-skinned corpses in Sweetville, the private community of self-professed savior Winifred Gillyflower (Diana Rigg). Given an image captured in the latest victim’s eyes at the time of his death, Vastra believes The Doctor (Matt Smith) may be connected somehow to the troubling events and sends Jenny in undercover to find him.
While letting Clara (Jenna-Louise Coleman) fly the TARDIS something goes terribly wrong when the Time Lord’s craft is caught in a Magno-Grab by a salvage ship looking for scrap. With Clara still trapped onboard, lost in the maze-like bowels of the ship, The Doctor (Matt Smith) convinces the two brothers (Mark Oliver, Ashley Walters) and their android (Jahvel Hall) to help save Clara by offering them “the salvage of a lifetime” in exchange. After boarding with the salvagers, The Doctor activates the TARDIS self-destruct and locks them all aboard, giving them a half-hour to rescue Clara before they all die.
Celebrating Doctor Who‘s 50th Anniversary, Xenomurphy is creating LEGO recreations of famous scenes. I don’t know about you, but a LEGO Face of Boe sounds pretty cool to me.
