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Doctor Who Special 2013
Released by: IDW Publishing
Released on: December 24th, 2013.
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This oversized special, entitled 'The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who' and published to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of Doctor Who was written by Paul Cornell and illustrated by Jimmy Broxton. The story finds the eleventh incarnation of The Doctor (so he obviously resembles Matt Smith here) pondering the types of things that he ponders in the TARDIS when he gets an alert that the TARDIS can't compute. When the big blue box opens up he steps out and finds he's on the set of a Doctor Who movie just about to start shooting. He's mobbed by fans and signs some autographs completely unsure of what exactly it is that he's gotten into.
Nearby a redheaded twelve year old girl in glasses is teased by her peers for loving Doctor Who as much as she does. Though she insists she knows that it's not real, but when she sees The Doctor she can't help but follow him. He spies her and she tells him she knows he's not The Doctor and that he's only Matt Smith. At this point The Doctor starts to figure out what's going on and when this girl shows him her collection of posters and memorabilia, his self awareness is rocked. He's puzzled by how what he's gone through has been titled and marketed, and how some of the characters from his past that he knows are very much alive have been killed off - like Sarah Jane Smith.
And yet this girl, possibly in hopes of keeping her mind straight, continues to insist that The Doctor is fictional. Of course he doesn't understand or agree, but when the girl's mother finds him in her daughter's room, he has to prove who he is by taking them to the TARDIS. From here he visits a Doctor Who convention with the girl, who we learn is named Abby and whose father left her when she was five. We learn how she got into the show to help with her fear of monsters and how the love of space travel and time travel it instilled in her differentiated her from the girls at school who only wanted to talk about Barbie Dolls. As The Doctor is then pulled farther into the more obscure reaches of Doctor Who fandom, he meets Matt Smith and asks him what happens in the next episode, which just so happens to show what happens should The Doctor land in the real world. Confused yet? You should be. But as The Doctor realizes he's now in a world that requires him not to be a living, breathing being but a character he soon realizes he'd better find a solution to all of this. And then there's the matter of The Cybermen.
The final Doctor Who comic to be published by IDW starts off with a heartfelt note from Chris Ryall noting the publisher's accomplishments with the character and ends with a cover gallery showcasing all of the covers, variants and all, that have been used throughout IDW's run. It's a nice way to compliment the story itself, which is a remarkably self aware tale that does what a good Doctor Who story should - and that's to provide a fun adventure, some good humor and in this case, end things on a positive, even uplifting note as we see how Abby's interactions with The Doctor affect her future. The story deals with bullying, still sadly a problem throughout the schools of the world, but manages to do so without getting preachy or corny. It's actually a pretty clever story that works in some nice winks to the series' past and future alike. Paul Cornell sends the series off on a high note. The artwork from Jimmy Broxton suits the tone of Conerll's writing rather well. It's not hyper realistic but it's not too cartoony either. The detail is there but the heavy line work lets him work his own unique style to the story's advantage. IDW had a good run with the character, six years as the first American publisher to bring new Who stories to the comic book format. We'll see what happens in the new year once the BBC announce their plans but until then, at least the comic book incarnation of the Time Lord goes out on a high note with this special issue, the series' finale.