Or rather A Room with a Deja View. The latest in the "stand-alone Doctor Who" from IDW Publishing. By some bloke called Rich Johnston. You may have heard of him, he was killed in a CSI comic I'm lead to believe ;-)
Doctor Who is not really a series about Time Travel, nor is it really about a Time Traveller.
It uses Time Travel as a convenient device to stick our hero in situations where anything is possible - alien invaders in a human colony on Mars one week, pallying about with Sherlock Holmes in Victorian London in the smog the next - that sort of thing.
But from time to time, we get stories that explore the ideas that surround Time Travel - Father's Day and Blink for example, and Inside the Spaceship/Edge of Destruction from the classic series.
And now, A Room with a Deja View. It starts out ordinary (for the Doctor), with him in the TARDIS, moping about and receiving a distress call. But the most extraordinary thing also occurs, a little note from the editor - "warning: parts of this story may read better backwards, rather then forwards", which tantalising the fan with questions of what is to come.
A simple murder mystery, even an open-and-shut case in a space station full of people fleeing a plague. And a most unusual suspect. Someone who lives their life in the opposite direction to everyone else. When he first meets the Doctor, he hails him as his oldest friend and so forth.
The Doctor, recognised as a Time Lord and thus the only hope to communicate with the suspect, uses all his guile and ingenuity (as well as cheating with the TARDIS and travelling back and repeatedly meeting Tx in order to comprehend what he's saying) uncovers the motivations for the crime.
Which, from a certain point of view, wasn't a crime at all, it was Tx giving the guard a long and prosperous life one that simply "began" when Tx hit him.
The story has everything that makes Who great - a fascinating story, interesting and believable characters, and a man who uses all his wit and creativity to solve problems that noone else could.
It does take a few reads to get the hang of the story (especially the interrogation with Tx) but in this reviewer's opinion, it's well worth it. Once you realise Tx's motivation, and his knowledge of his inevitable punishment, you really feel both sorry for him, but also understand that for him it's not a sad thing, but a good one, because for someone who lives their lives backwards what is death... but the beginning?
IDW continues to produce stories that would stand amongst the best of the TV series, Classic Series or New Series, if they were broadcast, and it's well worth tracking them all down.
After all, $7 Australian for brand-spanking new Who and a cracker read to boot is well worth it, in this reviewer's opinion.
Doctor Who is not really a series about Time Travel, nor is it really about a Time Traveller.
It uses Time Travel as a convenient device to stick our hero in situations where anything is possible - alien invaders in a human colony on Mars one week, pallying about with Sherlock Holmes in Victorian London in the smog the next - that sort of thing.
But from time to time, we get stories that explore the ideas that surround Time Travel - Father's Day and Blink for example, and Inside the Spaceship/Edge of Destruction from the classic series.
And now, A Room with a Deja View. It starts out ordinary (for the Doctor), with him in the TARDIS, moping about and receiving a distress call. But the most extraordinary thing also occurs, a little note from the editor - "warning: parts of this story may read better backwards, rather then forwards", which tantalising the fan with questions of what is to come.
A simple murder mystery, even an open-and-shut case in a space station full of people fleeing a plague. And a most unusual suspect. Someone who lives their life in the opposite direction to everyone else. When he first meets the Doctor, he hails him as his oldest friend and so forth.
The Doctor, recognised as a Time Lord and thus the only hope to communicate with the suspect, uses all his guile and ingenuity (as well as cheating with the TARDIS and travelling back and repeatedly meeting Tx in order to comprehend what he's saying) uncovers the motivations for the crime.
Which, from a certain point of view, wasn't a crime at all, it was Tx giving the guard a long and prosperous life one that simply "began" when Tx hit him.
The story has everything that makes Who great - a fascinating story, interesting and believable characters, and a man who uses all his wit and creativity to solve problems that noone else could.
It does take a few reads to get the hang of the story (especially the interrogation with Tx) but in this reviewer's opinion, it's well worth it. Once you realise Tx's motivation, and his knowledge of his inevitable punishment, you really feel both sorry for him, but also understand that for him it's not a sad thing, but a good one, because for someone who lives their lives backwards what is death... but the beginning?
IDW continues to produce stories that would stand amongst the best of the TV series, Classic Series or New Series, if they were broadcast, and it's well worth tracking them all down.
After all, $7 Australian for brand-spanking new Who and a cracker read to boot is well worth it, in this reviewer's opinion.
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