Doctor Who is at its best when it’s telling, bold, exciting, quirky new stories or examining and casting new light its own sprawling canon in intelligent, thought-provoking and forward-thinking ways. Anything else is just lazy fan service. Sadly Alternating Current, the latest Titan Comics effort by writer Jody Hauser and artist Roberta Ingranata falls squarely into the latter category. Yet again, this series feels painfully shackled to the show’s past in frustrating, clumsy ways – yes, it’s another of their endless multi-Doctor stories, this time yet again teaming up the current Doctor with a rather muted Tenth Doctor – in a leaden yarn that involves (briefly) Sea Devils, the return of the Skithra from last year’s Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror episode (to which this is something of a sequel) and, drearily, Rose Tyler and her mum and dad Jackie and Pete from some alternative timeline or other. Seriously, Rose Tyler left the show properly over a decade ago; Doctor Who has moved on – such a shame one of its licenced comic strip spin-offs can’t do the same.
Following their previous tussle with the Weeping Angels and Autons in London in 1969 (sigh), the Tenth and Thirteen Doctors went their separate ways but Alternating Current opens with the Doctor and her fam returning to London to find that there’s been some sort of timeline shift and the Sea Devils are the masters of Earth – and have been for some time – and a group of feisty rebels (led by Rose Tyler) are fighting a rear-guard action against the reptiles. The Tenth Doctor arrives on the scene – in this timeline, Rose Tyler has never met him and is instantly suspicious – and the arrival of a helpful Skithra Queen launches the group on a rather dull runaround that involves the reappearance of Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison and an army of Skithra, who are dominating of Earth via the Sea Devils. To add to the general lack of imagination on display here, the whole things ends with a big explosion that puts everything right.
Alternating Current just feels tired and horribly self-referential. Much time is spent with characters talking in the TARDIS, allowing writer Jody Hauser to demonstrate how ably she can replicate the mannerisms and speech patterns of the series regulars old and new, accompanied by art that occasionally captures the likenesses of the actors as seen on TV. But it all seems a bit smug and self-important, the work of a creative team showing off their knowledge of Doctor Who history but failing to do anything intriguing with it. Fans still unable to cope with the Thirteenth Doctor and her team might find some solace in yet another reappearance of the Tenth Doctor, Rose and co. but in the end, it’s doing the one thing Doctor Who should never really do for too long by wallowing in its own history and turning its back on an audience who aren’t up to speed in nearly sixty years’ worth of eccentric, confusing lore. Alternating Current plays unashamedly to the fan gallery who may well revel in its knowingness but there’s really nothing here for anyone looking for new ideas, new concepts, and new adventures.
Release Date: May 11th
