Review: Doctor Who - New Adventures w/ The 11th Doctor #3
Previously in issue #2
What He Wants isn’t my favorite offering in this series so far, but it does drop additional hints as to the motives of SERVEYOUInc and who the mystery third person was when Alice and The Doctor first encountered them.
Alice has the sad task of sorting through her mother’s belongings and comes across old albums of artists her mother really admired. The Doctor takes Alice back to 1962 so she can witness her mother’s idol, John Jones, first live performance. Instead of witnessing history in the making, they find Jones is timid and unsure of himself. He basically flops onstage.
Disappointed, Alice and The Doctor get back in the TARDIS, unaware that Jones has followed them and heard everything they said about his performance. They head for Mississippi in 1931 so The Doctor can show Alice another of her mother’s idols performing. Once they’re there, The Doctor realizes Jones is a stowaway and that his cells react to light in such a way that they’re constantly changing. He’s a chameleon.
Instead of finding the barn jamming with the sounds of Robert Johnson, a soon-to-be-famous blues musician, they find everyone (including Johnson) possessed. The Doctor helps Alice and Jones to the safety of the TARDIS but remains behind to free Johnson from whatever spell he’s under and then sends him to the TARDIS armed with the sonic screwdriver.
Of course SERVEYOU Inc. is behind it and their presence there isn’t a coincidence. They’ve sent a representative to make The Doctor an offer he can’t refuse: he shows him a vision of a Time Lord. Thanks to quick thinking by Alice and Jones’ chameleon abilities, they’re able to rescue The Doctor and release everyone from the spell.
I’m fully invested in this arc, I want to know who SERVEYOU Inc. are, what they want, and where they’ve met the Doctor before. This issue was a tiny baby step in that direction. Jones provided comic relief and I’m hoping he’s around next issue. As much as I enjoy Alice and appreciate her storyline of dealing with her mother’s death, and even though The Doctor’s gesture was a sweet one, I found I wasn’t invested in the detour to Mississippi.
The best reveal came at the end when The Doctor admits he has no idea what he was shown to make him give in and become possessed.
