Doctor Who: The Forgotten (IDW Comics)

It's kind of funny to think that Doctor Who's big break in America is more likely to come through a series of original comics there than through the television series, tucked away on the Sci-Fi Network - although truth to tell, the ratings there may still be higher than the sales of the comics.

Nonetheless along comes - and I've been quite slow in this review - The Forgotten, a trade paperback, collecing the six issues of the series written by Tony Lee and Pia Guerra, with Stefano Martino and Kelly Yates.

Of course the big hook about this series is that it actually features all ten Doctors over the six part series. The tenth Doctor wakes up to find himself in a museum to himself and on touching a variety of objects presented to him by Martha, he recalls adventures from his past. Ultimately, however, he is being pursued by someone who has the ability to manipulate the environment that the Doctor is in.

The nine mini stories are all quite entertaining, though by virtue of the fact that they are really only about 10 pages long, there is not an awful lot of depth to them. The big mystery is actually who is manipulating the Doctor and why Martha seems to know things that she couldn't possibly know.

Lee's story is fun and light, but lacks any real substance to it, appearing to be, more often than not, an excuse to bring the ten Doctors together. One feels though that this could have a little more editing to it to give a bit more definitive characterisation to it.

On the artwork side, Nick Roche provides the covers for the first five issues, and it's pretty clear that it is a good thing he isn't doing the inside art. While it's all very well to describe Tennant as a virtual cartoon, the fact is that there are times when Roche's artwork is so far removed it's not funny. Indeed, given the versions he does of the various Doctors on the front covers, we should perhaps be grateful that Roche at the very worst wasn't given the chance to draw any more McGann or Eccleston.

Guerra, on the other hand, seems to have a slightly better idea of what she is doing, though and her renditions of the various Doctors are quite good (although her second Doctor is waay off in the final issue). Stefan Martino has a bit of fun with the fourth and fifth Doctors, while Kelly Yates gets the chance to do the eighth and ninth Doctor's, though she is probably the weakest of the three artists.

All told, The Forgotten is a better miniseries than Agent Provocateur, but to date both of them lack what makes the new series what it is today - the emotion. A comic allows for an epic grand scale, but there is plenty of room for character as well.