City of the Damned by: Pat Mills and John Wagner with art by: Dave Gibbons

City of the Damned is written by Pat Mills and John Wagner with art by Dave Gibbons.  It was released in Doctor Who Weekly issues 9-16 (December 1979-January 1980) and is reprinted in its original form in Doctor Who: The Iron Legion by Panini Books.



With Doctor Who and the Iron Legion, Doctor Who Weekly sets a tone for its comic strips as outrageous adventures in time and space with the Doctor.  It was an outrageous story with colorful characters and most definitely aimed at children.  The odd thing is that the follow up story, City of the Damned, begins almost as a story meant for adults with the Doctor arriving in a grim dystopia.  The titular city is a place where emotion has been banned and is being regulated by the Moderator General and the Brains Trust.  The first issue of the story in particular is one that is incredibly bleak as a man’s wife shows an emotion and willfully allows herself to be executed.  The initial reaction from the Doctor once he arrives places him in the place of the audience surrogate (we still do not have the Doctor travelling with a companion yet).  Mills and Wagner’s script then becomes something that is nothing new for Doctor Who: it’s a standard the Doctor saves a society from oppressors, yet in filling 8 issues of Doctor Who Weekly the comic story seems to drag.  The first two and final three issues are perhaps the most interesting as we explore the society and the tyrannical regime as the Doctor is captured and escapes.  The end of the second issue brings back the more insane tone from Doctor Who and the Iron Legion.  The middle issues of the story has the Doctor meet up with the rebels of this planet, called ZEPOs.  The rebellion members are either savages or hang gliders all lead by Big Hate.



The idea that each member of the rebellion devotes themselves to mastering a specific emotion is a great one, if reminiscent of Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.  Mills and Wagner have an interesting idea of having Big Hate be just as much a villain as the tyrannical overlords, sending a flood of blood bugs into the city which will kill anyone who does not release adrenalin.  Both villains of the story are not very in-depth characters.  Both are over the top ranting characters with dedication to their goals and no regard for the lives of the others.  The conclusion of the story itself is just a bit too quickly done in one issue, unlike Doctor Who and the Iron Legion which paced it across two issues.  The Brains Trust is perhaps the best idea: they are beings who have brains for heads and are devoted to living in harmony, which they believe can only be achieved through the deletion of emotion, and the ending where everyone is inspired to dress like the Doctor is great.  The biggest issue with this story is that there is too much tonal inconsistency between the issues as it starts quite dark, becomes campy, and attempts to go back down into a darker tone at the end.  Still, Dave Gibbons artwork is excellent, using sharp angles and blank, yet unique, faces in the background.  The Doctor also feels like the Fourth Doctor here and actually works as an audience surrogate.  7/10.