Doctor Who and the Free-Fall Warriors by: Steve Parkhouse with art by: Dave Gibbons

 

Doctor Who and the Free-Fall Warriors is written by Steve Parkhouse with art by Dave Gibbons.  It was released in Doctor Who Monthly issues 56-57 (September-October 1981) and is reprinted in its original form in Doctor Who: Dragon’s Claw by Panini Books.

 

When I last took a look at Doctor Who Magazine comics I mentioned that Steve Parkhouse was writing in a space after Logopolis airing but still with the Fourth Doctor.  For The End of the Line and The Deal Steve Parkhouse gave us stories that reflect the nature of Season 18 and the older version of the Fourth Doctor.  Doctor Who and the Free-Fall Warriors goes back to that Season 17 style with an over the top, comedy focused style where the Doctor is at a space arcade and gets dragged into the pod race from The Phantom Menace, eighteen years too early.  It’s a story which doesn’t actually have a plot, and the few events that do happen just kind of go to a conclusion where the race is over and the Doctor ends up leaving the space arcade.  There is an alien named after Isaac Asimov who the Doctor seems to have some sort of a previous relationship with, the implication being that he tells this alien stories.  There is this idea that the Doctor is a hero for defeating villains at the end of the race, but this conflict is really just an action set piece to fill the second issue of this story which just doesn’t work.  The title of The Free-Fall Warriors also doesn’t actually do or mean a whole lot of anything.  It kind of refers to the fact that this is a race in space, a space race if you will, but this really has nothing to do.  They aren’t the villain, there really isn’t a villain in this story.  The documentary series Stripped for Action which covers the comic eras mentions that certain stories were drawn before a script being written and I can’t help but wonder if this was one of those.

 

Overall, Doctor Who and the Free-Fall Warriors is just bland.  It doesn’t have any sort of cohesive plot and sticks out like a sore thumb in a strip which is going towards something darker and moving towards the next Doctor, being stuck in the past. 3/10