Stars Fell on Stockbridge by: Steve Parkhouse with art by: Dave Gibbons

 

Stars Fell on Stockbridge is written by Steve Parkhouse with art by Dave Gibbons.  It was released in Doctor Who Monthly issues 68-69 (September-October 1982) and is reprinted in its original form in Doctor Who: The Tides of Time by Panini Books.

 

So here we have it.  After sixteen stories, three writing teams, and one regeneration, I reach the end of Dave Gibbons’ run on the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip with Stars Fell on Stockbridge.  This two issue story is different in that it serves essentially as an epilogue to The Tides of Time, moving the strip towards the next story which also features Stockbridge, and introduces the character of Maxwell Edison, introduced here as a one-off companion for the Fifth Doctor, but one who will reappear in the strip at several points much later down the line.  Max is a character who is just a lot of fun, he’s a bit of a nutcase who means well, investigating aliens and UFOs, but the night that stars fell on Stockbridge he meets the Doctor.  There is so much in the opening panels with Max picking up a reading on a machine that’s just some loose wires, showing immediately how the townsfolk look down on him.  The Doctor takes him to the signal which is an automated spaceship which enters the Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrates.  That is the plot of the two issues, but really Parkhouse excels in telling a little two hander between the Doctor and Max, the Doctor being his nice self (by this point all of Season 19 had aired so Parkhouse knew better how to write for Davison) and helping Max through ensuring the spaceship breaks up safely.  The story ends with this beautiful panel of Max riding his bike as the debris causes a meteor storm over Stockbridge, giving Max a little bit of respect.

 

Dave Gibbons’ art is really the highlight here, showing his skills at Earth landscapes with the town of Stockbridge being absolutely beautiful.  There’s real emotion on the faces, especially Max who has a design which could easily have fallen apart, but really works in making someone look like an ordinary guy, something that Davison’s television companions didn’t have outside of Tegan.  It suits Gibbons that something so focused on character work as he would move after this onto DC Comics working on Green Lantern and The Flash in 1983.  He would work for DC Comics throughout the 1980s, including providing the art for Alan Moore’s Watchmen which is one of the best selling graphic novels of all time.  Luckily he would not forget his roots with British comics and Doctor Who, coming back as one of the artists on the celebratory issue 500 story for Doctor Who Magazine in 2016, an extra long 20 page comic strip.  His work set the tone for the comic strip and is a landmark.

 

Overall, Stars Fell on Stockbridge is a very nice little two part story that really only falls flat in not clearly leading right to the next one as it implies that The Tides of Time was not the end of the Fifth Doctor’s troubles with Stockbridge and the forces of time.  Although it’s the second Fifth Doctor strip, it is truly the end of an era with Dave Gibbons retiring.  8/10.