Lunar Lagoon by: Steve Parkhouse with art by: Mick Austin and letters by: Steve Craddock

 

Lunar Lagoon is written by Steve Parkhouse with art by Mick Austin and letters by Steve Craddock.  It was released in Doctor Who Monthly issues 76-77 (April – May 1983) and is reprinted in its original form in Doctor Who: The Tides of Time by Panini Books.

 

The Fifth Doctor’s Doctor Who Magazine comic run enters its later half with Lunar Lagoon.  When a run is only six stories, a fairly great first three bodes incredibly well, but entering the second half there is the first signs that the run may be slowly losing steam.  Lunar Lagoon is a two issue story which like Stars Fell on Stockbridge, focuses heavily on the characters and not having an overarching threat, but while Stars Fell on Stockbridge has the endless charm of Maxwell Edison, Lunar Lagoon has a Japanese World War II soldier who only speaks in broken English and doesn’t get a name until near the end of the comic.  His name is Fuji and Parkhouse is trying to go for something about the unity of humanity in desperate situations, but compounded with Mick Austin’s rather scratchy artwork, comes across as close to a racial caricature which has not aged well.  The unity of humanity plot also really doesn’t contribute to anything throughout the story.

 

The plot itself is the Doctor relaxing on a beach (something he’s been trying to do which is somehow very fitting for the Fifth Doctor), finding himself bombed by World War II bombers, finding Fuji, being held at gunpoint, forced to eat raw fish (I’m fairly certain that the Doctor would be fine with eating sushi, probably knowing how to make it work without having to build a fire), being bombed again, and Fuji eventually dying while the Doctor heads back to the TARDIS.  There isn’t any sense of resolution here, and the actual title doesn’t actually make any sense, the moon isn’t mentioned and I’m fairly certain the body of water is meant to be the ocean as the location is described as an island.  There is still a lot to like: the pace of the comic itself doesn’t actually overstay its welcome at two issues, and Parkhouse does manage to make the Fifth Doctor feel like the Fifth Doctor.  This comic released after the bulk of Season 20 aired, so there was plenty of material by this point and unlike much of the Fourth Doctor’s run (mainly that under Moore), this feels like something Peter Davison would have taken part in.

 

Overall, Lunar Lagoon is almost perplexing as it only asks questions before ending without any resolution, but looking ahead to the next story implies that there will be a continuation with things not coming to a definite ending.  It’s perhaps the weakest Fifth Doctor comic, but is far from being actually bad.  Despite aging poorly there is enough here to classify it as decent, but only just above average in my estimation as the comic strip inches closer to the Sixth Doctor’s run (this would be out right around the time Davison decided to step away from the role).  6/10.