Once Upon a Time-Lord by: Steve Parkhouse with art by: John Ridgway and letters by: Annie Halfacree

 

Once Upon a Time-Lord is written by Steve Parkhouse with art by John Ridgway and lettering by Annie Halfacree.  It was released in Doctor Who Magazine issues 98-99 (February – March  1985) and is reprinted in its original form in Doctor Who: Voyager by Panini Books.

 

So here we are.  The end of Steve Parkhouse’s run of Doctor Who comics.  This is the big one, the one that ends everything that Parkhouse has been building towards over his five year run on the strip.  After this point while there would be a year or so where Alan McKenzie took over as writer, there would be a general shift to avoiding a single writer on the strip which is where you get contributions from people who would become big names in modern comics, such as Grant Morrison, Dan Abnett, Richard Starkings, and to a lesser extent Jamie Delano.  John Ridgway would stay on the strip consistently providing art (though eventually going down to only pencils) well into the 1990s, though not always being the singular artist with several breaks.  Once Upon a Time-Lord is an ending and despite being only two installments long, it feels like it deserves its ending status.  Parkhouse’s ideas just play up the fact that this is a comic book allowing Ridgway the freedom to play around with page layouts and characters, slipping in so much more in these two issues that a standard Doctor Who comic story could ever hope to do.  The setting is essentially a land of make believe with several references to classic fairy tales, adventure stories, and even pop culture like The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars.  Some of these have serial numbers carefully filed off, though not so much that you can’t tell just what it’s supposed to be referencing, and these are just quick references.  They add to the atmosphere and ideas that are being played with.

 

Ultimately, Once Upon a Time-Lord is a story all about the Doctor defeating a foe that is bigger then him not by something like on television with a strong arm, but with cunning.  The cunning of the Sixth Doctor is something that really comes out here as he immediately searches out Frobisher, the friend he has made and getting Astrolabus to destroy himself.  The story ends with almost a puff of hot air which is kind of poetic and not nearly as much of a let down as it could have been.  This is one of those foes that being beaten by a deus ex machina is actually quite fitting since Astrolabus is a god level threat, something that was done quite a bit in the classic series but at this point is kind of something that being used in expanded universe to much greater effect.  This is a story where we move away from a comic style at points, like where Frobisher is presented with and eats a worm (yes that’s from this issue) and it’s one of those pieces of absurdity that make it worth it.  Astrolabus is also just a really good villain, essentially being driven by this madness, the madness that would bring the man into this legendary status that he just sort of feeds on and starving him of that legend is what ends everything.  It’s implied he is on his last regeneration, but that may also just be a red herring as Parkhosue has been playing with the idea of a legend which is disturbingly depicted by Ridgway.

 

Overall, Once Upon a Time-Lord is a near perfect final installment for this era of Doctor Who Magazine comics and is the story on the precipice of change with the writer leaving after this.  Hats off to Steve Parkhouse for bringing the strip to a consistent quality from the very beginning and building several arcs to satisfying conclusions.  Parkhosue was unashamed of being a comic strip and going to whacky places that the television show would be unable to while the art always works in tandem with the ideas to bring something brilliant.  9/10.