“Follow
That TARDIS!” is written by: John Carnell
with art by: Andy Lanning, John Higgins, Kev Hopgood, Dougie Braithwaite, and
Dave Elliott, and lettering by: Bambos. It
was released in Doctor Who Magazine issue 147 (March 1989) and is
reprinted in its original form in Doctor
Who: A Cold Day in Hell! by Panini Books.
“Follow That TARDIS!” is
best described as giving readers absolutely nothing. John Carnell brings back the Meddling Monk
and he runs through time while the Doctor follows with the Sleeze Brothers in tow. The Sleeze Brothers are meant to spin-off
into their own miniseries later in 1998.
To put it in fanfiction lingo, they are John Carnell’s OCs. This story exists for spin-off potential by
grabbing the readers of Doctor Who Magazine, and reflecting that there
is no story here. Sure, it’s only seven
pages long, but there have been seven page stories that could at least do
something with a premise. Instead we
catapult through time and space for wacky hijinks wrapped around historical tragedies
which makes it feel quite mean-spirited.
On the strip are five very good artists bringing at the very least in
brief panels a vivid future to life.
Carnell does establish this satirical future that is clearly in line
with the ethos of where comics and Doctor Who at the time were going. It’s cyberpunk by way of tacky consumerism
which would be a fantastic setting to slap the Meddling Monk of all characters
in. We just don’t do it, instead this
thing has the tone of a farce: the Monk’s TARDIS is a toilet which is self-parody
of the lowest common denominator. The Doctor
is barely a presence in the story itself, while the Sleeze Brothers get to do
wacky comedy.
Overall, “Follow That TARDIS!”
is nothing. It’s barely even a story,
and it feels like John Carnell was told you need to fill seven pages with
anything. We aren’t going to check. Lanning, Higgins, Hopgood, Braithwaite, and
Elliott are all underused because these are talented artists drawing to a nothing
script. 2/10.
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