After we set the kids loose on the Exhibition Hall floor, we went up to the first panel. It was for Boom! Studios’ imprint KaBoom! for their kids comics and show the debut of their new series Regular Show. We arrived to a sparsely filled room which surprised at least one attendee, since the creator of Regular Show, JG Quintel was going to a panelist. After about 10 minutes of a Wondercon staffer trying to entertain us with a cartoon video on his laptop, he announced the panelists were no-show/no call. But before anyone could leave, two people who work for KaBoom! on their Peanuts comics, Nat Gertler, writer, and Stephanie Gladden, artist, volunteered to come up and talk to us, just in case anyone called or came. They turned out to be interesting guests, especially Stephanie, who had a lot of experience at Cartoon Network in the early nineties. It was nice to see SOMEONE at Boom!/KaBoom! step up. Stephanie has a web comic of her own, Girls of Monster Paradise. Go check it out!

The last panel of the day went to IDW and their panel devoted to their Hasbro titles; GI Joe, Transformers, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dungeons and Dragons, and Magic the Gathering. They basically just ran down what was coming up in the next few months for all their titles. Of most interest to my youngest daughter was the MLP:FiM, but the writer and artist would only give hints about what was coming up. Suggestions from the audience included getting Jem and the Holograms going as a comic which I would totally buy, as would several members of the audience and even editor John Barber, and a massive crossover off all the Hasbro titles like their Infestation event last year. While there was some doubt about getting MLP in the same universe as GI Joe and Transformers, the writer and artist was game.

The day ended with one last run around the Exhibition Hall and a quick look out at the entrance for any more interesting cosplay. My final tally of loot was vol 10 of Hellsing, 7 Doctor Who vinyl mini-figs, with only one duplicate and an 11th Doctor! I filled two more holes in my Thor action figure collection, 3 in Doctor Who Series 6 collection, and picked up 3 One Piece Battle of Fishman Island blind boxes which yielded a Luffy, Nami and Usopp. I also got a Doctor Whooves t-shirt 10th Doctor version, and 3 cute buttons from Artist Alley; 2 Doctor Who and 1 Marvel Phoenix. My kids found that table. They got Phoenix Wright pins.

Wandering the Exhibition floor wasn’t the only way we spent the day. The cosplay really doubled on Saturday, including my youngest daughter who dressed up as Jade Harley, a human from the webcomic Homestuck. Sometime in the afternoon, she suggested we go check to see if there were any meetups going on. We first check the places we had seen Homestuck players hanging out before, but found that following the small groups we saw walking lead us to meetup that was taking place in front of the Arena. We let the kids loose, and they wandered and talked with the fellow fans. There were at least one of every  troll and human, and I had to quiz my oldest daughter often to either verify or identify who some of them were. There were leaders of the meetup, but dealing with teens and young adults is often like herding cats. One male who had a booming voice was starting to lose it by the end of the meetup. They did a photo shoot arranged by character, which they wanted centered around on of the light poles. But every time a group came up, they posed between the poles, even after being told “The pole is your friend.” They were also instructed to come in from one direction and exit in the other, which was promptly ignored for most of the shoot. But the kids still had a good time, and my husband got to take lots of pictures. My daughter is the Jade in the middle in the white skirt and blue bec insignia on her shirt.

The last panel of the day for us was the “Elfquest 35th Anniversary” panel with Wendy Pini and Stephanie Thorpe and Paula Rhodes, producers who have optioned the film/TV rights for the series. These are the same women who created the trailer “Elfquest: A Fan Imagining.” They showed images of Wendy’s earliest drawings of elves, to her workspace at WARP Graphics, to the latest convention appearance before Wondercon. Wendy provided commentary for all the images. And since Richard wasn’t there, they took a look at the elves fashions from the beginning of the series in the 70s, to the mid-80s, to the 90s, ending on the fashions in the latest series, The Final Quest. A new page of this has been going up every week at Boing Boing, while Wendy didn’t want to spoil anything, she did say that the latest story would last 4 years, and would have a lot of characters doing surprising things. It sounds like a lot of fun, and it makes me want to dig out my Elfquest books and read them again! Like I don’t have enough to read now. They will also be releasing the original series back into print as well as two art books of Wendy’s work, both Elfquest and non-elves. There wasn’t much said about the progress of the film, or even if it was going to be a film or TV  series, only that they were in talks to find a director. Of course, the first name to come up from the audience was Joss Whedon, but he’s a little busy.

Tomorrow, we make the trek for the last day. There are only two panels we are going to, Boom! Comics’ all ages imprint KaBoom! and IDW Publishing’s Hasbro Titles. I will be doing full coverage of these on Good Comics for Kids, but I’ll have something here about it. And then there is all the swag I’ve bought. I did manage to find a few things to purchase.

I wish I could say the same for this year. It was only Friday, and it was much more crowded than last year. It was overwhelming, but noticeably busier. The Exhibition Hall, while in a bigger hall, felt smaller. And the vendors we were hoping to find weren’t there this year, so it started out a little disappointing. But not for our kids. Since they are now 14 and 16, and had their own money to spend, we let them wander around without us. And did they have fun! My oldest bought a Minecraft Creeper box-mask, a Portal Turret blind box, a Team Fortress 2 Engineer t-shirt, a Charmander cutout, and Pokemon cards (she collects, not plays). My youngest bought a cat ear cap, a Fluttershy t-shirt, a Portal Turret blind box, an Apple Jack cutout, a Derpy Hooves vinyl figure, and a Doctor Hooves key chain. They were very happy.

Friday was also our heavy panel day. After hitting a panel I will be writing up for Good Comics for Kids, we all went to “Quick Draw” panel. It featured Jeff Smith (Bone), Scott Shaw!, and Bobby London. It was a lot of fun, as the three cartoonists were given things to draw, sometimes from the moderator, sometimes from the audience, and had to draw it. “What if they did it?” was the funniest part, as audience members shouted out male and female cartoon or comic characters and the artists has to draw their offspring. Jeff Smith learned quickly that boobs impressed the audience, and encouraged Scott Shaw! to join him, which he did in abundance! It was a lot of fun. My husband and I then went to the “Science in Sci-Fi” panel, while the kids went off to “How to Get a Job in Video Games.” They really enjoyed it and found it very useful. I will have to get Office 10 for them I guess.  The “Science of Sci-Fi” panel was different from the other ones we have been to over the years. This one was done by bio-engineers, so they focused on clones in popular sci-fi. It was very interesting, and the presenters were entertaining.

One of things that made the day entertaining was seeing all the cosplayers. There were a lot more this year than last. There were all the typical ones you would expect; Superman, Batman, Spider-man, etc. But there were a lot of others too. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was all over with Rainbow Dashes and Apple Jacks. We even passed a Shining Armor and male Twilight Sparkler. Doctor Who was well represented with lots of 11th Doctors (with and without fezes), 10th, and even a 4th and 5th! My oldest has recently discovered Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney video game, so she was spotting all the Phoenixes that were in attendance. There was a bevy of Power Rangers, including 3 Reds from different teams, and a bunch of Luche wrestlers creating their own ring. And there was a lot of Homestuck. Last year, we only say a few Homestuck cosplay. This year, they were a lot more obvious, with Trolls with their candy corn horns, and humans, regular and Godtier all over the place. Jade and Dave were the most popular humans, while Aradia and Sollux were the easiest to spot.

We will venture back tomorrow for the “Adventure Time” panel, and the “35 years of Elfquest” panel. We may hit another one or two just to kill time, so we’ll see. My youngest will also be going in costume for the first time. She will be cosplaying as Jade from Homestuck. She is excited to be dressing up.

Mr. Chokozai is really a man named Ataru. He is autistic with savant abilities; enhanced memory and an ability to make connections. He has been living in the United States for the last 25 years training with the FBI to be a crime scene investigator. He doesn’t communicate well, and gives cryptic clues that have to be interpreted. He is brought back to Japan to test his skills in a real world environment. Maiko is the first person he meets, and he sort of imprints on her, as she takes him in. Being autistic, Ataru has some particular habits. He doesn’t like his schedule to be interupted or changed. He has curry soup in the morning, a hot dog (with lettuce) for lunch, and ketchup and mustard for dinner. He also has to watch his favorite TV show, Synchronized Swimming Detective. Most of the time Ataru is quiet and gentle, but he can become violent when his routine is disrupted, though it is mostly just slapping.

Having an autistic detective is very unusual to say the least, but Ataru really pulls it off, mostly because of its lead actor, Masahiro Nakai. He does a phenomenal job of playing Ataru, and if very convincing in the part. I would love to see the outtakes and bloopers from the show, if there were any. He finds ways to show Ataru’s emotions with the simplest of looks or gestures. Without Nakai’s acting, this would never have worked. Maiko Ebina, the female lead does a great job handling Ataru as well. She comes off very motherly toward him, and has incredible patience to deal with his peculiar habits. She isn’t too swift, and doesn’t get a lot of Ataru’s clues, but she has the passion to see the case through, no matter what the conclusion is. Her superior, Shunichi Sawa, comes off as rather unreliable, as he can’t walk by a mirror or reflective surface without checking his reflection. He also seems rather wishy-washy when it comes to their boss, Nakatsugawa, but under this facade there does appear to be a reliable detective. He is truly concerned for Ataru’s health as the case seem to start to wear on him, and he even starts to see that relegating a case to a “trash heap” quickly might be a mistake in procedure.

Just as quirky is the supporting cast. Reiji Atsumi works in forensics. He has four children, with a fifth on the way, a fact he is very proud of. He and Sawa are long time friends. He also has the annoying habit of holding evidence out of reach of Sawa and Maiko when he’s showing it to them. Hasou Nozaki is another detective under Sawa, and treats Maiko with scorn, calling her the “poster girl” and writing off cases as trash heaps almost immediately. He slowly starts to change after seeing Maiko and Ataru work together to reveal the truth.

The cases are all well conceived, and the answer is never obvious. Since the cases all appear to be accidents or suicide at the beginning, there is never a hint of villain, but for the most part, the cases turn out to be homicides. All except for Maiko’s mother’s case, which takes quick a roller coaster ride before the solution is finally presented. Throughout the series, there is a subplot about the mystery of Ataru’s identity, which gets another of Sawa’s friends, Koshiro Inukai into some trouble, which also send Sawa on a collison course with Larry Inoue, the FBI agent in charge of Ataru.

One of the things I love about Jdramas is how they can balance their mysteries with the characters personal lives. In every episode, we always see Maiko’s family sitting down to dinner, with Ataru and Sawa often joining them, especially in later episodes. And one episode is dedicated completely to Ataru reuniting with his parents. It was so touching to see the wrong impression his mother has had for the 25 years get dispelled. I teared up. I usually do with most Jdramas. That’s how well they craft the story and characters. You really care about them by the end, and really don’t want them to go.

I really enjoyed Ataru. It was fun and quirky, and helped fill the gap of good mysteries on TV. So many TV shows have gone toward police procedurals, which are okay, but I miss a lot of the plain, old mysteries, with a detective just solving the crimes. I’m grateful to my husband, who usually finds these quirky shows and even watches them with me. And even sometimes, likes them too. You can watch Ataru online at Dramacrazy.net. I would highly recommend it.

The first movie in the series is One Hundred Monsters. It about a greedy land developer and official who seek to profit from taking an old shrine and tenant house from their rightful owners to build a brothel in their place. While the villagers try to fight back and protect their home, the land developer holds a One Hundred Stories ceremony. One hundred ghost stories are told, with a candle blown out after each one. At the end, it is said a ghost will appear. The land developer doesn’t believe in spirits, and doesn’t do the cleansing ritual afterward, bringing the wrath of the yokai down on him, as they reveal his deceits and help the villagers in the process.

I liked this first movie the best. Like the best Japanese horror/scary stories, the monsters are seldom seen, but their actions affect the movement of the story. Most of this story is about the humans; the villagers struggle against the rich, upperclassmen. While the villagers are mostly helpless, they do have the help of a masterless samurai, Yasutaro. For a while, you are sure if Yasutaro is human, as he seems to suddenly appear and disappear, and seems able to get into places he shouldn’t. He also doesn’t seem phased by the yokai’s antics. But his identity is revealed to be quite mundane. There is a good variety of yokai, from the Karasara, the one-legged, cyclops umbrella, No Face, Rokurokubi, the snake-necked woman, and Oni. The monsters appear ethereal. They never speak, but exact their revenge and then leave. The story might seem slow to some, but the characters are interesting and the story is engaging, especially if you enjoy historical dramas like I do.

The second movie is Spook Warfare. In this one, a powerful Babylonian spirit named Daimon is awakened and flies to Japan. There, he takes over the body of a Magistrate and his Stewart, and begins a reign of terror on his servants and local villagers, drinking the blood of adults, and then craving children. A yokai water spirit, a Kappa tries to stop Daimon, but is easily defeated. He goes for help from other yokai in the area, bu they are too weak as well, It takes the combined strength of all the yokai in Japan to finally defeat Daimon and banish him from Japan.

This movie focuses on mostly on the yokai. The humans are incidental, and just there to move the story along. There is a greater breadth of yokai in this one, and they spend a lot of the time bickering with each other. At first, they don’t believe Kappa when he comes for help. But when two children hide in the shrine they call home, they begin to realize the seriousness of the situation. This movie was obviously written to appeal more to children, as the yokai portrayed as scary but as more cute and lovable. They don’t get involved until children are threatened. The story also has a very patriotic theme to it, as all the Japanese monsters get together to expel the invader. This movie wasn’t bad, and it is the most action packed, as there are fights both with humans and yokai, but it didn’t have the spooky air that they first one did. So, I didn’t care for it quite as much.

The third movie, Along With Ghosts, is the weakest of these three. An old shrine guardian warns some gangsters not to spill blood on sacred ground. He is killed along with their victims, but before he dies, he tells his granddaughter, who also has a parchment the gangsters were looking for, to find her father, and gives her some dice as proof of their relations. The girl is chased by the gangsters, and found by a swordsman, Hyakutaro, who takes her under his wing and protects her on her journey. Also aiding the girl are yokai who want revenge for the bloodletting on their sacred ground. Between the two, the girl finds her father and the spirits have their revenge.

Along With Ghosts tries to combine the formulas from the first two movies, but does neither well. It focuses more on the humans like One Hundred Monsters, but the gangster/yakuza angle is less interesting, and the villains are very cookie-cutter. From Spook Warfare, it has the yokai being less scary and more friendly to children as the yokai help the girl out several times, but their insertion into the story feels more forced. You could take out the yokai element and the story would hardly be affected. There was one scene that used the yokai well, when the two henchmen stumble into the yokai realm and they are attacked by different yokai such as the severed heads and the child that gets heavier as it is carried. While there are more yokai that weren’t seen in the previous movies, the overall lackluster story makes you indifferent to their inclusion.

In 2005, a new yokai monster movie was made, though it doesn’t have much to do with the preceding three other than the title. The Great Yokai War takes place in the modern-day. Tadashi, a boy from Tokyo who moves to the country with his mother after his parents divorce, is chosen at a shrine celebration to be the Kirin Rider, a title he learns is more than honorific. A yokai war is brewing, as Yasunori Kato, a spirit that was once human, but hates them with a passion, is kidnapping yokai and turning them into machines of pure hate. Tadashi is chosen to lead the yokai left to stop him.

This movie is really based on the novel series Teito Monogatari, which is where the villain Yasunori comes from. The movie has a very Ghibli Studios feel to it, especially Princess Mononoke, as it pits the natural spirits against constructs of man-made metal and machines. The environmental message is pretty obvious. We see some of the same yokai as in the older films, such as the Kappa, Rokurokubi, Noppera-bo and Karakasa as well as some new ones such as the Yuki-onna, Wanyudo, and the Azukiarai who turns out to be instrumental at the end. It’s a well done story and a great kids film with the hero young Tadashi overcoming his fears and defeating the villain. The one thing I didn’t like was the end. It was a very Japanese, almost, but not quite happy ending. Everyone lives happy-ever-after, but only at the cost of Tadashi’s innocence. I’m a “I don’t want to grow up” kind of person, and like characters getting to keep some of their child-like innocence.

For the most part, all of these movies are good for the yokai fan. One Hundred Monsters has the atmosphere and most faithful depiction of yokai. Spook Warfare and Great Yokai War has lots of action and faster moving stories. The older movie uses more rubber suits and special effects, while the newer movie takes advantage of puppetry and CGI. Old or new, the yokai are fun and the stories are entertaining. You can find all four movies on Netflix. Great Yokai War can be found on Amazon at an amazing deal, and Rightstuf has the first and third Yokai Monsters in their bargain bin.

Most Christmas specials work as a bridge from the last series to the next, sometimes just filling in a gap, other times to resolve end of series cliffhangers. This years special is a little different. It is instead the beginning of the second half the series. In it we meet the new companion Clara, who leads a double life as a barmaid and a governess. She works for a Captain Latimer after his last governess drowned in the pond last winter, having been underneath the ice for almost a month.Clara is a smart and quick-witted girl, who seems to be at home in both the upper crust of society as well as it lower ones. She doesn’t seem confused or even bothered by all the strangeness happening around her, more curious. This is usually one of the first signs of a good companion. In a lot of ways, Clara is like Rose was for the Ninth Doctor. After the Time War, he had forgotten about the zest for live companions give his travels, and Rose healed him. Clara seems to be the same thing for the Eleventh. She has the added benefit of being a paradox, a mystery for him to solve, which sends him off into adventure and his 50th Anniversary year.

For the most part, I enjoyed this episode. Angsty Eleventh Doctor wasn’t nearly as annoying as angsty Tenth Doctor. He’s more of a sulker than a drama queen. Clara seemed to be a good match for the Doctor.Like most good companions, she does what she wants and ignores the Doctor’s orders. Her “flirting” with the Doctor doesn’t have to go the way that many of the Tenth Doctor’s companions did, and I really, REALLY hope Moffat continues the relationships between the Doctor and his companions to stay platonic. It’s always been better that way. The companions I liked the least are the ones he was put into relationships. The Doctor needs a mate, not a date.

Madame Vastra, Jenny, and Strax REALLY need a spin-off series of their own. I thought this back in their first appearance in “A Good Man Goes to War,”, and I think it even more now. Strax was hysterical in this episode. Even though he was played mostly for laughs, it worked so well in character for him. There wasn’t much with just Madame Vastra and Jenny, but their scenes were great too. I love that Vastra is so straight forward about her relationship with Jenny. It was also telling of the times that Dr. Simone thought Victorians would be more upset that their favorite detective was based on a woman than a homo-reptilian. If the BBC wanted a good series to replace The Sarah Jane Adventures, then “The Great Detective” would be perfect!

I wasn’t wowed by the new title sequence. I was fine with the music arrangement, though my favorite will always be the one from the fourth series with Donna Noble. I love the strings! It really looked and sounded like a throw back to the original series, which, with 2013 being Doctor Who‘s 50th Anniversary, I don’t think it’s a bad thing necessarily. We’ll see if it grows on me. I did like the new TARDIS interior too. But the exterior could use a good scrubbing.

I’m going to cross my fingers and hope that things get back on track with this new companion. I really didn’t enjoy a lot of the first half of season seven, which was all just a lead up to what I think is one of the worst episodes of the new series. Let’s hope things only get better for this big season for such an icon of not just British television, but of sci-fi in general.

It’s obvious a lot of work and time went into creating these displays. One of these houses even had a magician doing an act. I think it’s great to see a neighborhood come together to create something fun everyone can enjoy, and that the city supports. As we were leaving, the streets were being blocked off by police, a local band was setting up, and there were even port-a-potties for people to use. If only our house was down there, it would be fun to participate!

Of my kids, only one decided to dress up, but at least she picked something simple, and that she can use again when Wondercon comes back around. Meet Jade Harley:

Let’s get the things I did like about the episode out-of-the-way, because they will be short. Finally, the Angels are used as they were originally written. Stealing people and sending them back in time to feed off the temporal energy. This was one of the cool things about the angels, and what really made them a menace. They didn’t kill you, but sent you back in time far enough that you wouldn’t meet yourself. Their major creep factor was that they could be anywhere. Any statue could be a weeping angel in disguise.

While these elements were back, they really weren’t used effectively. They were either used too much, IE, EVERY statue in New York had an angel, including the Statue of Liberty. It might sound cool at first, but was really was far too implausible. And what is up with the Angels sending people back, but not far enough to keep them from meeting themselves and causing the one thing that can stop them? I hate when the villains have to be made stupid and not follow their own rules in order to make the plot work. Moffat had to do this twice. I’ll talk about the second time a little further down.

What really made this episode a big disappointment to me was the whole “if you read it out loud, it becomes fixed in time.” Really? Just reading or saying something makes it unavoidable? If you make that canon, you have invalidated most of the entire series. Fixed points in time are meant to be crucial moments that have to happen no matter what. They are sign posts and should be rare. Time is meant to be fluid with the fixed points being pit stops. Every single moment in a person’s life DOES NOT become a fixed point just because they think or say something. Saying “I think I’ll have eggs for breakfast tomorrow,” doesn’t make it inevitable that you will have eggs in the morning. Yet, this whole episode depends on this. And it is absolutely ludicrous. Either it’s a fixed point because it’s important enough that it can’t be changed, or it’s not. But the Doctor is supposed to have such an extensive knowledge of the time vortex, that he knows where the fixed points are. And while he can’t change the major events, he can affect smaller ones with the whole. Maybe you can argue that because this is part of the Doctor’s own timeline, he couldn’t see it, but then whether or not Amy read it wouldn’t make a difference. It’s going to happen, only the details can be changed. But I really don’t see Amy and Rory’s lives as being so important to the universe that their fates become fixed points in time.

The big problem I have with this being a fixed point though is that it is lazy writing. Moffat wrote the Doctor to become dependent on Amy and Rory, almost like he imprinted on Amy as the first person he met after regenerating, and the only way to break him away was to come up with this overly complicated plot to keep the Doctor from trying to save them. This brings me to the second time Moffat ignores the Angels own rules, that he set up, to get his big, traumatic ending for the Ponds. The Weeping Angel should not have been able to take Amy, even if she blinked, because the Doctor and River were looking at it as well. Though by the rules of the paradox, no Angel should have still been in New York to begin with, this surviving Angel should not have been able to take Amy. It should still have been quantum locked with the Doctor and River still looking at it. Yes, it was very emotional and heartbreaking, and very in character that Amy would want to follow Rory back, but it shouldn’t have been able to happen.

While all of these things are annoying, and kill the emotional drama Moffat was going for, there was one scene that not only got to me, but actually pissed me off.  After the Doctor discovers River broke her own wrist to escape the cuffs (what, the Doctor doesn’t know how to pick locks? Hasn’t he met Harry Houdini?), she says to him, “When one’s in love with an ageless god, who insists on the face of a 12-year-old…” Ageless god? WTH?!?! The Doctor is not, has never claimed to be, and should never be called a god. Not by River, not by anyone! The whole series, old and new, has been based on the fact that the Doctor may be old, and an alien, but he is just as fallible as his human companions. He hasn’t even hit 1000 yet. That hardly makes him ageless, and he is anything but a god. Sure he can do some amazing things, but nothing he does is god-like, and she should know that better than anyone else. The other part of that scene that sent me off was his using his regenerative powers to heal her. That is not something he can do. It’s the whole reason that he can’t choose what his next regeneration will look like and is always so random. He can’t control his regenerative powers, but now, all of a sudden, he can call it up like a cleric and heal River’s wrist? NOT A GOD.

Even though I didn’t have high hopes for this episode, I thought the problems with it would just be emotional. I don’t condone killing most any companion (exceptions being Adric and Astrid), but the problems with this episode go so much deeper, and have serious repercussions for the whole Doctor Who universe. I am saddened that Moffat not only continued in RTD’s mistaken footsteps of making the Doctor into a beast that can only be tamed by a human companion, but that he continues to pile on the mistakes, and threatens to change the series I have loved for so long into something I no longer recognize. I don’t have any more trust in Moffat, and can only hope he doesn’t do any more damage.

The Doctor is trying to take Rory and Amy to Mexico to see the Day of Dead festival, and instead they arrive just outside a small town in the American west called Mercy. Surrounding the town is a strange circle of stones and rock, like a barrier or boundary. Things get stranger when they go into town and find they are using electric lights. While the Doctor is thrilled, the inhabitants aren’t and try to throw the Doctor out just as the Gunslinger, a cyborg arrives. He is after Kahler-Jax, and alien doctor, and while the town’s situation is getting dire, the town’s Marshall is reluctant to hand Jex over. The Doctor, Amy, and Rory become involved in helping the town.

I didn’t really care for this episode, mainly for a plot device that Russell T. Davies introduced back in the second Christmas special The Runaway Bride. If the Doctor doesn’t have a human companion, he has no moral compass or control. I have a real problem with this. It implies that the Doctor would become a raving megalomaniac like the Master without his human companions to rein him in. This comes up in this episode when the Doctor throws Jex out for the Gunslinger and Amy talks him down, saying “This is why you shouldn’t travel alone.” The Doctor may be alien, but that doesn’t mean he’s devoid of compassion or emotion. The reason he’s so angry is that Jex hits a nerve with him. At least that’s how I saw his reaction and why it was so extreme.

There weren’t a lot of memorable scenes in this episode. The best was when he borrowed the preacher’s horse. He was told the horse’s name was Joshua, and the Doctor replied the horse prefers Sally and to respect his life choice. I actually laughed out loud at that line. The Doctor’s talking to animals and actually appearing to understand them is new with the series reboot, but I don’t mind this change. Matt Smith is very convincing when he talks to them.

With this third episode, the countdown to Amy and Rory’s departure continues as next week is the penultimate episode. While it’s been nice to have a married couple in the TARDIS, I think it’s definitely time they move on. The Doctor needs a new full-time companion, not the part-timers the Ponds have become.

This issue features 4 short stories featuring the 11th Doctor and continues with companions Amy and Rory. The first story is “In-Fez-Station”, continuing the play on the Doctor’s love of Fezzes. Because Fezzes are cool. The story was fairly well done, and featured a villain introduced in the new series. The use of the fezzes was well done, and the villains evil plot was thought out. I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t hated the art. I really dislike this style that is very angular with sharp edges. Most of the characters don’t look like themselves, and the eyes reminded more of the “no” Japanese katakana. But anytime the 11th Doctor is in a Fez is a good one.

The second story, “Time Fraud” I think I enjoyed the most. It introduced a new alien species, the Ra’ra’vis, who look like giant birds, and could fit in to Mesoamerican mythology. They also have phoenix-like qualities, and a particular celestial event called the Solstice of Pajaro allows them to rejuvenate the old and infirm. And maybe travel through time, which is what attracts the Doctor, and seemingly the Time Lords as well. The identity of the “Time Lords” isn’t too surprising, but the ending did have a nice twist as it tied into the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood: Children of Earth.

“Escape Into Alcatraz”, the third story, has the Doctor helping an alien friend who has a bounty on his head and will die without the Doctor’s help. This story reminded me a lot of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, as it had the Doctor setting up all kinds of things in the past that they could use such as changing the blueprints of Alcatraz, and having Rory and Amy leave “gifts” in their cell. It was competently done, but it didn’t really ring my bell.

The last story, “Eagle of the Reich” is a fairly standard take on Nazis. The Doctor  was trying to take Rory and Amy to the Crystal Palace when it opened, but the TARDIS is instead drawn to it in the 1940s where a foreign archeologist is digging in the ruins. Guess who the archeologist works for? They find what she is looking for, but it isn’t what she thinks it is. The Doctor’s soccer skills come in use here, and this is the second reference to a phoenix-like race in the same issue! It’s another good reference too.

Overall, this was a fun issue to read. The stories were nice and short, and everyone was in character. The only downer of the whole issue was the art in the first story. Otherwise, this is a great book for Doctor Who fans.