'World (Re)Shaping With Grant Morrison

by Shannon Lush

As promised a very long time ago now (sorry readers, been awhile since I've been able to sit down and compose a proper blog entry review for this page, I'll try and be more prolific now that we all are impatiently waiting for the 50th Anniversary episode), it's time to delve into 'Doctor Who' comics review. We'll begin with tales from the current rights holder of the property for comics, IDW Comics, who in addition to publishing an on-going series featuring the current Matt Smith Doctor (I've been catching up on some of them, so expect a review soon), also produce special issues such as the recent 'Star Trek The Next Generation/Doctor Who' crossover story 'Assimilation Squared' which Steve (rightly) slagged to pieces on 'The Whostorian' podcast. To add to this creative output, they also print a title, 'Doctor Who Classic Comics', that exclusively presents material reprinted from 'Doctor Who Weekly/Monthly/Magazine' ongoing comic strip, and it is an issue of that series we will be reviewing this time around.

Who A'Ween: Cryptids, Monsters, And Legendary Creatures In 'Doctor Who'

by Shannon Lush

Writer's note: This particular blog entry was patched together, must like Frankenstein's Monster, over a period of time. For several days, I had suffered from debilitating stomach flu, and was only able to write sporadically, if it all. Thus, if some of the narrative appears disjointed at times, please factor in, it was written at various times through a period of almost two weeks. Thanks, hope you enjoy it, and Happy Halloween!

For a television series such as 'Doctor Who', based on the premise of a time traveling alien who encounters and opposes all manner of devious and demonic monsters, the idea of utilizing classic monsters as antagonists 'should' have been a slam-dunk. After all, the modest budgets allocated each season were stretched to their limits in creating new and unique alien monsters every week; why not present home-grown versions of classic cryptids such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Dracula, etc.? Not only would it save valuable exposition, as the vast majority of the viewing audience were no doubt familiar on 'some' level with these legendary creatures, but the design work was, essentially, already done for the production team, as the basic visual framework for these characters existed within the public mind already. On paper, then, it is odd that more stories involving these creatures were not pitched, and even odder that there was such a relatively small amount of appearances that did make it to the screen.