Doctor Who Classics #7 - Atop the Fourth Wall

Welcome to Atop the Fourth Wall, where bad comics burn. In this episode, Linkara reviews a reprint of a classic Doctor Who comic! ORIGINAL INFO: It’s the double-sized finale of the Vyce Arc! Will Linkara prevail against the interdimensional conqueror? Originally uploaded February 14th, 2011. RUMINATIONS: I’ve said it a few times now, but it’s always helpful to remind people: this wasn’t supposed to be a Doctor Who episode, which is really odd considering all the Doctor Who stuff that ended up in it anyway and made it better. The idea was that every storyline finale would be a Power Rangers episode, since Power Rangers matches perfectly with the idea of low-budget, cheesy, silly fights against insurmountable odds. It worked for Mechakara, it would especially work for Lord Vyce, who has some superficial similarities to Lord Zedd. But then I did the Power Rangers Zeo episode much later than I had intended. And since the episode didn’t get as positive a response as I had hoped, I figured too much Power Rangers at once would be a bad idea. Instead, I hit upon the idea that since this storyline required a little bit more thinking, a little bit more cleverness, and a little bit more complex planning, Doctor Who fit in just a little bit better. Sure, Power Rangers episodes would remain in the picture (as I said in the last episode’s ruminations – you’ve got resources? USE THEM), but that was just window-dressing for the fight, which utilized lots of Doctor Who music (and hence why I can’t monetize this one, sadly – something I made sure to correct in future storyline episodes). It should come as no surprise that the little bit against Lord Vyce insulting Liz was pretty much a middle finger to anyone who had been insulting her since she joined the show. You disrespect the people I care about and you’re disrespecting me. Her armor in the episode, by the way, is real honest-to-God armor. It was heavy as hell and really uncomfortable for her, but she was totally into it, despite becoming exhausted quickly while filming in it. It’s why we tried to keep the shots of her in it to a minimum, just getting stuff like the “I’m distracting you” callback to the Ewoks review or the shot where we all fire our weapons at Vyce at the end. The inclusion of Lt. Munro was also a no-brainer since he had played a part in the storyline. This would also be his final appearance on the show. While I’m sometimes happy to incorporate copyrighted elements into the series on an ongoing basis like weapons or tech, having a character who altogether does not belong to me is iffy as it is and plus he was entirely based in a different universe, so it made more sense to not keep him around. He did his job and he left. The weapon he utilizes in the show is actually the blaster for the Magna Defender from Power Rangers Lost Galaxy. I loved the idea that in a first-person shooter, a character like Munro just had access to tons of different weapons from all over space and time. The Linksano twist, however, was why I had brought him back into the storyline – to give the opening to really deliver the finishing blow to Vyce, cutting him off from his power supply. I had already established waaaay back in the Cable #2 review that the Shades didn’t have internal power of their own and got it directly from the ship, so extending that to Vyce made sense, too. He may still be powerful without it, but in this universe, he was vulnerable to all the attacks. And then there’s the final shot. While Linkara always figured that the Entity was just something Vyce had made up or at least exaggerated to justify his awful behavior, the final shot shows that the Entity was indeed real… and he was coming, in what I consider the best storyline of the show (many others agree, but that’s up to personal preference).