The 11th Doctor rides again, with his newest companion Alice Obiefune, in Issue #2 of the Doctor Who comic book. (You can find the review of Issue #1 here.)

In the "New Adventures of the Eleventh Doctor: The Friendly Place," the Doctor and Alice plan to travel to an unspoiled planet, Rokhandi, that is supposed to be filled with candy-colored lizards and diamond hummingbirds. Instead, the intrepid time travelling pair arrive to find it has been transformed into a theme park, where everyone is eternally happy. The pair also encounter a vandal, politics, and a little bit of nature.

Alice X. Zhang, Simon Fraser and Gary Caldwell , the artists and the writers who appear to be "Whovians" and protectors of the "Doctor Who" canon, bring their artistry and exceptional storytelling with writer Al Ewing and Editor Andrew James, to this second issue.

This time, the issue is bursting with colors that capture the eternal happiness of the employees who work at the Rokhandi theme park, as well as its customers. The Doctor surmises that the pursuit of happiness came at the expense of the planet's naturalness. In one page, the 11th Doctor compares what the planet once was to how it is now. In other words, The Doctor compares the progress, life and freedom of what Rokhandi was to now, with its modernity, pollution and government control.

Unfortunately, The Doctor and Alice miss the vandal who gets taken away by the theme park employees. Like the people of the park, The Doctor falls victim to "happiness."

So, The Doctor attempts to upset the balance of eternal happiness by causing trouble, and, sure enough, it works. Like the vandal, he too gets hauled away so that he could become happier. The Doctor meets an entity that causes this happiness and almost gets his brains sucked away. The entity feeds off of will, ambition and creativity. Without giving too much away, Alice comes to The Doctor's rescue.

In their attempt to escape, the time-travelling pair meet a man who has already encountered them from a previous timeline. But neither of them have met him. This guy is the political head and the controller.

Suffice it to say, Alice and The Doctor stop the will-sucking creature and free the people from their eternal happiness, but it costs them and the creature something big, which is revealed in the epilogue of the comic book.

The theme park, however, becomes what Alice and The Doctor knows what a place like that is: filled with people vomiting, bad food, some angry people, and the person in the costume getting treated badly.

The issue is not all bleak; the comic is also humorous and whimsical.

In addition, the story drops breadcrumbs for a story about "SERVEYOUinc." This organisation that owns the theme park will probably be featured again in this comic book series.

Related