By Rob McCow

Lunar Lagoon
 

The Collector

These two episodes originally appeared in issues #76-77 of Doctor Who Monthly, running from May to June 1983. It was reprinted in issue #23 of US Marvel Doctor Who Comic, published in May 1986 with a new Dave Gibbons cover. This issue was the very last of the US Doctor Who Comic. The Doctor Who graphic novel ‘The Tides of Time’, published in 2005 by Panini Books reprints both parts of Lunar Lagoon, consecutively.
 

The World Shapers

Writer – Steve Parkhouse

Art – Mick Austin

Letters – Steve Craddock

Editor – Alan McKenzie

Fellow Travellers

Fuji is a member of the Imperial Japanese Army. He’s loyal to the Emperor, good at swimming and enjoys raw fish. He wasn’t always a soldier, before the war he was a simple fisherman. Although he doesn’t understand why his country is at war, he knows that he must be loyal.

A typically overcrowded Mick Austin panel
 

The Deal

A foot fishing fetishist's favourite frame

The Doctor is on a Pacific island, doing some fishing when someone shoots at him. Bearing a flag of truce, he finds a bedraggled Japanese soldier armed with a rifle. Believing the Doctor to be an American, the soldier takes the Doctor prisoner and forces him to march through the jungle. However, he is unable to tie the Doctor up as to do so would mean lowering his rifle. They sit for a long time before the soldier trusts the Doctor enough to put down his gun. He offers some raw fish to the Doctor to eat. He is unwilling to light a fire that may attract attention. The Doctor goes to sleep in the soldier’s hideout.

In the morning, the soldier is gone. The Doctor tracks the soldier to the coast, where he has been swimming and gathering fish. As the soldier comes out of the water, the Doctor hands him back the rifle as a sign of trust. The soldier says that he has a boat, the ‘Flush of Dawn’. The Doctor heads across the beach at his own ‘boat’, the TARDIS. Just as a plane drops a bomb on it!

Fortunately the Doctor makes it into the TARDIS in time. The American plane is shot down by a Japanese fighter. The American pilot ejects and lands via parachute in the woods.

The Japanese soldier was injured in the bomb blast. The Doctor nurses him back to consciousness. He wakes up and tells the Doctor that his name is Fuji, like the mountain and that he was a fisherman before he became a soldier. Like the mountain though, he must be strong. Pushing the Doctor aside, he takes his rifle and heads into the woods.

He finds the American pilot. Fuji tries to shoot him, but his rifle doesn’t fire. The American shoots Fuji instead. The Doctor hears the gunshots and wonders if he did the right thing, taking the bullets from Fuji’s rifle.

That's Davison all right
 

The comic strip still winds it’s own way, completely oblivious of the TV series that spawned it! The action-packed stories of the TV show bear very little resemblance to this short, contemplative character piece. It may have fighter planes and explosions, but it’s no Earthshock.
 

4-Dimensional Vistas

It’s Mick Austin’s first full story. Unhampered by needing to draw like someone else for continuity’s sake, he’s allowed to use his own style to the fullest. He’s excellent at Davison, catching his open-faced attitude very well. The art is still under-detailed and sketchy but as opposed to The Stockbridge Horror, in this story it looks stylistic rather than rushed. The Pacific island with its trees and beach is very well captured with minimal but well-chosen details.

One irritating minor point is that the pilot who ejects from the plane doesn’t look like the one who lands in the jungle. He doesn’t have a neat little moustache when he’s in the plane! I didn’t think much of the dogfight either. Compared to the antics of the Freefall Warriors, it looks incredibly dull and covers a whole page.
 

End of The Line

A character story in 16 pages, Lunar Lagoon is an interesting attempt to do something really different. It channels the horror of the Vietnam War through one soldier, making for quite a poignant story. For once, there’s no inter-dimensional madness, no interference from the Time Lords and no ultra-weird hyper-powerful aliens. In fact, it’s a pure historical. Which means that although it might have a better story and more focus on character than ‘normal’ Doctor Who, it doesn’t have the immediate appeal of the sci-fi elements. On a visual and visceral level, this is a less exciting story than the ones either side of it.

Fuji and The Doctor slowly start to develop a friendship throughout the story, but Fuji’s sense of honour leads to his death. He’s too concerned about being a strong soldier and fighting the war to heed the Doctor’s warning. I don’t think we find out quite enough about Fuji’s background to make him really sympathetic. The Doctor’s guilt at removing the bullets from the rifle is excellently put over though.
 

Follow That TARDIS!

The American pilot’s name is Gus and he will enter the story in precisely one issue’s time*. He will tell the Doctor to ‘Hold it right there, Bub!’ and point a gun at him, but in deference to over 100 years of comic strip evolution Gus will not use X-ray vision to zap the Doctor. Comic strip characters are not proud of their ancestors and rarely invite Superman around for tea.

At the start of Lunar Lagoon, the Doctor is bewildered to find a soldier on the island. The Doctor comments that the time period is wrong. This is expanded on in 4-Dimensional Vistas.

This story is set in 1963, the year that Doctor Who was first broadcast.

Despite being called Lunar Lagoon, this story is set on Earth. However Moon fans will be delighted to note that Earth’s iconic satellite does make two appearances.

*In the story 4-Dimensional Vistas.