The Arts in Space (comic story)
The Arts in Space was the second story of the Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor comic strip series published in 2014.
Summary
In exchange for the invaluable assistance she offered defending New York – and to say sorry for dropping into her life like a tornado! – the Doctor has promised Gabby one trip – just one trip! – in the TARDIS.
With the whole universe laid before her, all of time and space, where will Gabriella Gonzalez choose to go? What will they find when they get there… and can one trip in the TARDIS ever be enough?
More importantly, the Doctor has been hurt by the fate of his companions before – and recently! With Donna still fresh in his mind, can Gabby convince him that he shouldn’t travel alone, for just a little while longer?
Plot
Part One
Deciding she wants to travel to the future, the Doctor suggests the No-Gallery of Ouloumos. Landing on the planet, Gabby is amazed by the alien landscape of a sea of stars, sky aqueducts, and the subtle differences from Earth: the animals, the birdsong, the sand, the grass. She can barely understand how the Doctor can take it all in without even noticing.
The two look around the Pentaquoteque Gallery, where the Doctor shows her a variety of different art pieces, including 3D art, whispering paintings and self-creating portraits. The Doctor finds one piece especially interesting: a block transfer sculpture created through precise calculation and song (quantum form harmonics) by the artist Zhe Ikiyuyu through only her mind. Surprised to find an empty room supposed to be filled with their sculptures, the Doctor and Gabby visit the museum curator. She explains that a century beforehand, facing criticism, Zhe had withdrawn her works and exiled herself to her private retreat on the planet's moon, which can be accessed by a glass elevator. Her moon had been a creative retreat where she hosted parties to artists, writers and students (and also the Doctor), however she has not been visited in recent decades, besides an art dealer who was pushed away.
Reminiscing happily with the elevator's robotic pilot, Vernon, the Doctor and Gabby enter the elevator up to her retreat. Gabby is in awe of the view of her house. Gabby is slightly disappointed with the expansive sculpture garden fronting the house, however the Doctor explains that it is the basis of art across the universe. The Doctor explains that Zhe found such beauty in any form - humanoid and alien - that she used body augematation to change between genders and forms.
Suddenly, the sculptures become anthropomorphic and attack, but the Doctor grabs her hand and run into the penthouse, unlocking the gates with the sonic screwdriver. The Doctor is surprised, as matter manipulation is too complex for Zhe. The Doctor and Gabby are greeted by Zhe's male form, which confuses The Doctor. His form splits, with his male from with the Doctor and her female form suddenly in another room with Gabby. She calls herself the "ultimate apprentice", shifting into a monstrous sculpture from that disturbs Gabby; she runs and shouts for the Doctor.
The Doctor is unsettled, finding his personality false to Zhe's character. He grows scissorhands and attempts to attack the Doctor, but he ducks and runs into a room filled with clocks. Zhe is offended by Gabby's dislike of the sculptures, and calls the Doctor not an artist but a critic. The Doctor escapes onto the balcony and observes Gabby fighting Zhe at ground level. Gabby runs back into the house, but as the Doctor tries to run back inside he reconfigures the layout, throwing the Doctor down an infinite stairwell.
Part Two
to be added
Characters
References
to be added
Notes
- The title is a play on that of The Ark in Space.
- The infinite stairwell is reminiscent of M. C. Escher's 1953 lithograph Relativity.
- Botticelli's The Birth of Venus is housed in Pentaquoteque Gallery on Ouloumos.
Original print details
to be added
Continuity
- The Tenth Doctor previously offered Martha Jones "just one trip" in the TARDIS. (TV: Smith and Jones).
- The Doctor asks Gabby if she wants to travel to the past, present or future; she chooses future. The Ninth Doctor asked a similar question to Rose and received the same answer. (TV: The End of the World)
- The Doctor states he is "over nine hundred years" old. (See The Doctor's age)
- Gabby keeps a journal of her travels with the Doctor. In her journal, she draws a number of aliens: a Quark, Handbot, Ice Warrior, Kamelion, Alpha Centauri and a White Robot.
- Gabby jokes that the TARDIS' initials stands for "Threshold and Ridiculous Domain of Insanity and Supercool". It actually stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space.
- The Doctor mentions that rules in travelling to the future only apply to fixed points in time. This reflects his more cavalier attitude to intervention during Series 4. (TV: The Fires of Pompeii, TV: The Waters of Mars)
- The Doctor mentions they could visit the Louvre III on Paris IV. He visited the original Louvre in Paris with Romana in his fourth incarnation. (TV: City of Death) A painting in Zhe's gallery shows the Fourth Doctor and Romana II visiting the gallery; the Doctor says to Gabby some of the people in the paintings could still be alive.
- A space elevator also appeared in AUDIO: The Great Space Elevator.
- The Doctor says "I'm no critic--they all wear bow ties." He concludes that it's "not such a terrible look." Ironically, his eleventh incarnation would.
- Gabby mentions fighting monsters on the New York subway. (COMIC: Revolutions of Terror)
- Gabby has a vision of an Ood singing (TV: The End of Time) and herself singing a pop song. (COMIC: Revolutions of Terror)
- The Doctor states Zhe was trained on Logopolis.
- The Doctor previously attended at least one of Zhe's parties.
