This article contains spoilers for Doctor Who Magazine #559.
Doctor Who's latest team-up sees Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor cross paths with Bruce Lee. The Doctor has always been something of a name-dropper, with every incarnation tossing out references to historical figures ranging from Leonardo Da Vinci to Harry Houdini. These have been particularly amusing at times when the Doctor was traveling with someone who'd never heard of the person he or she was referencing.
The classic Doctor Who series rarely showed any of these encounters, and consequently viewers were often divided as to whether the Doctor actually had crossed paths with a famous figure - or whether he was just trying to impress. But the 2005 relaunch featured a new type of episode that could be called the "Celebrity Historical," with the Doctor encountering the likes of Charles Dickens, Rosa Parks, Madame du Pompadour, Vincent Van Gogh, or William Shakespeare. These historical episodes have frequently numbered among the best of the relaunch era; and even the Master has gotten in on the act, with one recently-published novel revealing the Master inspired the story of Dracula.
Doctor Who Magazine #559 takes an unusual approach in a comic strip story by Scott Gray and James Offredi, with the Doctor and her fam arriving in Hong Kong in 1972. They're intending to enjoy being temporal tourists, but of course events take an unexpected turn. Yaz and Graham are mistaken for associates of a woman who has stolen a precious artifact from a local crime lord, and they're spirited away. The artifact itself is accidentally dropped on the floor, with the Doctor discovering it and identifying it as a telepathic receiver unit. The unit is detecting a signal from the up-market distract of Kowloon, and the Doctor and Ryan trace it... to the home of Bruce Lee.
Bruce Lee died in 1973, officially from a cerebral edema - a swelling of fluid on the brain. His death was the subject of numerous conspiracy theories, with some claiming Chinese gangsters were involved, while others suggested he was the victim of a Voodoo curse. Given Doctor Who Magazine's story is set in 1973, and involves some sort of telepathic signal that can presumably affect the brain, it's safe to assume the Doctor is about to discover the truth - and that the gunmen pursuing the mysterious artifact are the Chinese gangsters of legend.
One of the advantages of comics is that writers and artists can recreate past environments without any expense; as a result, the possibilities are endless. In this case, Scott Gray's script and his art perfectly represent the Hong Kong of 1973, and he's clearly going to have a blast using Bruce Lee in the story. It will be exciting to learn what the truth is behind Bruce Lee's death as the Doctor Who universe continues in future installments.
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