Out of Time

The complete cartoon can be read at salon.com.

In itself, referencing the BBC television show Doctor Who in a political cartoon isn’t unusual. For example, it isn’t uncommon in Britain for editorial cartoonists to depict politicians, such as Tony Blair, as Daleks. But when the show makes an appearance in an American publication, it is something unusual and oddly out-of-place.

In this week’s This Modern World, cartoonist Tom Tomorrow has the Doctor and his TARDIS make a cameo appearance. As you can see, The Doctor travels back to 2003 to bring news to Sparky the Wonder Penguin about Barack Obama being the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.

Tom chose not just any Doctor, but the 10th Doctor currently being portrayed by David Tennant. Usually when Doctor Who is referenced in America, Tom Baker’s Doctor is depicted.

Doctor Who comics have a history of penguins. In the 1980s, the comic strip in Doctor Who Magazine had Frobisher, a shape-changing extraterrestrial whose preferred form was that of a penguin.

I wonder if he knows something of Doctor Who’s comic strip past? Or was this just an odd, happy coincidence?