There's an umbrella of creative work that sometimes goes under the name of 'Family Entertainment'. This is not 'Children's Entertainment', and its certainly not 'Adult Entertainment'. You can't split the difference between children and adults and call it 'Teenage Entertainment'. It is that class of films, and shows, and books, and hopefully comics that can be enjoyed by an entire family. Media that hasn't been unnecessarily dumbed down because "its for children", and yet can be watched by children, and enjoyed by children and adults alike. Its a category of entertainment that I think we're lacking more and more, especially from any company whose mascot is not a mouse. 

I am forever grateful for the dear friend who first described Doctor Who to me as Family Entertainment. She has seen much of the show from the very beginning, and has memories of watching it with her family, and of trying to hide when the scary bits came on screen. Doctor Who fits into this category so well because it deals with real emotions, monsters just on the edge of reality that can be genuinely scary, and relationships that are believable. Family Entertainment should be a reflection of life with the edges smoothed a bit, but not removed. Real life is lumpy, and scary, and sometimes the good guy doesn't win. 

All of this is in context of today's comic, this story arc, and this series in general. A few comics back, one of our readers went out of their way to mention they found the comic particularly intense.  When I first saw the last panel of today's comic, I got shivers. We try very hard to make this comic family-friendly, but that doesn't mean its always going to be adorable birds having magical space adventures. We are striving to be Family Entertainment. People will get hurt. Bad things will happen. But the day will get saved, and there will always be more to explore.

Thanks,

Philip