Grant Morrison's Doctor Who #1(2023 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Grant Morrison's tenure on Doctor Who Magazine was a brief one spread from 1986-88. Working for Marvel UK, Morrison wrote 3 stories. The two-part 'Changes' and 'The World Shapers', a three-parter illustrated by John Ridgway (2000 AD). These tales featured the much maligned Sixth Doctor portrayed by Colin Baker. Morrison's third and final story, 'Culture Shock', was a single-issue adventure starring the penultimate classic Doctor, Sylvester McCoy's Seventh. Transformers' Bryan Hitch was the artist of that work. 

In 2008, IDW Publishing obtained the rights to produce comic books based on the BBC flagship sci-fi franchise, Doctor Who. Immediately, IDW began releasing reprint series based on Marvel's Doctor Who stories beginning with tales starring the Fourth and Fifth Doctor. That series, titled Doctor Who Classics, introduced stories that hadn't seen print in the United States in almost a quarter of a decade. 

Fans were indeed rabid for these reprints. Soon somebody remembered that Grant Morrison had done a run of Doctor Who stories and the combined fan base of Whovians and Grant Morrison devotees clamored for their release. If IDW went in order of Doctors, it would probably be another couple of years before the tales of the Sixth and Seventh Doctor were reprinted. That just wouldn't do! So IDW Publishing rushed a two-issue miniseries to print to meet the vocal demand. 

'Changes' and 'Culture Shock' comprise the first issue. Issue #2 collects all 3 segments of 'The World Shaper.' 

In 'Changes', the TARDIS detects an intruder aboard. The Doctor isn't very worried as TARDIS security measures will prevent the use of lethal force aboard the vessel. That all changes when the stranger overloads the TARDIS circuitry disabling the safety features. Guest starring human companion Peri Brown and the shape-shifting Whifferdill companion Frobisher, who appears regularly as a penguin.

The Doctor goes solo in 'Culture Shock' when the Timelord intercepts a psychic plea from a primordial collective. One should note that the TARDIS is featured in this story and many Whovians consider the TARDIS to be a character until itself. If one considers such a tale to not be a Doctor Who solo adventure, my apologies.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Completing this review completes Task #34 (Written by Grant Morrison, Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman) of the 2023 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Doctor Who: The Companions by John Nathan-Turner

    The Companion. A staple of the series Doctor Who. It's the crew member of the TARDIS that anchors the Doctor, completes him, and makes Whovians dream that one day we'll hear the melodic whine of the time ship's grinding brakes in hopes that it will be our turn to travel through time and space.

   This 1986 book covers every companion to grace the interior of the TARDIS. Written by (at the time) showrunner John Nathan-Turner, it's filled with lots of insider information about the creation of the characters and the process in casting the talent to portray them on the small screen. However, if the companion isn't from Nathan-Turner’s era, you'll get very little information on your favorite companions. But that wasn't a problem for me as my Doctor, the Fifth played by Peter Davison, features heavily in this book. But it does make for an incomplete compendium on the companions of the first six Doctors. Especially those who traveled with the Hartnell, Troughton, and Pertwee Timelords...

   The book also boasts several painted covers of some past companions. Several were quite good renderings of the actors. A couple were okay but did feature some awesome monsters. And then there is the black and white painting of Elizabeth Sladen’s Sarah Jane Smith… if not for a listing of subjects in the front of the book, I would not have a clue who the artist was going for.

    Doctor Who: The Companions was printed in the UK. I'm sure over there this isn't a hard book to find. But anything classic Who is rare here in the States and I was thrilled to find this at the Doll Book Exchange last month.

  A must for classic Who fans- especially of the Fourth, Fifth. And Sixth Doctors!

  Worth Consuming!

  Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time, Volume 3

Well it took upwards of a year, but I finally have completed the epic Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time 50^th Anniversary miniseries by IDW. It was so very much worth the wait. In this volume, the identity of who was kidnapping the Doctor’s companions from the time stream is finally revealed. I wouldn’t in a million years have guessed who it was. I won’t reveal who, but I’ll give you a hint: this modern era companion is one that Whovians often refused to talk about. (Need more clues, go to the Doctor Who Hub on Facebook and looks for the companion we “don’t talk about.”)

Anyway, the art was fantastic and I was glad to finally read issue 12 after getting some top secret hints from that issue’s artist, Kelly Yates. Plus, in that issue, all 11 Doctors converge with just about every companion imaginable to defeat this top secret villain and his even more super-secret partner. Sorry, John Hurt fans, there’s no War Doctor in this book!

This was a fantastic finish to a wonderful series that had a marvelous mystery to unravel. It’s truly a love letter to the world’s longest running science fiction television program and proof that IDW should be allowed to renew their licensing agreement with the BBC and continue producing more classic Who stories for generations to come!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars!

 

Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time: Volume 2 (Doctor Who Month)

 

In this volume of IDW’s tribute to 50 years of Doctor Who, we focus on some of my all-time favorite Time Lords. It doesn’t hurt that these are the guys I grew up with. But I also love that my Doctor- the fifth played by Peter Davison is covered here.

Someone with connections to the Doctor in the future is still kidnapping his companions. But, unlike the last volume where he was caught off guard by this occurrence, the Doctor is starting to catch on.

I liked the IDW used the original artist for the Colin Baker era comics. It was also need to see a character used only in those comic adventures be used for that Doctor’s adventure. Very smart. I loved it.

What I was not a fan of was the art. Okay, let me back up. The art of the aliens, the TARDIS, and the supporting characters is very good. But, the fifth, seventh, and eighth Doctor and their companions are not photo-realistic looking. One might say, it’s a comic, it’s not supposed to look real. However, the sixth Doctor, Peri, and the Master look like the actors who played them. So, if that issue could capture the looks of Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, and Anthony Ainley, why couldn’t the other artists have done as good as job on their mandated Doctors as well. (Plus at least 3 of the last 4 Doctors in volume 1 looked like the actors who portrayed them, so I have a very valid argument.)

Despite the art, the stories were all very good and the writing captured the style and mannerisms of all the characters. I desperately cannot wait for volume 3 and the answer to just who is behind these kidnappings.

Worth Consuming.

Rating 8 out of 10 stars

Wibbly Wobbly Timey Whimey rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Doctor Who: The Key to Time- A Year-by-Year Record (21st Anniversary Special) (Doctor Who Month)

 

How best to learn more about the early, early, early days of Doctor Who than this exhaustive diary of the first 21 years of the classic British sci-fi classic. Covering its inception and first ever airing in November 1963 to April 1984 with the first appearance of the sixth Doctor, just about everything you wanted to know about the original series is covered here.

It’s a little more focused on the technical and behind the scenes aspects of the show. But that’s fine with me. I want to start really collecting Doctor Who episodes on DVD and I’m not sure I want to know everything that happens. I like being surprised, even if it’s a 30 year old episode.

There’s also quite a bit of editorial covered in this book from reviews of TV critics to angry mothers who make Fredric Wertham looked like a proponent for the comic book medium. I like the reviews, but the Mothers Against Doctor Who passages get kinda old, kinda quick.

There’s plenty of Doctor Who photos in this book, most are black and white, but there are some gems in brilliant 4-color spread format. Also, any artwork in this book was commissioned by fans. I thought that was really cool.

I think that for 1984, this was a great offering for American fans of Who, since not much probably was available on this side of the pond. But, I am sure in this day and age, there are much more comprehensive and more professional records of the series. I hope to find them, but for now, this was a great log of the early days of my all-time favorite TV show.

Worth Consuming.

Rating 8 out of 10 stars.

Wibbly Wobbly Timey Whimey rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Doctor Who Classic Series 4, #1 (Doctor Who Month)

 

This publication by IDW reprints 3 stories from Doctor Who Monthly, starring Colin Baker. Baker is considered by many to be the worst Doctor. But, I like him. I feel a little bad for him, I think he got a bad rap- unlike other actors who played the Doctor, Colin wasn’t allowed to choose his own costume, nor was he able to truly develop his own character. Plus, it didn’t help that the producer of the show at the time wanted out, but was forced by the BBC to continue on for another season. Talk about phoning it in (yes, Police Box pun intended!)

Here, the Doctor, companion Peri, and an alien penguin encounter the Whovian equivalent of the Grapes of Wrath. That meeting leads the Doctor to an alien planet in which someone is experimenting on the peasant populace with Cybermen!

I liked it! I thought the art was good, the storytelling superb, and that the writer captured the vernacular of both the 6^th Doctor and Peri. I have the rest of this series and will eventually finish it. I just want to read more stories of other Doctor’s in time for the 50^th Anniversary, which at this point is only 9 days away!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey Scale: 8 out of 10.