Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Adventures, Year Two, Volume 7: War of Gods

The Year Two Adventures of the Tenth Doctor comes to a close in War of Gods.

Time Lord Troubles

I’ll admit, when IDW lost the rights to the Doctor Who franchise in 2014, I was upset as were a number of fans. Yet, I think the BBC did the right thing by switching Doctor Who over to Titan Comics. IDW’s writers had a bad habit of taking established stories, place them in a different setting, and pass them off as all-new. The publisher had an even worse habit of having each version of the Doctor regurgitate their most popular catchphrases ad nauseam.

If a Dalek was attacking the Eleventh Doctor, he’d yell ‘Fish Fingers and Custard!” for no reason at all. Everything was ‘Fantastic’ to IDW’s version of the Ninth Doctor- even a plague of oozing boils and foot fungus. Yet, the worst offender has to be the writers of the Tom Baker comics and their excessive love for Jelly Babies

Maybe the reason IDW had to go crazy with the tag lines were that the art wasn’t all that good. Almost all of IDW’s artwork on the Doctor Who franchise was poorly drawn. If not for the photos of the Doctor on the cover, you couldn’t tell which regeneration the book was about.

I am happy to say that bad writing and lousy art is not an issue with this collection of Tenth Doctor tales.

A Classic Who Villain Returns

While continuing the Anubis story from Volume 6: Sins of the Father, this book also acts as an unofficial sequel to the 1975 classic Who episode Pyramids of Mars. Eisner Award winning writer Nick Abadzis (Laika) pits the Tenth Doctor against one of the classic foes of the Tom Baker era: Sutekh.

Sutekh or Set is the Egyptian god of disorder. He was last seen by Who fans in England attempting to rule the universe with an army of robot mummies. The Fourth Doctor developed a process to destroy the Egyptian deity. Surviving the Doctor’s assault, Sutekh spent quite some time in a pocket universe. It is during this banishment that the villain manages to recruit a new of foes to the Doctor in order to destroy the Time Lord. Featuring a number of memorable baddies  from the TV series and Titan Comics, the Doctor and his companions Gabby and Cindy must stop the army of gods and monsters. Should they fail, Sutekh will achieve his ultimate goal: complete annihilation of the universe.

Feel The Doctor’s Pain

The soul and two hearts of the Tennant Doctor is very real here. You can feel his anger, sadness, and quirks throughout the book. Although this story is about a classic foe of the Doctor’s, it is a completely fresh feeling story. It also helps that the Tenth Doctor looks like the Tenth Doctor. Aiding Nick Abadzis in this feat are artists Giorgia Sposito and Warren Pleece.

Even the backup short (by Supergirl’s James Pleety) that features a gallery of Companions was exciting and new. Pleety’s story just didn’t dig deep enough into the loss the Doctor has felt over losing Donna or Rose. Plus, it would have been a nice twist to have Ten meet a future companion that he doesn’t know yet- like Amy or Bill.

If you were hesitant to give the Doctor Who Titan Comics a try- STOP! The company is really holding it’s own. The writers, artists, and editors truly seem to love and care for the franchise. The BBC was wise to trust Titan with the keys to the TARDIS.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

(Article was originally published on the website outrightgeekery.com on June 2, 2017.)

Countdown to New Who: Advent 2016: Day 18

   David Tennant, the Tenth Doctor, is arguably the best modern version of the Doctor (my wife would argue for Tennant's replacement, Matt Smith, which is her Doctor.) Tennant's version is also said to surpass that of Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker, whose classic series portrayal has often been the benchmark to which all previous Doctor's aspire to achieve.
    My Doctor has always been Peter Davison: the Fifth Doctor. I starting watching Doctor Who at age 3 or 4 right as Tom Baker left. The first episodes I watched were the multi-parters of Logopolis, which said goodbye to Baker and hello to Davison.  I ended up watching his entire run. So, for me, Peter Davison is my first Doctor, though I was briefly exposed to Tom Baker for a couple of days. At that time, PBS would sow 2 episodes back-to-back and by Day 2, Peter Davison had regenerated into the role...
    Anyways, Tennant is very similar to the Davison Doctor. It was the actor's favorite Doctor when he was young. Plus, Tennant ended up marrying Davison's daughter- who played the daughter of Tennant's Doctor in series 4. 
   I wonder how confused they all are during the holidays...

    So, my gift for today's Advent is a double dose of the Doctor. It's a mini-episode called Time Crash in which Tennant's Doctor meets Davison's Doctor for a 2007 BBC Children in Need special.  Then, scroll down for another treat, a rarely seen Christmas commercial starring the Tenth Doctor.

  

Enjoy...

Doctor Who: Free Comic Book Day 2015 (Family Comic Friday)

This week's Family Comic Friday focuses on the classic British sci-fi series, Doctor Who. Now, you might be saying 'Wait a minute Madman, Doctor Who isn't for kids!" And you'd be wrong! When the show first aired in November 1963, not only was the show aimed at kids- it was an educational series to boot. One week, the Doctor would fight crazy aliens, the next he'd take his little blue box, the TARDIS, somewhere back in time and meet cavemen or Marco Polo. Eventually, the aliens and monsters episodes would prove to be more popular and the time travelling adventures would be phased out completely, unless the Doctor went back in time to meet someone like Shakespeare and battle some aliens posing as the three witches from Macbeth.

    Though Doctor Who is a little scary and a little violent, at it's very heart, this is a kids show. I started watching about 1981-82. This was when the first Peter Davison (The Fifth Doctor- My Doctor!) episodes as the Doctor were airing on PBS in America. I was 4 or 5 and I'd come home from Kindergarten and plop myself right in front on the tube and watch me some Doctor Who. I loved it!

   The series went away from American airwaves about 1986 and stopped being made altogether in 1988-89 in Britain. Years of waiting and rumors of the Doctor's return meant having to get your Who fixes by either watching old episodes on VHS or finding a novelization of his new adventures. We got a small glimmer of hope with a 1996 TV movie on FOX, no less. But it was another 9 years before the TARDIS would rematerialize on the airwaves. 

   From when Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor advised his future companion Rose and us to "Run!" in 2005, three other actors have assumed the role. David Tennant's Tenth Doctor is by some considered the best Doctor of all-time. I would have to agree (though I am very fond of the Fifth Doctor.) Tennant's successor, Matt Smith is my wife's favorite and really the incarnation that helped make the series become more mainstream and more universally kid friendly. Currently, we are at Doctor #12, played by elder statesman, Peter Capaldi. His Doctor is a little more obtuse, grouchy, and very original series Doctor Who, but the kids and established fans love him anyway!

    If you want to catch up on any of the new Doctors in comics, Titan Comics is where it's at. Concurrently, they run 3 different Doctor Who series containing all-new adventures of the Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelveth Doctor. At this year's Free Comic Book Day, Titan offered a book that featured 3 short stories starring the Tennant, Smith, and Capaldi Doctors. Let's take a look at them individually:

   The first story starred the Capaldi Timelord as he and his companion Clara travel to a planet that's seen some odd storms brewing. When the Doctor discovers that the lightning in the storms is alive, he must rescue the creature before it overloads the power core of the planet's research station. The art was very good with great renderings of the Doctor and Clara. But, the story jumps around a little as if the script was deemed too long and edited for time. Only, those cuts removed vital information to making this a very coherent tale.

   Next up is Matt Smith's Doctor as he and his companions travel to London, 2015, where all of the residents are going ga-ga for Free Comic Book Day. The Doctor uncovers an alien plot in which the menace is using his comic to control the London populace. This was a very funny story. The only issue here was that the Doctor travels with 3 all-new companions and this short tale doesn't give very much time for the reader to adequately become familiar with them all.

    Lastly, we have the Tenth Doctor and his new companion Gabby. It's laundry day in the TARDIS and when the Doctor accidently leaves his handy sonic screwdriver in his coat pocket, it turns the dirt on his clothes into a rampaging gunk monster. The best story of the book- it had fun, adventure, and most of all hearts (as Timelords have 2 of them compared to humans who only have the one.)

    This Free Comic Book Day offering has me excited to start diving into these series; especially the Smith and Tennant books. One very awesome teaser at the end of the book was that Titan is to start publishing miniseries based on the 10 other versions of the Doctor with Eccleston's incarnation being first up.

    Another cool announcement (and the reason I choose this book for today's Family Comic Friday selection) is on August 15th (2 weeks from tomorrow), Titan will be hosting the second annual Doctor Who Comics Day at various comic book shops and libraries around the globe in celebration of the release of the first Titan Doctor Who Crossover event. Be sure to check the Doctor Who Comics Day page for more details. And then check with your local comics retailer or library to see if they are participating in this event. Hopefully, they are and you can pick up some free goodies, meet some fellow Whovians (fans of Doctor Who- DON'T LET ANYONE TELL YOU IT'S CALLED 'DWEEKS' AS THAT'S COMPLETELY FALSE!), and have to some fun!

   So, what are you waiting for- check out these fantastic comics today and become the newest companion to the Doctor!

   Worth Consuming

   Rating:  12th Doctor tale: 8 out of 10 stars.
               11th Doctor adventure: 9 out of 10 stars.
               10th Doctor story: 10 out of 10 stars.
    AVG Rating: 9 out 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!

 

Happy 50th Anniversary, Doctor Who!

Doctor Who: Aliens and Enemies (Doctor Who Month)

From the Daleks and their first appearances in 1963 to the reinvention of the Cybermen during the David Tennant years, this guide by BBC Books is not quite a definitive guide to the aliens and baddies of the Doctor Who Universe. But it’s pretty darn close. Every Doctor is covered in this guide, except for the 8^th Doctor. Why they didn’t focus on the Master’s appearance in the Paul McGann TV movie is beyond me, but it wouldn’t made this book all so much more encompassing. There’s no Matt Smith stuff either, but this was published before he came on the scene.

Each entry includes a small plot synopsis of the episode(s) in which the creature appears, description of the being’s race and demeanor and even technical points on how the FX and makeup wizards of Doctor Who created the characters for the long running show.

There is a companion volume called Monster and Villains. I hope to one day get my hands on that one. Maybe I’ll get my wish and McGann’s Doctor will be covered in that guide.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Wibbly Wobbly Timey Whimey rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

"Doctor Who: Cold-Blooded War!" (Doctor Who Month)

 

In this one-shot from IDW, the 10^th Doctor and Doctor are summoned to a planet on the verge of a massive civil war. Thinking that the duo is ambassadors sent from earth, the Doctor and Donna actually join forces with the Ice Warriors of Mars in hopes of bringing peace. But when terrorists kidnap the Doctor, it’s up to Donna to foster the peace process or the Ice Warriors will be forced to impose martial law!

Next to the fifth Doctor, David Tennant is my favorite Doctor. They say you only have one favorite/ first Doctor. I say “Phooey!” Davison is my all-time favorite Doctor. Tennant is my favorite modern Doctor! Plus, Tenant grew up idolizing Davison, so it’s no wonder I love them both almost equally!

This story captured the excitement and dialogue of the Tennant/ Noble ear. The art needs a ton of work. The Ice Warriors look cool- but the Doctor and Donna look nothing at all like themselves. But, superior storytelling and a tragic ending is classic 10^th Doctor Who!

Rating 8 out of 10 stars.

Wibbly Wobbly Timey Whimey rating: 7 out of 10 stars.