Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor #1 - Titan Comics

DOCTOR WHO: THE THIRTEENTH DOCTOR No. 1, December 2018

Published by “Titan Comics” at a time when some within the British National media were busy accusing the BBC science fiction series of suffering a significant ratings drop due to its viewers ‘branding the show as being too PC’, Jody Houser’s script for Issue One of “Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor” probably proved a far less contentious experience with its focus upon a pair of time-travelling thieves and some notable interactions between the Gallifreyan’s “three brand new companions” rather than any obvious promotion of SJW socially progressive views. Indeed, a fair amount of this twenty-two page periodical is seemingly spent just trying to reassure its readership that the “comic book author who wrote the 2017 comic adaptation of the film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” can most assuredly capture both the televised mannerisms and vocabulary of Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan and Graham O’Brien.

Of course, tucked inside this “new beginning” are the makings of an intriguing adventure involving a pair of hapless humanoid scientists who seem to be unwillingly stealing antiques from the Earth’s past in order to appease the desires of a rather regal-looking, blue-skinned extra-terrestrial. But for the most part, much of this publication could perhaps be rather unkindly criticised for simply showing how close the Doctor’s “most thrilling incarnation yet” is to her ‘small screen’ counterpart as played by actress Jodie Whittaker. In fact, the titular character’s dialogue is seemingly so spot on, that it would be very interesting to know just how much help the franchise’s producer and lead writer, Chris Chibnall, actually provided to the Eisner Award-nominee’s narrative; “Now if I’m right, and I’m pretty sure I usually am… We should be able to track the signature of the disruption.” 

Disappointingly however, as with so many stories penned during the ‘Nu Who’ era, this story’s telling does debatably suffer with an over-abundance of the “charismatic and confident” explorer’s sonic screwdriver. Whether the device is being used to scientifically assess an “almost certainly” dangerous time tunnel, provide the TARDIS with a unique energy signature in order to allow the sentient Police Box to “build an algorithm to calculate exactly where the [aforementioned] disruption will [next] appear”, or help the Thirteenth Doctor “stabilize the disruption as long as I can”, the protagonist’s repeated use of the audible probe makes one worryingly wonder just how the Time Lord has ever survived without it.

The regular cover art of "DOCTOR WHO: THE THIRTEENTH DOCTOR" No. 1 by Babs Tarr