Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor #5 - Titan Comics

DOCTOR WHO: THE THIRTEENTH DOCTOR No. 5, April 2019

It is difficult to believe that many within this twenty-two page periodical’s audience were particularly pleased with Jody Houser returning “for the second arc of the Doctor Who ongoing series” if her script for Issue Five of “Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor” was anything to go by. For whilst the “Eisner Award nominee” undeniably captures all the mannerisms and feel of Jodie Whittaker’s incarnation, as well as that of “her new companions”, absolutely nothing of any interest or significance actually takes place within this comic’s narrative until its very end, when (once again) the Time Lord is faced is with an extra-terrestrial race interfering with the people of Earth’s past.

Up until this point this publication’s readers are subjected to nothing but a collection of somewhat bizarre conversations, including a disappointingly sedentary opening quarter which solely focuses upon the fact that the Gallifreyan has never listened to the podcast “Hidden Human History”, and is therefore oblivious as to why her three friends know that the TARDIS has taken them back to the Guelders Wars, when there were “lots of small unit tactics” and “seventeen provinces came about too.” Unfortunately however, this book’s storyline only gets worse as it subsequently squanders an additional seven pages on the cast chatting to the terrified local Magda as to why she is trying to flee from her home village, before subjecting any bibliophile foolish enough to have stuck with this television tie-in title to a bizarre lecture from the Doctor as to just why “running is the bravest thing you can do.”

Quite possibly this comic’s biggest let-down though is Houser’s overuse of the sonic screwdriver as a wholly lackadaisical means to push her painfully plodding plot along so it can at least end on something of a high note. Having finally managed to imbue this book with some semblance of mystery by revealing that the townsfolk are actually living in fear of demons rather than a series of conflicts in the Low Countries, the “author who wrote the 2017 comic adaptation of the film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” simply pens for the titular character to wave her “magical badness detector” in the air so as to determine precisely where the suitably grotesque-looking Stilean Flesh Eaters are hiding; “Following the path of conflict, right? Fresh bodies means fresh meat. Fresh blood. I know you need food. But I also know you. Not content to be carrion feeders if you can get something warmer.”

The regular cover art of "DOCTOR WHO: THE THIRTEENTH DOCTOR" No. 5 by Rebekah Isaacs & Dan Jackson