Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor #11 - Titan Comics

DOCTOR WHO: THE THIRTEENTH DOCTOR No. 11, September 2019

On paper, Jody Houser’s script for Issue Eleven of “Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor” should have proved a sense-shattering sojourn through the dizzyingly heights of Raddplina’s sky city. After all, the twenty-two page periodical’s plot predominantly focuses upon the titular character and her friends circumnavigating their way through a number of lethal traps so as to open the metropolis’ most heavily-guarded bank vault; “Crime isn’t actually cool. Even when it’s for a good cause.”

Sadly however, the noticeable lack of suspense to all the Time Lord’s sonic screwdriver-induced shenanigans, as well as some truly lack-lustre penmanship by the “bestselling” writer, turns this comic into a sedentary, narrative-by-numbers affair, which ultimately fails to explain just how the “fizzing” adventurer manages to open “a door… meant to be opened by multiple members of a multi-armed people” with little more than a few glances at her multifunctional tool and a second-rate impression of the Gallifreyan’s “gang” playing the Milton Bradley Company’s party game Twister. Indeed, even when the time traveller does make a mistake, and apparently fails to turn one of the entranceway’s numerous “booby-trapped” levers in conjunction with the rest of its switches, absolutely nothing happens whatsoever…

Disconcertingly though, this sluggish story-telling doesn’t stop once the TARDIS crew have achieved the Corsair’s aim either, as the troupe soon discover that they have been duped into stealing one of the last Star Whales in the universe. Such a formidably-sized predicament initially appears intriguingly innovative, considering the vast difference in girth between the Doctor’s distant time machine and the colossal spacefaring marine mammal, yet within the space of just a few panels, Houser contrivingly has the “confident explorer” sonically summon her Type 40 capsule to her location and simply create a stellar stasis net for the enormous creature’s straightforward transport.

Nonetheless, perhaps this publication’s biggest let-down is Jody’s actual handling of the “first female incarnation of The Doctor”, who genuinely appears to be little more than an easily-manipulated passenger throughout this tale. Despite apparently having a number of concerns as to the legitimacy of the Corsair’s ‘theft’, the woman still encourages Ryan, Yasmin and Graham to participate in her piratical friend’s moment of grand larceny, and then astoundingly deserts them when the authorities capture the humans literally in the act.!?!

The regular cover art of "DOCTOR WHO: THE THIRTEENTH DOCTOR" No. 11 by Hannah Templer