Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor Holiday Special #1 - Titan Comics

DOCTOR WHO: THE THIRTEENTH DOCTOR HOLIDAY SPECIAL No. 1, December 2019

Firmly founded upon her storyline for the “Doctor Who: Thirteenth Doctor” Free Comic Book Day 2019 one-shot, Jody Houser’s narrative for this particular thirty six-page periodical probably induced the vast majority of its 6,150-strong audience into something resembling a steadfast stupor by its end, thanks in large to the Yuletide inspired plot containing absolutely no action whatsoever. In fact, considering that this adventure solely revolves around the TARDIS crew talking to numerous characters about their mixed up memories involving a previous adventure at an extra-terrestrial funfair, it’s rather difficult to imagine even the staunchest fans of the “first female incarnation of the Doctor” managing to read this Holiday Special’s super-sized sedentary script within a single sitting…

To make matters worse, the “writer of comics and other story-shaped things” fails dismally to provide this publication with any notable main antagonist either, but instead simply insinuates that the somewhat strapping Santa Claus clone, Mister Henderson, might be behind the time travelling quartet’s jumbled past. This distinctly well-built, grey-bearded charlatan certainly looks the part with his grim demeanour and small army of gun-toting, rosy-cheeked toy soldiers. However, instead of waxing lyrical as to his ‘plans to conquer the universe’ as any perusing bibliophile might expect, the mysterious man instead basically has his accusers swiftly locked up in a laser beam-barred cell without him barely uttering a word.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that this tale’s opening instalment is entirely bereft of interest, as the puzzle behind just why Houser’s personification of Father Christmas has erased the memories of the Time Lord and her “fam” genuinely conjures up a modicum of interest. Yet, despite the “charismatic and confident explorer” eventually facing a group of angry-faced, well-armed elven guardsmen, the Eisner Award-nominee’s sense of urgency doesn’t pick up the pace at all and instead just depicts Ryan, Yasmin and Graham nonchalantly walking into captivity with little more than a feeble slight towards their diminutive captors; “Anyone ever tell your boss he looks just like Santa?”

Frustratingly, Roberta Ingranata’s storyboards don’t seemingly help this comic’s endemic lethargy out much either, as notwithstanding her adequately depicting the lead cast’s television personas, the Italian artist’s drawings distinctly lack any dynamism whatsoever. Indeed, it could be argued that the former “Disney” colourist is the main reason why this tedious tale is so long, as she seems to pad out even the most sedentary of scenes, such as a nine-page sequence in which a green gremlin merely informs the Doctor they’ve met.

The regular cover art of "DOCTOR WHO: THE THIRTEENTH DOCTOR HOLIDAY SPECIAL" No. 1 by Blair Shedd