Doctor Who [2020] #1 - Titan Comics

DOCTOR WHO No. 1, December 2020

Somewhat disconcertingly resuming the Time Lord’s adventures straight on from the final edition of “Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor” after a six-month sabbatical, Jody Houser’s storyline for this revamped comic book’s opening issue rather disappointingly smacks of being penned simply to appease a certain element within the franchise’s amateur fan fiction community, rather than being a serious attempt to replicate the BBC science fiction series’ televised exploits upon the printed page. True, the author definitely manages to capture the characteristics of this publication’s leading cast as depicted on the small screen, but its debatably difficult to take any plot seriously which throws the likes of the entire Tyler family, the Sea Devils, the Tenth Doctor and an alternative universe into the mixing pot without any convincing explanation; “That’s an incredibly simplified and not terribly accurate way to describe it, Ryan.”

To make matters worse though, this entire twenty-two page periodical is packed full of the so-called “charismatic and confident explorer” tediously trying to be amusing at every opportunity with some extraordinarily unfunny tongue-in-cheek gags. This persistent frivolity really ruins any sense of tension or threat throughout the entire magazine, with presumably it’s highlight of the Doctor and her “fam” being captured by a patrol of heavily-armed “Aquatic Silurians” simply seeming an embarrassingly silly set-piece once the Gallifreyan pretends to be a Human/Sea Devil Chief Liaison officer so as to unsuccessfully convince her captors to rebel against “their bosses.”

Lamentably, Houser’s narrative also feels like it is just something of a rehash of other people’s plot-threads, which frankly have all been done both before and better on either the telly or within a novel. Those readers old enough to remember Jim Mortimore’s book “Blood Heat” from the old “Virgin New Adventures” range will probably recall his highly convincing Silurian-dominated world once they lay eyes upon artist Roberta Ingranata’s prodigiously-pencilled panels of human survivors desperately fending off the Earth reptiles within this comic's dilapidated London. Whilst disconcerting duplicates of Pete, Jackie and their gun-toting daughter have already been seen in broadcast episodes such as “Rise of the Cybermen”, “Doomsday” and "Turn Left".

The regular cover art of "DOCTOR WHO" #1 by Peach Momoko