Doctor Who: Origins #3 - Titan Comics

DOCTOR WHO: ORIGINS #3, September 2022

Despite propelling its audience to a significant number of populated planets, not least of which is the titular character’s home world of Gallifrey, there’s debatably not a lot of action going on within Jody Houser’s storyline for Issue Three of “Doctor Who: Origins”. Indeed, the “New York Times bestselling comics writer” doesn’t even pen one of this comic’s cast raising their voice in anger until its very end when the Fugitive Doctor boldly confronts “a member of the Gallifreyan Council and the one pulling the strings behind this so-called mission” in the Citadel.

Up until this point, the book’s plot disappointingly consists of little more than a series of conversational pieces in which the suspicious Division operative casually discusses the destruction of several colony planets with her immediate supervisor, the highly disagreeable Taslo, and representatives of the settlements she is supposed to be destroying with a temporal bombardment from orbit. However, even once the tension does heat up, there’s absolutely no sign of a dynamic diversion or moment of spontaneous drama. Instead, the Doctor simply stands by and impotently watches as the villain of the piece apparently outwits her by remotely blowing up all the so-called cultist strongholds himself.

Similarly bereft of any vitality is the increasingly bizarre relationship between the ‘short-fused’ Time Lord and her latest assistant. Having previously slaughtered a harmless immigrant in this mini-series’ preceding instalment with a cowardly dagger blow to the back without any warning, Houser would still have this book’s audience believe that the Doctor feels Taslo is “nice” and someone she can trust. True, there is the suggestion later within the tome that the Gallifreyan’s treatment of her obnoxious companion is simply a ruse, and that she instinctively knows her ‘friend’ is bound to betray her. But it’s still arguably hard to imagine any incarnation of the time traveller contentedly journeying alongside so stone-cold a killer without any recriminations being levelled at the young girl for her behaviour.

Disconcertingly, even Roberta Ingranata’s artwork appears to suffer from the listlessness of this publication’s script. Many of the Italian illustrator’s panels seemingly contain the bare minimum of background detail, including those scenes set inside the Citadel - which resemble the sparse interior of a traditional Japanese minka rather than some of the splendidly ornate offices first seen in the 1978 televised adventure “The Invasion Of Time”.

The regular cover art of "DOCTOR WHO: ORIGINS" #3 by Priscilla Petraites