Doctor Who: Once Upon A Time Lord [Part Two] - Titan Comics

DOCTOR WHO: ONCE UPON A TIME LORD, November 2023

Perhaps rather unsurprisingly concluding his “incredible Doctor Who comics debut” with the Tenth Doctor confronting all of the dead souls he’s created throughout his numerous adventures, Dan Slott’s conclusion to the celebratory “Firelight” is debatably rather dissatisfactory. True, the American author does inject a few noteworthy moments within this crescendo of cameos, such as the Cybermen once again battling a handful of Daleks as John Lumic unemotionally looks on. But all these scenes are so stiflingly short-lived, that there’s rarely an appearance that maintains a reader’s attention for any significant length of time.

Indeed, considering that the Gallifreyian simply gallops past all these people without any problem, courtesy of the alien werewolf from “Tooth And Claw”, this entire yarn appears to have been penned simply to provide Matthew Dow Smith the opportunity to pencil as many of the Doctor’s numerous enemies as he can. However, the narrative’s conclusion is wonderfully written, with the all-powerful Pyromeths finding themselves utterly helpless before the stern-faced time traveller once they discover to their utter horror that the fairytale Martha Jones has carefully been telling them was actually the truth; “Suddenly they could hear it. The wheezing, groaning sound of the TARDIS…”

Far more disappointing is this graphic novel’s much smaller, “special bonus” script, which features the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler perturbingly battling the Terileptil whilst orbiting the Earth at the start of the Twenty-First Century. Based upon the popular pairing spouting nonsense as they tie the “space-faring reptilian species” up in knots with plenty of tongue-twisters, Slott lamentably just repeats this particular incarnation’s penchant for de-evolving his foes back to when they were a much less dangerous species of extra-terrestrials.

Much more successful than the writing for “Rhyme Or Reason” are arguably Mike Collins’ clean-lined illustrations, with the West Bromwich-born artist rather pleasingly capturing the physical likeliness of both Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper as they joyfully outwit the supposedly highly sophisticated, technologically advanced fish-like humanoids. In addition, there’s a real stiffness to the movement of the Terileptils in “Doctor Who: Once Upon A Timelord” which nostalgically mimics the creatures’ awkwardness when seen on the small screen during the 1982 televised show “The Visitation”.

Writer: Dan Slott, and Artists: Christopher Jones & Matthew Dow Smith, and Mike Collins

Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor [2016] #1 - Titan Comics

DOCTOR WHO: THE NINTH DOCTOR No. 1, May 2016

The first in an “ongoing” series which brings “Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor back into the world of comics”, Issue One of “Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor” must surely have come as something of a surreal disappointment to many of its 10,576 readers in April 2016, including even those who had mourned the end of the television series in 2005 and felt their incarnation of the Time Lord "was never coming back". Admittedly, Cavan Scott’s narrative starts out excitingly enough by depicting the “tight-knit TARDIS crew” racing for their lives before the heavily-fanged maw of a giant extra-terrestrial centipede. But events then soon degenerate into utter farce as the time travellers arrive near to the Delamar solar-needle on Gharusa Prime, discover that the population’s favourite television programme is “Doctor Who”, and realise its star is none other than the short-haired Gallifreyan himself; “Can I get a selfie? That would be so cool? I’m your biggest fan.”

Disconcertingly however, the realisation that the Time Lord’s adventures have been turned into a series of “minisodes” on a datapad, including “the untransmitted pilot”, is just the beginning of “Doctormania”, with Captain Jack soon being revealed as the President of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society” and the Doctor realising he "faces his toughest challenge yet”  by having to sing at a concert for his fan-club. To make matters worse though, the freelance author then decides to inject his unfunny script with a highly illogical invasion of Chumblies, and the appearance of a second Ninth Doctor, complete with multiple-gunned Whomobile. Little wonder an exasperated titular character shouts “This is ridiculous… None of this makes sense” as his ‘identical twin’ merrily blazes away at the ‘Dalek-esque’ robots with his “futuristic-looking vehicle” and drops a payload of EMP mines upon them.

Just as bemusing as Scott’s script is Adriana Melo’s inconsistent and oft-times scratchy pencilling. The majority of the sketch card artist’s panels for this twenty-page periodical undoubtedly capture both the vibrant pace of the BBC science fiction television programme and its readily recognisable actors. Yet every now and then, particularly at the book’s conclusion when the Doctor’s impersonator is revealed to be a Slitheen, her illustrations become incredibly undisciplined and rough, almost as if the Brazilian was in a desperate rush to finish the job…

The regular cover art of "DOCTOR WHO: THE NINTH DOCTOR" No. 1 by Shea Standefer

Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor #1 - Titan Comics

DOCTOR WHO: THE NINTH DOCTOR No. 1, April 2015

Shifting some 38,983 copies in April 2015, this opening instalment of a “brand new five-part mini-series starring the Ninth Doctor as played by Christopher Eccleston” certainly manages to capture much of the frantic pace established by the BBC Television programme's revival under producer Russell T. Davies. In fact, having literally “just saved Blitz-stricken London from the threat of a damaged Chula warship and its runaway nanogenes” Cavan Scott’s script for Issue One of “Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor” somewhat seamlessly steps into the gap between the broadcast adventures “The Doctor Dances” and “Boom Town”, by presenting a Captain Jack still somewhat overzealous in shooting people with his sonic blaster and opposed to the short-haired Gallifreyan’s non-violent beliefs; “Okay! Okay! I get it. Bananas only from this point on, right?”

The freelance author is equally as adapt at emulating the titular character’s attitude and speech too, and straight from the get-go, when the Timelord stares out in astonishment at the disintegrated remains of the Second Excrothian Tetrarchy and utters the words “I don’t believe it”, this comic’s audience must have immediately conjured up both Eccleston’s ‘very intense’ mannerisms and distinctive Northern accent within their mind’s eye. It’s certainly easy to imagine the English actor rebuking “the roguish ex-Time Agent” after he’s blasted “the nice maniac who’s single-handedly keeping the hull sealed” or cheerfully beaming up into the face of a menacing heavily-armoured extra-terrestrial who is about to shoot him down.

Sadly, the same cannot be said for the British-born writer’s misrepresentation of Rose Tyler, who disappointingly comes across as little more than a bland plot device for much of this twenty-two page periodical. Indeed, just as soon as the “former shop assistant from London” contrivingly discovers and illogically places a tachyon inhibitor on her wrist, it’s clear the “cheap, crude and antiquated” device is going to be central to the storyline, and Rose simply its superficial carrier. Little wonder “Weapons Of Past Destruction” predominantly focuses upon the exploits and relationship between the Doctor and Captain Jack, as opposed to the time travellers' female companion…

Desperately determined to capture the physical likenesses of his figures' televised counterparts, Blair Shedd’s breakdowns readily convey all the action and excitement of the science fiction show… And whilst the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art graduate’s overly-futuristic design of the space centaur Unon look rather similar to the Aquabi described within Anghelides’ audio adventure “Pest Control”, the American penciller’s drawings of the TARDIS interior appear especially authentic.

The variant cover art of "DOCTOR WHO: THE NINTH DOCTOR" No. 1 by Blair Shedd