Writer: Richard Dinnick

Artist: Francesco Manna

Publisher: Titan Comics 

FC - 32pp
On sale: December 6, 2017

One of the joys found in series ten of Doctor Who was the interplay between the Doctor, Bill, and Nardole. We were finally given a diverse trio of travelers with their own personalities who were able to play off each other masterfully. Instead of some mystery surrounding Bill, she’s just a delightful, spunky, intelligent woman who tests the Doctor by asking the right questions. Sometimes her youth, and Nardole’s insistence the Doctor stick to his vow make Doctor 12 prickly, but it’s a fun sort of prickliness.

    With the anticipation of Jodie Whittaker making her debut this Christmas, there is a bit of melancholy in the fact that this terrific Tardis motley crew will not be returning for series eleven. Luckily, Titan Comics has provided us with more adventures to help season ten fans cope with the loss.

    The Twelfth Doctor Adventures: Year Three, issue ten sets readers right where they want to be - The Doctor, Bill, and Nardole creeping around a drifting spaceship trying to figure out what’s gone wrong. Why would a ship adrift in space not call for help? Although the Doctor should be getting back to Missy and the vault (and Nardole’s protests, he can’t let such a mystery let go uninvestigated.

    The writers with Titan comics continue to impress with their uncanny ability to reproduce character’s voices. Again, Bill sounds like Bill, as does Nardole and the Doctor. This is particularly astonishing given the limited number of episodes writer Richard Dinnick had as source material. From the moment we see everyone in a panel speaking, it feels as though we’ve been dropped into a brand new episode of the series.

    Also very impressive is the artwork of Francesco Manna and the colors of Hi-Fi. The dying ship resembles the set designs of many modern Who ships, primarily the space station from Oxygen. In one fantastic panel in which the Doctor runs through a corridor (naturally) and the red light washing over him temporarily changes the color of his clothes to somewhat resemble Doctor Three’s classic ensemble. Intentional, or not, the effect reminds us that this is the same character.

    The surviving crew of the ship doesn’t get an awful lot to do, but we’re endeared to them immediately. Given their situation (almost everyone is dead, several operational systems are busted, and they will certainly die) and their commitment to helping each other to stay alive, you can’t help but root for them.

Side characters are important in Doctor Who. Unfortunately, they can sometimes be underwritten, or sidelined entirely in favor of overly convoluted plotting, resulting in many of them serving as nothing more than fallen bodies to be counted by the end of the story. Thankfully this is not the case here. Each side character is clearly defined and unique, with a livelihood all their own. All of which, one can assume, will be explored in future issues.

As the final page reveals the dangerous cargo being carried through space, the promise is made of a massive conflict to come.

    The Twelfth Doctor Adventures: Year Three, issue ten offers genuine humor, mystery, and tension, which would have been right at home in series ten.

Writer: Nick Abadzis

Artist: Giorgia Sposito

Publisher: Titan Comics

112pp
On sale: December 19

Before sacrificing herself to save everyone, Dorothy (the hand of Sutekh) tells The Doctor to give Cindy and Gabby some room. “Stop making them chase through the universe after you all the time and let them understand where they are,” she says. She then advises he not abuse their trust in him. So The Doctor decides to provide them with a little perspective from the best source possible - Sarah Jane Smith.

    VORTEX BUTTERFLIES allows The Doctor’s friends to take a breath, reflect, do some soul-searching. The story serves as a much-needed repose for readers as well. After so much intensity, it’s nice to just sit with these characters a while and go through these issues alongside them.

Everyone has their own method of working through grief. Gabby is taking art classes, desperately trying to cope with the sight of her dead best friend, a hard thing to do even if it was only a clone. Cindy is embracing life in London, developing a bond with Sarah Jane, and attempting to understand why Gabby is so distant. Adorable Anubis is discovering love on Aramuko. The Doctor is off, as usual, doing his own thing and trying to cure the Tardis of a mysterious illness.

    Thanks to the magic of time travel in comic books, we’re able to revisit The Doctor’s most enduring companion. Including the wisdom of Sarah Jane Smith was a stroke of genius. Who better to to teach these girls how to embrace the moment than a woman who had seen so many wonders of the universe and had to build her own life afterward? Georgia Sposito’s likeness of the character is perfectly spot on, and Rick Abadzis so captures Sarah Jane’s voice that one could easily imagine the late Elisabeth Sladen speaking his words.

    Legacy is important in Doctor Who. Having the latest incarnation face-off against classic foes like Daleks and Cybermen gives the franchise a sense of unparalleled continuity. Seeing an old friend takes things to the next level. It reminds the audience, even if they understand this on an intellectual level, that the person in the long brown coat is the same as the one in the frilly shirts or extensive scarf. The Doctor is one individual with many faces, and all of the Whoniverse is one place.

    If WAR OF GODS is about choices and consequences, VORTEX BUTTERFLIES is about acceptance. Gabby and Cindy have to accept that their magical lives with The Doctor is dangerous and exciting, but it won’t last, and it’s important to not let their personal lives pass them by. The Doctor must accept that not looking back isn’t always an option. Sometimes you get so busy running away from something that if you don’t take a quick glance behind you, someone you love might be lost.

Written by Steve Moore‎ & Steve Parkhouse
Artwork by Dave Gibbons & Mike McMahon
Paperback: 162 pages
Publisher: Panini UK LTD

The second and final Volume of Fourth Doctor's run in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine (or as it was known then Doctor Who Weekly) strip, is Dragon's Claw. The Doctor, K9, and Sharon continue their adventures in Space and Time, traveling from 1522 China and then to spaceships and futuristic societies. 

With Sharon having been aged at the end of "The Time Witch" (which was the final story in the previous collection The Iron Legion), she is reluctant to return home when the Doctor manages to get her back to her own place and time. But luckily for her, they end up plucked from her home before they can leave the TARDIS, and eventually, she decides to leave the Doctor in classic Doctor Who style, by falling in love with a man she hardly knows and deciding to stay with him forever. It's kind of a shame they dropped Sharon from the strip, but I am sure with the show changing styles fairly drastically at the beginning of the 80s, and with it clear Baker would be leaving soon, they wanted to clean up the continuity a bit before the strip changed it's lead to Peter Davison.

The rest of this book features the Doctor solo or with just K9, and as they feature him in his Season 18 costume, it clearly takes place later in his timeline. There are some good stories featured throughout the book. The opening story, the titular "Dragon's Claw," is quite excellent. "The Free-Fall Warriors" and "Junkyard Demon" are also fairly memorable, and the closing story, "The Neutron Knights," is a solid final strip for the Fourth Doctor that also manages to set up a few mysteries and characters that would be picked up on during the Fifth Doctor's tenure. 

I would say that this collection is fairly notable for planting the earliest seeds of the internal continuity the strip has had in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine over the years.  There are characters, themes, places, and ideas that would continue through other Doctors and eras, and the earliest elements to that long and storied continuity begin in the strips featured within this collection. 

This book is another fine collection from Panini, who once again do a high quality job restoring the black and white strips to their former glory. There are a lot of stories within, in terms of quality of storytelling it can be a bit of a mixed bag, but overall it is a fine collection of stories wonderfully restored. 

Written by Pat Mills,‎ John Wagner,‎ Steve Moore‎
Artowrk by Dave Gibbons
Paperback: 162 pages
Publisher: Panini UK LTD

The Iron Legion is the first of two Volumes of the Collected Fourth Doctor strips from Doctor Who Magazine, it also happens to be the earliest comics from the pages of Doctor Who Magazine version of the strip. It is a good read, not as strong a run of stories as the strip developed into, but these are the early days of the DWM strip, so while they are often entertaining, they hadn't quite developed their voice as a strip yet. That is a minor complaint really, because when you get down to it these early strips in DWM capture a huge leap for the ongoing comic strip adventures of Doctor Who. 

The book also features the debut of DWM's first original companion, and the franchise's first companion of a race other than white, Sharon Davies. I rather liked Sharon, she has a good personality and works well with the Fourth Doctor.  Tom Baker's voice is most definitely captured within these stories, and that is really why, despite telling tales that are bigger and more sweeping than anything the show could have ever done at the time these were written and released, it somehow still manages to feel like they belong within the world of the show. 

The often beautiful Black & White artwork by Dave Gibbons is the most notable uptick in quality from what I have glanced and skimmed at of the TV Comic version of the strip that immediately proceeded it. One look at the opening page of "Doctor Who and The Iron Legion" and it far surpasses nearly anything TV Comic did in all the years it ran the strip.  From his depiction of the Fourth Doctor (for the most part, there are occasions where he can look a bit off) to the big sweeping pages of armies and spaceships...Gibbons really managed to draw something special within this book. 

The stories are also pretty solid, though I believe the strip only got better as it went along, there is no denying that these early stories are quite good. From the titular opening story, to "Doctor Who and the Star Beast" and "The Dogs of Doom," it has some pretty solid stories underneath all the beautiful art. 

This is the early days of Doctor Who Magazine's strip, so much so that the magazine wasn't even yet called Doctor Who Magazine, but Doctor Who Weekly.  It may not reach the same heights that the strip would under the Fifth, Sixth or Eighth Doctor runs, but there are some solid storytelling and great artwork, and despite the fact that Doctor Who has been living in comic strips nearly as long as he has been off adventuring on TV, it says something that one could easily, and happily, start reading the strip from the moment the magazine took over. Panini has also restored the strips beautifully in this collection, being released in their original Black & White forms for the first time since they were originally printed, along with some commentary from the people who made it...it's a collection that comes highly recommended. 

The Culling Part 2 (of 4) 

Writers: John Barrowman, Carole Barrowman 

Artist: Neil Edwards 

Publisher: Titan Comics 

FC - 32pp
 On sale: November 22, 2017

Torchwood has always struggled with a consistent tone. It’s adult, dark, violent, and sexual, but at the same time it’s a spinoff of Doctor Who, humorous and fairly immature. The characters are bursting with emotion and conflict, while somehow lacking genuine drama. The stakes are constantly high, without anyone being in actual peril. Children of Earth Aside, the quality of Torchwood is all over the place.

That troublesome tone is only present in Torchwood #2 in very small doses. There’s still a lot going on, without communicating a great deal of danger. Captain Jack and Gwen have a clone daughter running around in the ice, killing everything she touches, and this is a big deal because the Vervoids are planning a culling. While that is certainly very threatening, the drama of it doesn’t come through.

To be fair, this is the second part of a miniseries. The authors, John Barrowman and Carole E. Barrowman, are building a story, providing details when the audience needs it, rather than giving you all the goods up front only to burn out by the end. The entire story can not be judged by a single chapter.

What is remarkable is the authenticity of voice coming through the characters. Captain Jack reads like Captain Jack, Gwen is Gwen, and the same goes for Captain John Hart. Possibly unfamiliar characters like Shelley, Dana, James Sterling, and Gilly fit snuggly into the Torchwood comic book mold. A lot of that credit must go to Mr. Barrowman’s history with Torchwood and the excellent talent of Carole E. Barrowman. If nothing else, this feels like proper Torchwood, imperfections and all.

Writer: Nick Abadzis

Artist: Giorgia Sposito

Publisher: Titan Comics

FC - 32pp
On sale: November 22, 2017

Why can’t the Doctor stay still? Like Sherlock Holmes, does the Time Lord’s mind begin to atrophy without constant, bewildering stimulation? Is that why the universe has become home, with all its random, confounding chaos and beauty? Or, is it because staying in one place means that somewhere out there, without the Doctor, disaster is allowed to fester unimpeded?

The Tenth Doctor Year Three #11 implies an answer to the Doctor’s restless nature through companion Cindy. While Gabby is learning to tame the destructive power within her, best friend Cindy is going stir crazy. As wonderful as Zhe’s private moon over Ouloumos is, there’s only so much impossibility one can witness before it becomes mundane.

She eggs the Doctor on, fishing for an admission of boredom. Sure there’s a busted robot to tinker with, but that isn’t an adventure. The Doctor should be out there saving planets while preventing the Tardis from being sucked into a black hole, and trying to resurrect a broken robot at the same time.

It’s the promise the Doctor made to Gabby that keeps them there. In one eventuality Gabby was abandoned and her loneliness turned her into the Vortex Butterfly. The Doctor can’t allow that to happen. Yet Cindy is right. Their stay has turned dull, and the pair dash off for a short trip to pick something up to help with the robot repairs. Here is when we, the Doctor, and Cindy, learn the consequences of staying put for too long.   

Giorgia Sposito’s art is delightful as always. It strikes the perfect balance between fun animation, and spot on reality. The artist includes just enough detail to give the world real depth, while leaving room for the imagination, turning the reader into an active participant in the storytelling.

The real strength in Abadzis’ writing is the character interplay, themes and story momentum. He allows characters to speak to each other like people. Cindy and Gabby are properly flawed and courageous. Scenes play out naturally, without the need of constant running and shouting exposition. When something big happens, as they do in the second half of issue 11, it is earned and not a desperate attempt to raise the stakes.

Like many of the Tenth Doctor comics, the plots are simple, easy to follow, and packed with the kind of jubilant energy you’d expect from the Tenth Doctor. Some of the details, however, are more complicated and tough to get a hold on. Gabby’s abilities seem to make sense, but how it all works is fairly elusive. Which is not a major problem, it’s just that so much time is devoted to discussing it that exactly what’s going on and how it’s affecting her is a tad muddled.

The short backup story this issue is an adorable return of Donna and the Adipose.