Doctor Who

With the impending 50th anniversary of Doctor Who we are being treated to a variety of special treats celebrating the long history of the Doctor in his various regenerations. This limited series is part of that celebratory overview.

Its premise is intriguing, if rather bold. Each incarnation of the Doctor will have an adventure. Each adventure will be connected, forming an overall story arc.

This first volume contains the first three issues of the series, featuring each of the first three doctors. So far there is no obvious connective thread between the stories, except for the disappearance of the companions.

I’m no expert on the early incarnations of the Doctor, but the characterization of each seems to fit with what I know of each Doctor—the grandfatherly first Doctor, the weird second Doctor, the James Bond third Doctor.

Overall this volume is a bit difficult to evaluate. Since the storylines haven’t really come together, it’s difficult to tell where this series is going. Only three issues in a collection seem more than a bit slight, my preference would have been for the series to be collected as a whole, or divided into two volumes at most.

Graphic novels and comic books of movie or television properties are challenging to do well. The first problem they face is a comparison of the visuals to the established look of the characters. Then they have to find a story that justifies its telling without getting in the way of the core story lines of the show/movie. It's difficult to do well and there are a lot of examples of it being done very, very badly.

Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time Volume 1 is the first part of what is intended to be a big 50th Anniversary story that will feature all 11 Doctors and some of their most popular companions. What that actually means in the case of this first volume is that we get stand alone stories for the first, second and third Doctors. At the end of which the Doctor's companions mysteriously vanish.

It's not a terribly original plot idea but the bigger problem is that what we're actually left with is three very average unconnected stories. In each case they do feel like the sort of thing that Doctor would have been involved in. But there's very little tension at all. They're simple scenarios featuring previous enemies that are then easily resolved. They certainly don't give me any reason to care about the larger story.

As far as the art is concerned the quality varies significantly. In the first story it is functionally adequate. It's not particularly detailed but the characters are recognizable for who they are supposed to be although there are a few expressions that look odd. It's not particularly dynamic though and while it tells the story it honestly doesn't add much to it. The likenesses are better in the second story but it still feels very flat. The best artwork in the series so far comes from the third story which does capture the look of that era quite well.

So it's supposed to be a celebration, but in truth it comes across as a series of capable but uninspired short stories with very little tying them together. For something that's supposed to be special... it's just not that special.

If the rating was available I'd give this 2.5 out of 5 stars. It's not bad, it's just not what I'd call good.