Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor #5 - A Review

The Doctor had planned to take Rose and their new friend Captain Jack Harkness to the planet of Excroth. Instead, they found themselves inside the massive asteroid belt of what was Excroth! More, they were trapped in a war between the time-plundering robots known as The Lect and the centaur-like Unon, who have established themselves as the new guardians of Time in the wake of the Time Lord's destruction.

It was a conflict The Doctor was reluctant to get involved in, though he finally sided with The Unon since they seemed nominally concerned about protecting the universe.  Even if they cared little about Rose being a captive of The Lect! But now Rose has shown up fighting alongside The Lect and the Unon quickly take Jack hostage and imprison him in The Void. Can The Doctor puzzle out which side is in the right... if anyone is in the right?

Cavan Scott brings this story to a wonderful conclusion. There's one last twist in this final chapter and it's a good one. The voices of the individual characters all sound perfect and the humor of Rose, Jack and Nine playing off of each other is well captured. But what really makes this feel like a Ninth Doctor story is the continued theme of ambiguity and the fact that, in war, there is never truly "a right side" to be on.


Rachael Stott returns for this final issue and I couldn't be happier. Stott seems to have been responsible for the finishes that prevent all the characters from glowing as if they were regenerating Time Lords. Blair Shedd did an amazing job of capturing the likenesses of the cast and the coloration by Anang Setyawan was good. Yet the final artwork in the early issues was distractedly bright. There are no such issues here.

Thankfully, this is not the end of Titan Comics and The Ninth Doctor.  The issue concludes with an announcement that Nine will be joining the rest of the modern Doctors in getting a monthly series starting in April 2016.  Fantastic news, for all fans of The Ninth Doctor, I'd say!

Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor #4 - A Review

The Doctor, Rose Tyler and Captain Jack Harkness find themselves trapped in a battle between two alien races. On one side are the centaurian Unon, who have appointed themselves as the guardians of Time in the wake of the The Time War. On the other are the power-suit wearing Lect, who seek to plunder all of history.

It's a battle The Doctor would be reluctant to get involved in even if Rose weren't currently a captive of the Lect and the Unon totally indifferent to saving her. Unfortunately, the Unon are rightly concerned about an temporal storm that threatens trillions of lives. And before The Doctor and Jack can do anything about saving Rose, first they'll have to assist the Unon.


Cavan Scott's scripts perfectly capture the spirit of all the characters involved. This truly does feel like a lost episode of The First Series of Doctor Who. The only vexing thing about this issue is that there is so little of Rose in it and she has been reduced to the usual companions' role of chief hostage.


The artwork is not so bad here as it was in previous issues but the bloom effects used by Blair Shedd during the finishing process continue to be the comic's weak spot. Indeed, a feature in the back of the book - showing the artwork at different stages in the creation process - confirms that the color art by Anang Setyawan looks great up until the addition of glowing digital effects. At least The Doctor no longer appears as if he's on the verge of regenerating on each panel but a more natural look would be better, I think.

Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor #3 - A Review

The black market for time-tech is about to shut down... permanently!  That's not a clever line - that's the literal truth with the bubble holding back the supernova that threatens to destroy the market ready to disappear in ten minutes. Unfortunately, The Doctor disappears after a stray energy blast, leaving Rose and Jack to try and rescue the TARDIS from scavengers by themselves!



Cavan Scott continues to impress with his scripts for this series.  Scott has perfectly captured the voices of The Doctor, Rose Tyler and Captain Jack Harkness. More, Scott has mastered the careful balance of action and humor that made the Ninth Doctor's adventures so wonderful.


The artwork for this book is a marked improvement over the previous issues. This can, perhaps, be credited to color finisher Rachael Stott - a new edition to the creative team. For some reason, the problems with hyper-saturated and overly bright colors, which left the characters looking like they were glowing in the previous issues, are no longer a problem this month And the finished artwork looks... fantastic!