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!

Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor #2 - A Review

Rose Tyler has fallen into The Time Vortex!  Luckily, The Doctor was able to get a fix on her before something pulled her out of the space between space and time. Unluckily, she's been taken to an impossible place that Jack Harkness is oddly familiar with - The Fluren Temporal Bazaar! And Rose being enslaved as a shop-girl for a disagreeable squid-like alien is not the most upsetting thing they'll encounter in this underground swap meet for dodgy technology.


This issue is a marketed improvement on the first one.  There's less of a rushed feeling here and a more sedate pace as Cavan Scott's scripts explores the bazaar.  The character dialogue remains spot-on and the whole affair feels like a lost episode from Series One.


Unfortunately, while the script has improved from last issue, the artwork remains the same.  Blair Shedd does a grand job capturing the likeness of the characters from the show but some of his expressions continue to look out of place relative to the dialogue. And the coloring still seems too bright and over-saturated.

Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor #1 - A Review

Fresh from their adventures in World War II era England, The Doctor, his companion Rose Tyler and rogue Time Agent Captain Jack Harkness are on their way to one of The Doctor's favorite planets. Unfortunately, there's an asteroid field where the planet used to be along with a warship full of angry robots. Then a second group of heavily armed robots show up and things really begin to get stressful!


I have mixed feelings about the script for this issue.  On the one hand, Cavan Scott perfectly captures the voices of the characters from the show and there's some wonderful dialogue and banter worthy of the show.  On the other hand, the actual plot of the story thus far is terribly generic and the plot requires slightly out-of-character behavior on the part of both Rose and The Doctor to set up the issue's cliffhanger ending.


I'm similarly conflicted about the artwork. Artist Blair Shedd generally does an amazing job capturing the likenesses of the characters from the show though the expressions don't always seem to match the tone of the scene, as when The Doctor looks less angry as he tells Jack Harkness off for using a gun and more... well, I'm not sure HOW to describe this expression. And the coloration leaves everything looking a little too bright and almost washed-out at times.

Despite this, the book gets more right than it does wrong. And the sum of the whole proves greater than the individual parts. I dare say Doctor Who fans will find this book... fantastic!