Villordsutch reviews Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time #3…
“The year-long celebration of Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary continues! “Now listen to me!” It’s time to fire up Bessie, as the Third Doctor takes the spotlight in this issue of a 12-part epic adventure featuring all 11 incarnations of the Doctor! “
As some of you comic readers may know Doctor Who – Prisoners of Time is a twelve part mini-series, from IDW, to tie in with the 50th Anniversary of The Doctor. The series is written by Scott and David Tipton and will span across the Doctor‘s incarnations so far (unsure at this moment if we’ll see the Valeyard) and a selection of his companions.
Reading this comic made me double take at my Nexus 7 to check it wasn’t a comic from 30 years back. The artwork and colouring by Mike Collins and Charlie Kirchoff take you right back to early 2000AD or Warlord. The nostalgia rush is fantastic. Each panel has something happening from the Brigadier screaming for the Doctor to be shot to the Doctor drowning and finally taking us up to a possible Nuclear destruction of the UK. It appears I’m 7 years old again and it’s all happening here.
The blast of Wham Bar sugar and Tizer bubbles is soon washed away however. It could be my age that has made me more cynical when it comes to comics or it could be the fact that these days I buy the comics and I want less ‘Pah-zazz!’ and more plot, story and things that make some sort of sense. Not a lot actually seems to happen for the story arc either. I felt the writers were reminded at the end that this has got to link together. Seeing as though we are now over a quarter of a way through this tale you’d think that we’d get more.
On reflection this made the installment feel like the filler of the series (so far). Thinking like this makes you go back over the story and see it a bit more for the worse. The ‘Not Sea Devils’ Remoraxians seem to be a rather empty foe and the ‘Not Jabba the Hutt’ head honcho doesn’t seem that well thought through. Sarah Jane and Jo may have just met yet it appears that both are marvelous scuba divers and appear to carry their own gear everywhere. These things don’t make a good 21st century comic book. Yes I know the writers and artists are attempting to capture a feel of that era, but I can’t understand why they couldn’t have developed the story a wee better. A person wanting to get into comic via this would have turned away. It was like attempting to get a person into the old Doctor Who show and making them watch “The Green Death”. They’re not going to thank you, nor want to watch your second choice of “City of Death”.
To bring this review to a close the nostalgic look to this comic is outstanding and they have brought in some fantastic artists to give it the right feel. The installment is however lacking not only in story but also in story arc. I’m guessing book four of this series will shut up my grumbles and I hope it does.
Villordsutch – Follow me on Twitter.
Originally published March 20, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
