"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Sunday, October 8, 2023

Top Five Titan Comic Stories: The Thirteenth Doctor (Doctor Who)

*Spoilers.*

When it comes to comic stories from Titan, Thirteen’s tenure is regrettably short. Partway through her televised run, Titan pivoted away from ongoing series for individual Doctors to short miniseries events. As such, Thirteen only has five stories in her line to begin with, plus a starring role in the first miniseries. But even though the pickings were limited, there are still some good stories here.

 

A New Beginning (2018-2019)

Thirteen’s first comic story introduces us to a new recurring baddie: the Hoarder. Stories about obsessive “collectors” who are ruthless in their pursuit of their trophies are nothing new in genre properties—and as someone who’s regularly scoured eBay for out-of-print Who novels or hard-to-find action figures, I suppose I get it. At any rate, the Hoarder is a creepy villain for the fam to face. I also enjoy the Time Agency references, because I feel like that’s a part of Who lore that we’ve never really learned enough about.

 

Hidden Human History (2019)

Creative premise for a story, with the TARDIS landing at different places and times associated with a popular historical podcast. As the fam investigates an alien presence in each setting, the companions geek out over the chance to see the events of these podcast episodes occurring in real life while the Doctor wonders how this is all connected. I also enjoy the new alien creatures we meet here.

 

Old Friends (2019)

So much love. After hearing about them in “The Doctor’s Wife,” we finally get to meet the Corsair! She’s delightfully swashbuckling, and it’s fantastic to see the Doctor interacting with an old Time Lord friend that we the fans have never met before. While obviously not nearly as fraught as the Doctor-Master relationship, things get contentious between these two, and the companions are kind of caught in the middle. Tons of fun, plus it has some good emotion in places.

 

A Little Help from My Friends (2020)

I’m a simple fan. You give me a multi-Doctor story, and no matter what, I’m going to be happy. This one, between Thirteen and Ten, is pretty great! It’s set when Ten and Martha are stranded in 1969 during “Blink.” Love seeing Thirteen and Ten interacting, it’s great to get some nice moments between Thirteen and Martha, and I enjoy the fam trying to run interference.

 

 

Alternating Current (2020-2021)

Another multi-Doctor story featuring Ten and Thirteen, with a massive paradox to boot. For Thirteen’s crew, this story follows directly after “A Little Help from My Friends,” but it actually marks Titan’s switch to miniseries. In this serial, both Doctors are swept up in the paradox and have to work together to solve it. It involves a past TV adventure of Thirteen’s gone wrong, and it leads us to a Rose Tyler who never met the Doctor! Interesting story with excellent character dynamics. And let’s face it, I’m always going to be a sucker for two or more Doctors having to put their heads together.

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