When it comes to Doctor Who comics, Doctor Who Magazine puts out the best, for my money – stories that often feel like they could’ve come out of an episode (only with more impressive visuals, constrained only by the artist’s imagination and not by an BBC budget.) Ten has some truly great comic stories, featuring his major companions along with a final-year stretch with a comic-original companion. I had to work to whittle down my favorites to a Top Five.
“F.A.Q.”
I enjoy this imaginative story, in which the Doctor and Rose arrive in a nearly-deserted English village. Most of the residents have vanished, the remaining townsfolk are sheltering in the library to hide from the dangers outside, and a pair of geeks can seemingly bend reality to their will. Some really cool concepts here, and both the Doctor and Rose are in fine form.
“The Woman Who Sold the World”
This is a neat story. The Doctor and Martha get dropped into an apocalyptic event featuring giant robots with children in their brains. They’re destroying the planet, and it looks like the planet’s former ruler, a badass lesbian septuagenarian, might be the ony person who can stop them. Includes a flying mechanical throne, a computer singing spirituals, and the Doctor being a thorn in the side of a corporate bigwig, because righteously annoying greedy suits is what he does best!
“The Widow’s Curse”
Oh, how I love me some continuity in my comics. It’s the return of the Sycorax! The Doctor and Donna hop a cruise to an island that appears to only retroactively exist, and there, they’re pulled into an adventure that follows directly from “The Christmas Invasion.” Featuring a field of heads in the ground (a precursor to the hand mines from “The Magician’s Apprentice” / “The Witch’s Familiar”) and Westminster Abbey on a tropical island. And needless to say, Donna going up against Sycrorax is pure awesome.
“The Time of My Life”
Oh man, what a lovely story that just gives me all the Donna feels. I love Donna Noble to bits, and this one-shot gives us quick glimpses of a whole plethora of adventures with the Doctor and Donna. From carnivorous monsters to celebrity historicals to mysterious time hijinks, we’re treated to a little bit of everything, and I enjoy the device of using the dialogue to segue from one vignette to the next. The ending is beautiful and everything Donna deserves. Love.
“Thinktwice”
Majenta is introduced in an earlier Doctor Who Magazine story, in which she’s a con artist thwarted by the Doctor and put away, but this story kicks off the arc of her traveling with him as a comics-only companion. After her initial run-in with the Doctor, Majenta is sent to Thinktwice, a prison that poses as a touchy-feely “rehabilitation center” where prisoners get their memories wiped in an effort to reprogram their criminal urges. Naturally, Thinktwice isn’t as benevolent as it seems, and the Doctor is on the case, running back into Majenta in the process. And so, we get the makings of a Doctor-companion relationship that’s pretty out-of-the-ordinary for new Who.
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