Sunday, June 4, 2023

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

*Spoilers.*

I like how serialized things get in Titan’s Tenth Doctor comic. We follow Ten and several comics-created companions, and along the way, we revisit some classic baddies, see some old faces, and get a bevy of inventive new stories.

 

“The Weeping Angels of Mons” (2014-2015)

After new Who tried to top the horror of “Blink” and just wound up making the Weeping Angels less terrifying, the comics get back to the basics of what they’re all about. The Doctor and Gabby land in the middle of WWI, where the Allies are stationed in the Belgian town of Mons. Beyond the horrors of the battlefield, they’re also dogged by Weeping Angels. (Question: are the Angels still able to feed off the potential future of someone about to be killed in trench warfare?) It’s a harrowing adventure, with Gabby getting a full-force look at what time travel really entails and the Doctor combatting, not just the Angels, but the suspicions of those who refuse to believe what’s happening.

 

“The Singer Not the Song” (2015)

Probably my favorite Titan comic for Ten. I love the idea of the Shan’tee, conceptual beings who are perceived by humans as music, and we’re in for a tense adventure when a virus begins mutating the song and turning the Shan’tee against the human colonists. It’s a great emotional story for Gabby.

 

“The Wishing Well Witch” (2016)

Cindy’s first trip as an official companion! The Doctor takes her and Gabby to present-day England, where they encounter a mysterious rash of new-onset mental disorders amid tales of a witch cursing those who cross her. There are some good interpersonal interactions between our heroes, and I really like where this story ultimately takes us.

 

“Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth” (2017)

By this point, even as team TARDIS has new adventures in different locales, we’re deep into arc territory. Here, we have the red TARDIS, which has abducted Cindy, landing in ancient China, where it takes on the identity of the Red Jade General. It’s up to the Doctor, Gabby, and Anubis to penetrate the general’s fortress and free Cindy. This story goes to some interesting places and is especially good for Cindy and Gabby.

 

“Vortex Butterflies” (2017)

Three words: Sarah. Jane. Smith! With the TARDIS acting strangely after its encounter with the red TARDIS, the Doctor drops Gabby and Cindy off in 2009 England and then goes off to investigate on his own. The ongoing issue of Gabby creating “vortex butterflies” in moments of strong emotion comes to a head, and with the Doctor away, who better to help than Sarah Jane? (Plus, hers isn’t the only surprise appearance in this story!) Great emotional companion content here, and the Doctor is faced with a pretty horrifying prospect.

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