Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #107567 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 212 pages

Synopsis
A graphic novel featuring adventures of the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) from the pages of the "Doctor Who Magazine".

Customer Reviews

Scope and ambition
The TV movie introducing Paul McGann's new Doctor debuted in the UK to an impressive 9 million audience, much the same as the new series. But in the US it bombed and so what should have been Who's rebirth wasn't. But in the meantime we got a range of novels, audio plays and comic strips based on those 90 minutes of McGann.

The comic strips are, in a way, more successful than other formats. McGann's Doctor was very action-oriented and the best way to show that is visually. The strips are also wonderfully whimsical in the story elements they use, in this volume the Celestial Toymaker takes over an English village with the help of the Knights Templar, the Daleks battle a parallel version of themselves based on designs made by Dreamworks for the proposed US TV series, there's a vampire story set in Madagascar, an adventure on Gallifrey, interdimensional mercenaries called the Threshold who live on the moon with a cowboy and even a regeneration... So plenty to chew on.

But is it any good, you ask? Well, yes. Admittedly, the denouement of the first story isn't very clear, in which a godlike enemy is beaten by someone shouting at him, as far as I can tell, but the rest of the stories are well written, full of pseudo-science and breathless moments that make this exciting to read. The characters are good, too, although McGann's Doctor is a bit of an enigma and doesn't show many of the characteristics he had in the movie, he is steely and courageous and jumps in with both feet as you'd expect. Izzy is probably the most appealing companion the 8th Doctor has been given, bar early Charlie and, of course, Grace. She's a goodlooking geek, which means she understands the sci fi and isn't always asking the Doctor what's happening. And later companion Fey is interesting too. The villains are always villainous in the best sense.

As for the art, it fits, being quite British and of the 2000AD school. It's dynamic and clear, so that even the ridiculous visuals of a Model T Ford flying around on the moon is plausible. I would say that the likeness of McGann isn't quite right, his jawline is wrong and the muttonchops are a bit odd, but is close enough that the artist isn't trapped into static photo-copying. Oh, and it's black and white. I don't find that a handicap.

Frankly, I love the knockabout adventures. The commentary is interesting, too, although some of the comments reek of self-importance and efforts to appear trendy. Can't wait for the next volume. And I may well pick up the Tides of Time, too.

Brilliant
Ah i loved this. I'd always meant to start collecting the graphic novels previous to the new slew of Who (of which i am not a fan) and i know that Doc Who Mag was responsible for some excellently written and inked stories. In particular i love Alan Barnes' plots and scripts, as they are nicely drizzled with injokes and geeky comments which i love spotting. Whether it be more obvious off hand comments like "Move over, Mulder, here comes Izzy" or one of the Threshold saying "Be seeing you" with the salute that was so cult-famous in The Prisoner series, its great fun spotting them and makes everything so very readable. The stories themselves are excellent: "Endgame" sees the return of the Celestial Toymaker, "Fire and Brimstone" the Daleks, "The Final Chapter" a trip to Gallifrey (before it is more succinctly described in Big Finish's series), and "Wormwood" even features the Eighth Doctor regenerating. All very fresh and exciting, a thorough recommmendation for any fan - particularly those wishing Paul McGann had been given his own series after the 1996 movie and it hadn't fallen to modern TV fools to resurrect it.