Four Doctors Battle the Cybermen in Titan's New Crossover

[Allyn Gibson]

Titan Comics is following up last year's Four Doctors with this summer's multi-Doctor event, Supremacy of the Cybermen.

The Cybermen have captured Rassilon and discovered the secret to time travel, and now the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth Doctors wage a war against the Cybermen on multiple fronts to prevent them from assimilating all of history.

One thing that isn't clear is if the four Doctors will meet or if they'll have wholly separate adventures that happen to intersect the Cyber-Time War.

 

[The Wormhole]

I noticed they describe Rassilon as the "exiled former President" which, to me suggests that they are using the Rassilon from Hell Bent and that his part of the story takes place after Hell Bent. If this in indeed the case, the fact they're allowed to tell this story would indicate Moffat likely has no plans of revisiting Rassilon in his final season, otherwise Titan wouldn't be allowed near the character.

 

[DarthPipes]

Can't wait for this!

 

[ClayinCA]

I hope it's better than the last "Four Doctors" story Titan produced...that was dire.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I enjoyed Four Doctors as it came out, issue by issue... until the fifth and final issue. Pressing a reset button in the middle of the story like that was a complete cheat. I got why the story did that -- Paul Cornell was aping a Steven Moffat finale there -- but I didn't like it any better than I did when Moffat pulled that kind of trick.

Up until that point, though, there were a lot of things to like. I thought it was clever how the story, set before the series 8 finale, was also a sequel to it. I liked the eleventh Doctor's reaction to discovering he had a future and his moment with Clara (whom, at that point, he hadn't yet met). Gabby's reaction to meeting the eleventh and twelfth Doctors was cute. Even the Voord were interesting; Cornell was grappling with the implications of the Time War in a way that, outside some of the EDAs, hadn't been done -- what does a universe without the Time Lords look like, and what fills the vacuum they left?

But that reset button... Guh.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I'm enjoying Supremacy of the Cybermen so far, three issues in. So far, the Doctors various stories have all been kept separate, and as much as I like to see the various Doctors interact, I think this story works better keeping the story separate. I liked the quick flashes of Two, Four, Six and the War Doctor in issue three, emphasizing that changes being made are timeline wide, and not just effecting the "modern" Doctors.

And, as we don't have a general thread for comics, I'm going to say here that I really enjoyed the first issue of the Third Doctor series. Paul Cornell captured all the characters voices and the art captures the era perfectly. And, oh my giddy Aunt, what a cliffhanger!

 

[The Wormhole]

I'll probably read this when the anthology trade paperback comes out, but I am curious, was my guess from above correct? Does this comic feature Rassilon from after Hell Bent?

 

[Turtletrekker]

Yup.

 

[Saga]

And, as we don't have a general thread for comics, I'm going to say here that I really enjoyed the first issue of the Third Doctor series. Paul Cornell captured all the characters voices and the art captures the era perfectly. And, oh my giddy Aunt, what a cliffhanger!

agreed. really enjoyed the first issue.

 

[The Wormhole]

Yup.

So, Moffat clearly doesn't have any plans of revisiting Rassilon then.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I liked the quick flashes of Two, Four, Six and the War Doctor in issue three, emphasizing that changes being made are timeline wide, and not just effecting the "modern" Doctors.

In the months leading up to the first issue of Supremacy of the Cybermen, Titan ran one-page back-up strips of the first nine Doctors (including the War Doctor) facing the Cybermen, and then collected them all in this year's SDCC special. There's a much bigger story at play.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

I have to be honest, Titan has over-saturated my appetite for DW comics. Four ongoing books, plus mini-series, it's just too much. Maybe it doesn't help that I get my comics in a monthly bundle, so I read all those DW books in a row. I've stopped reaing all but the 9th Doctor series by now.

 

[JoeZhang]

I have to be honest, Titan has over-saturated my appetite for DW comics. Four ongoing books, plus mini-series, it's just too much. Maybe it doesn't help that I get my comics in a monthly bundle, so I read all those DW books in a row. I've stopped reaing all but the 9th Doctor series by now.

I also think there is way too much interaction between Doctors - if everyone other doctor is popping up all the time it's not a special occasion.

 

[DarthPipes]

So, Moffat clearly doesn't have any plans of revisiting Rassilon then.

After altering the fate of Gallifrey in The Day of the Doctor, Moffat completely botched their return to regular Who.

Supremacy of the Cybermen hasn't been bad and I like it being a direct sequel to Hell Bent but I feel like the story is all over the place. I've really been enjoying the Doctor Who line though and the first issue of The Third Doctor is outstanding.

 

[JoeZhang]

So, Moffat clearly doesn't have any plans of revisiting Rassilon then.

How would we know that from this? He's just ignore it if he wanted to write a story ? I cannot see the show creator being ham-strung by tie-in fiction. If he said "no you can't use X" that would rather give the game away...

 

[Turtletrekker]

@Allyn Gibson -- ah, I see. Now I want to read those pages too. I missed them because I only read the special events and the minis. Although, the fourth Doctor mini completely slipped under my radar.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I have to be honest, Titan has over-saturated my appetite for DW comics. Four ongoing books, plus mini-series, it's just too much.

Oversturation is a real problem for Titan, and they've seen sales decline by about thirty to forty percent (now that they have five or six series running at a time) from where they were when it was only three.

They also have issues getting their comics to stores on a regular schedule, and they are printing way too many variant covers.

I also think there is way too much interaction between Doctors - if everyone other doctor is popping up all the time it's not a special occasion.

I like the way they're handing the War Doctor in the current run of eleventh Doctor comics. It's not a multi-Doctor story in a conventional sense -- War and Eleven aren't teaming up to fight Daleks -- but it's a story (one that's so fanwanky even Craig Hinton would be aghast) that very much depends on them both.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

@Allyn Gibson -- ah, I see. Now I want to read those pages too. I missed them because I only read the special events and the minis. Although, the fourth Doctor mini completely slipped under my radar.

Talk to your local comic shop. Titan is publishing the SDCC special (with the Supremacy one-page preludes) as Doctor Who: The Long Con, and it will be in stores in October. The Diamond order codes are: AUG161909 (a twelfth Doctor cover) or AUG161910 (a three Doctors cover).

 

[The Wormhole]

How would we know that from this? He's just ignore it if he wanted to write a story ? I cannot see the show creator being ham-strung by tie-in fiction. If he said "no you can't use X" that would rather give the game away...

Typically tie-in materials are not allowed to cover story ideas that there are plans for on the show, and that is part of the approval process. "No you can't use X" happens quite a bit with tie-ins. For examples in Doctor Who, back in 2013 Moffat issued an edict to the tie-ins not to touch the Time War because of his plans for Day of the Doctor and as a result a graphic novel RTD had pitched was rejected. Likewise in 2009 RTD gave BBC Books free reign for that year's Tenth Doctor novels as long as they stayed away from the Master and the Time Lords.

A lot of shows operate in this manner. I remember when Ron Moore's BSG was on the air Peter David making the comment that he made something like ten novel pitches which were all rejected because they were story ideas they were planning on covering on the show. And then there's the "Story Group" coordinating all the various tie-ins for Star Wars.

Bottom line is, if Titan got approval from BBC to do a story about Rassilon set after Hell Bent, it's because Moffat has no plans regarding Rassilon. Now what might happen is when Chibnall takes over he might want to do something with Rassilon, which would render this story obsolete, but at the moment Chibnall's wishes aren't a factor in the approval process, and won't be at least until maybe this time next year.

After altering the fate of Gallifrey in The Day of the Doctor, Moffat completely botched their return to regular Who.

Honestly, I never understood why Moffat brought the Time Lords back to begin with. The Writer's Tale made it clear both him and RTD hated them, and after Day of the Doctor Moffat even publicly apologized for restoring Gallifrey, making it even weirder he revisited the Time Lords in Hell Bent.

 

[kirk55555]

I'm glad they brought them back. It would have been ridiculous for the Time Lords to be gone forever. The Time War and their disappearance was great, but it was time to end that part of the story. Its not like they have to appear a lot just because they're back. It also opens up some story opportunities, and whether they use them or not its always good to have the option.