PRISONERS OF TIME - News, Reviews, and Discussion

[Allyn Gibson]

Next Wednesday, IDW kicks off their 50th-anniversary celebration with the first issue of Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time. A 12-issue series by David and Scott Tipton (Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation2), Prisoners of Time will star all eleven Doctors, with each Doctor starring in a single-issue spotlight in turn, in an epic adventure.

As we wait for Wednesday, here are some links:

The Tiptons talk about the series with Comic Book Resources.

Artist Simon Fraser talks about the first Doctor issue.

Anyone looking forward to this? Anyone scared away from this because of Assimilation2? Any expectations?

 

[Pindar]

Scared away, I liked the 4th doctor issue the rest meh at best.

I'll be avoiding this until I see good reviews.

 

[The Wormhole]

I think you're jumping the gun a little. According to this comic list, Prisoners of Time #1 is out on January 30, which is not next Wednesday, but rather the one after it.

But yeah, I'll be checking it out. I have no real expectations, but it is nice that the comics are now following the novels and doig new stuff featuring previous Doctors.

 

[JoeZhang]

It is written by the Tiptons - it will be crap.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I think you're jumping the gun a little. According to this comic list, Prisoners of Time #1 is out on January 30, which is not next Wednesday, but rather the one after it.

Ah, damn, you're right. I could have sworn it was on my Diamond invoice for next week.

Oh, I see what I did. I got it confused with Wheel of Ice, which is finally out in the US. I saw Doctor Who there and the brain went on the fritz.

It is written by the Tiptons - it will be crap.

Not all of their stuff is crap. Klingons: Blood Will Tell was nice. Mirror Images was good, but it should have been half the length. They do better when they have less space to work with (like with the fourth Doctor flashback in issue 3 of Assimilation), and since they have only one issue for each Doctor they can't decompress things too far.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Diamond has up a five page preview of the first issue.

 

[The Wormhole]

Interesting stuff, though I'm getting some Emperor Palpatine vibes off this hooded figure that's taken an interest in the Doctor.

Not really impressed with the artwork, specifically with how the characters are drawn. They made Ace look like a boy!

I like they've included Frobisher the Penguin among the montage of companions. Also, in the first panel on page one, is that supposed to be a representation of naked Jo Grant with a Dalek? I'd very much like to know how that's explained in contniuity.

Based on what we know of the writing so far, they seem to have done a pretty good job with the First Doctor, I can easily picture Hartnell saying those lines.

Not bad, for a five page preview. Definitely plan on checking this out. What I thought was going to essentially be a series of one-offs tied together with a loose arc seems to be more integrated with each other.

 

[ToddKent]

Vicki looked horrible but I agree that the Doctor "sounded" genuine. Correct me if I'm wrong but at that point in the Doctor's life, wasn't he not in control of the Tardis's navigation? Meaning, he couldn't control where/when it went right?

 

[Sindatur]

Vicki looked horrible but I agree that the Doctor "sounded" genuine. Correct me if I'm wrong but at that point in the Doctor's life, wasn't he not in control of the Tardis's navigation? Meaning, he couldn't control where/when it went right?

Crrect, it was until The TimeLords released Pertwee from exile that h gained ny control. Troughton and Hatnell, just went wherever the TARDIS took them.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Vicki looked horrible but I agree that the Doctor "sounded" genuine. Correct me if I'm wrong but at that point in the Doctor's life, wasn't he not in control of the Tardis's navigation? Meaning, he couldn't control where/when it went right?

Correct, it was until The Time Lords released Pertwee from exile that he gained any control. Troughton and Hartnell, just went wherever the TARDIS took them.

Except for in "The Daleks' Master-Plan," that is. The Doctor can control the TARDIS there.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I read the first issue.

I thought it was adequate. Better than Assimilation2. Seventeen pages for a first Doctor story doesn't give the Tiptons any room for decompression.

It's not groundbreaking. The characterizations are decent, though the "Billy fluffs" really grate after the third. It's a straightforward adventure that doesn't try to evoke the feel of the Hartnell era.

Adequate.

My hunch on where this is going...

Spoiler: A wild guess

Each issue will involve our mysterious hooded stranger setting a threat in front of the Doctor, and then the companion in the story vanishes. (This makes me wonder who will be in the eighth Doctor's story; an appearance by Frobisher on page three gives me hope that we could see Izzy and Junior Cyberleader Kroton.) What we'll discover is that the stranger is kidnapping the companions with a time scoop (or similar device) and imprisoning them, and the eleventh Doctor, in the eleventh issue, will realize at last what's going on, and in the final issue the eleventh Doctor will confront and defeat the villain, free the companions, and return them to their proper time and place. Yes, it's madness to predict the conclusion of a twelve issue maxi-series when the first issue only arrived this morning. Sherlock Holmes would chastise me for theorizing in advance of the evidence. But this kind of story would fit the format.

 

[Sindatur]

Vicki looked horrible but I agree that the Doctor "sounded" genuine. Correct me if I'm wrong but at that point in the Doctor's life, wasn't he not in control of the Tardis's navigation? Meaning, he couldn't control where/when it went right?

Correct, it was until The Time Lords released Pertwee from exile that he gained any control. Troughton and Hartnell, just went wherever the TARDIS took them.

Except for in "The Daleks' Master-Plan," that is. The Doctor can control the TARDIS there.

Ah, I still need to go through the Hartnell Recons, I got bored with the Historical ones, and quit. Havng gone through the Troughtons, I am anxious to give the Hartnell SciFi ones another chance

 

[Admiral_Young]

I thought this was a decent issue, agreed with the art work. It looked overly stylized and cartoony on most pages and incredibly inconsistent. I agree somewhat with Allyn's theory regarding the motivations of the hooded figure. His plan is obviously to isolate the Doctor, and he realizes the importance of his companions to him and thus removing them from the equation. The opening internal monologue proved that. I'll be sticking with this through the end.

 

[Andrew_Kearley]

Except for in "The Daleks' Master-Plan," that is. The Doctor can control the TARDIS there.

After he steals the Monk's navigational unit. Which promptly explodes.

It's stated fairly early on that the Doctor could steer the Tardis if he's able to program it with accurate positional data, which suggests that its onboard GPS system is broken, and he doesn't have the time/ability/data to be able to set it manually.

I think you might be right about the story arc in this comic. DWM's Ground Zero arc did something broadly similar in the 90s.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Issue #6 came out this week.

For longtime Doctor Who comics readers, it was pure 80s nostalgia -- the sixth Doctor, Peri, and Frobisher, drawn by John Ridgway! The only thing that would have made it perfect would have been a bonkers Parkhouse-esque story. (Steve Parkhouse is, in my opinion, the second-best Doctor Who writer ever.)

What we get is a passable runaround with a heavy dose of fanwank, and then...

Spoiler: No, really, spoilers...

Frobisher teams up with the tenth Doctor!

You have no idea how much I wanted to see a tenth Doctor/Frobisher story in the pages of DWM. (The only thing I wanted more? Izzy to appear on Torchwood. Kelly MacDonald would have been fantastic as the thirtysomething Izzy.) And the Tiptons are going to give us a tenth Doctor/Frobisher story in some fashion!

Spoiler: Also...

Also, the Doctor has finally recognized what's going on. And now he's going to do something about it.

I'm curious, but not entirely optimistic about, the eighth Doctor issue, as it will have Grace's first appearance in a very, very long time.

 

[The Wormhole]

I'm enjoying the series so far. While nothing outstanding, it is decent entertainment all the same. It is kind of fun seeing all the new series nods in the stories, like issue 3 revealing the Hood Figure has a vortex manipulator. Issue 4 featuring the Judoon. Issue 5 featuring the Sontarans doing their "Sontar-Ha!" chant. And issue 6, is covered above.

Also, the Hooded Figure must be quite the badass given that he has a wrecked Dalek in his lair.

 

[sidious618]

I've been reading it. It's okay. It's cute but they really could've hired better writers to do something which should be epic and instead feels rather inconsequential.

 

[Stevil2001]

Wait, actual John Ridgway art?

 

[The Wormhole]

^^Indeed, Issue 6 is drawn by John Ridgway.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Issue #8 came out today. Drawn by Roger Langridge, the eighth Doctor visits Grace Holloway (her first named appearance in a Doctor Who story in over a decade) and takes her on "just one trip."

It was an odd issue.

Langridge's art is great, as always, but the story itself is rather thin.

After a Frobisher apperance in issue #6 drawn by John Ridgway, this doesn't fit with Grace's DWM appearances at all.

The story reminds me of "The Land of Happy Endings" (the anniversary story DWM did a few years ago with the eighth Doctor and his grandchildren, John and Gillian) tossed in a blender with a Vidiian story out of Star Trek: Voyager.

The important thing, though -- we get a really good look at the hooded villain.

Spoiler: Theories and observations

It's someone who has been partially Cyber-converted. The possibilities...

• Lytton
• Junior Cyberleader Kroton
• Some minor character from "Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday"

I think, based on the sixth Doctor issue, that it's Lytton, as the sixth Doctor recognized the villain. For the eighth Doctor, the villain is vaguely familiar but he can't place him. Considering that several decades (and two regenerations) have passed in the Doctor's life since "Attack of the Cybermen," it's possible that the Doctor would have only vague memories of Lytton.

Kroton would be cool, but he would have to be deconverted to some extent (since the villain has human hands and a human face). Also, I'm curious why exactly Kroton would be so implacably hostile to the Doctor after his last appearance.

A minor character from "Army of Ghost"/"Doomsday" would make sense, except that the villain expects the Doctor to know who he is, and his Cyber-conversions are classic Cybermen, not Cybus-Cybermen parts.

I didn't hate the issue, but I also didn't love it. The eighth Doctor dialogue doesn't ring true, and the story is slight. I also don't buy the resolution to the story which portrays the eighth Doctor as something of an anarchist. But, the artwork was lovely and it's always nice to see the eighth Doctor.