IDW Publishing has released a seven-page preview for their upcoming Doctor Who one shot “Cold-Blooded War” by Gary Russell and Adrian Salmon. This issue features the Doctor and Donna Noble negotiating a peace treaty between two classic Doctor Who alien races, The Draconians and the Ice Warriors. Someone stands to benefit from the continued conflict, but who?
More info on Doctor Who comics can be found at IDW Publishing.
IDW Publishing has released information on their Doctor Who titles available in August.
Written by Tony Lee, art by Al Davison, covers by Paul Grist and Davison.
In the conclusion of the two-part “Silver Scream,” the Doctor clashes with aliens orchestrating a dastardly plot in 1920s Hollywood. But his actions have repercussions that could be felt throughout all time!
32 pages, $3.99.
Written by Gary Russell, art by Adrian Salmon, covers by Salmon and photo.
In this standalone tale, the Doctor and Donna attempt to broker a peace plan between two very hierarchical and pompous alien races, the Draconians and Ice Warriors. But their best efforts are derailed by someone who stands to gain from the continued conflict.
32 pages, $3.99.
Written and art by Steve Parkhouse, cover by Parkhouse and Charlie Kirchoff.
IDW’s newly recolored reprints of classic Doctor Who tales from years past continues. In this issue, the final three chapters of the classic tale, “The Stockbridge Horror,” starring the Fifth Doctor. Featuring all-new colors by Kirchoff.
32 pages, $3.99.
IDW’s latest Doctor Who one shot entitled “Autopia” comes out June 10, 2009 (hey, that’s tomorrow!!). “Autopia” features the all-American team of writer John Ostrander and artist Kelly Yates.
The Doctor and his companion Donna arrive on a utopian planet where robots do all the manual labor. But things aren’t quite what they seem…
Doctor Who: Autopia will be 32 pages for $3.99
Visit IDW Publishing for more great titles.
Use the Comic Shop Locator to find your nearest comic book dealer. They’ll be glad you did.
What’s a fan to do until new episodes of Doctor Who start up again? What makes the wait bittersweet is that there will only be a series of specials rather than a full season. Ouch. In the meantime, however, I am reading IDW’s Doctor Who comics and watching and re-watching the Doctor on DVD.
I just finished reading The Dragon’s Claw serial originally published in Doctor Who Weekly in 1980 and written by Steve Moore and superbly illustrated by Dave Gibbons. The Doctor, Sharon, and K-9 land in China in 1522 and become embroiled in the aftermath of a pirate raid on a small village. The Doctor finds evidence that the pirates were defeated with the aid of alien weaponry inappropriate for the time period. Of course our trio of time travelers are immediately captured by the local warrior monks and are escorted to the high temple. There, the Doctor suspects something is amiss, especially when the monks refer to the 12 bronze men. Doing some investigating with Sharon in tow, the Doctor discovers that the “bronze men” are actually Sontarians who are planning to use the monks to assassinate the Chinese emperor so that they can retrieve key materials needed to rebuild their ship’s communications device so that they can communicate with the Sontarian fleet. With the help of the young warrior monk Chang, the Doctor is able to defeat the Sontarians and in the end, he, Sharon and K-9 depart for the TARDIS.
Why does this story rock? Simple. Shaolin warrior monks jumping, kicking and swinging swords. Very cool.
These stories continue the characterization of the Doctor as seen starting around season sixteen when the series toned down the seriousness and horror and played up the comedy aspects. This was especially apparent in Tom Baker’s performance of the Doctor which grew increasingly more cartoonish as the series progressed. I was never a huge fan of this version of Baker’s Doctor. In his first two seasons, there existed that perfect balance of otherworldly mysteriousness, menace, and charm. However at the time the show was under a lot of pressure to reign in the horror and violence of the previous seasons, but I think their reaction swung too far in the other direction, much to the detriment of the stories. Maybe some of this can be traced to incoming script writer Douglas Adams who incorporated a lot of his Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy humor and sensibility to the Doctor Who format. Not a great combination in my opinion, although the story ideas were always fresh and exciting, just not when they were played for laughs almost exclusively. While not my favorite interpretation of the character, it was Baker’s Doctor that caught on and made the show so popular, so I can’t fault him for that.
The British newspaper The Sun reports that Catherine Tate and Bernard Cribbins will be reprising their roles as Donna Noble and her Grandfather Wilf. But how can Donna come back without her head exploding? She was a Timelord for a brief moment and I’m guessing she knew that the Doctor was going to perform the Vulcan Mind Meld… er, excuse me, Timelord Mindwipe and enacted her own set of emergency protocols, locking away her Timelord memories until an appropriate time. And has anybody mentioned anywhere that Bernard Cribbins starred in Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. with Peter Cushing as Dr. Who? Surely that must be worth an in-joke somewhere?
Also reported is the return of John Simm reprising his role as The Master. Hmmm, I’m guessing just long enough to regenerate into Tom Baker if the rumors are true.
But hear it from Tom’s own mouth. Wait until 6:48.
