Book Review: Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time by S. Tipton et al.

Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time written by Scott and David Tipton with art by Gary Erskine and others

For the fiftieth anniversary of Doctor Who, a twelve-issue comic series was published. Each of the first eleven Doctors has an adventure typical for him. An overarching villain is depriving him of his companions for some nefarious purpose that gets revealed toward the end of the series.

The First Doctor visits Thomas Huxley in the 1860s for a little lecture on science and a confrontation with a London subway-dwelling enemy that shouldn't be on Earth. The Doctor and his companions (Ian, Barbara, and Vicki) fight the good fight. The Doctor mysteriously winds up alone at the end of the story when the three companion vanish into thin air.

The Second Doctor travels with companions Jaime and Zoe to an intergalactic mall where they discover an underground slave market. The slavers discover Jaime is from the past, and thus very valuable. They kidnap him, causing the standard rescue mission. The story is fun though it ends much the same way with the two companions disappearing during a trans-mat transportation. There must be some joke about them vanishing into thin air when they are dematerialized by the trans-mat, but I can't come up with it.

The Third Doctor is stuck on Earth in the 1970s and has an adventure with UNIT. The Brigadier has gone crazy and the whole planet is being flooded by freak storms. The Doctor quickly discovers the Remoraxians are behind the plot. The Doctor cures the Brigadier with a made-up doodad and they work together with Dr. Liz Shaw and Sarah Jane Smith to beat the Remoraxians. Then the three companions (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Dr. Shaw, and Sarah Jane) are kidnapped by a hooded figure.

The Best Doctor, I mean, the Fourth Doctor takes Leela and K-9 to the garden planet Agratis for a feast. When they arrive, the place is in anarchy. An irreplaceable gem has been stolen and the rhino-like Judoon have been brought in to find it. The Doctor helps solve the mystery and winds up at a feast where K-9 and Leela are kidnapped by the hooded bad guy.

The Fifth Doctor lands the TARDIS on an obscure planet with a slight crack in space-time. The power leaking out of it will recharge the TARDIS. The only problem is the planet is also a battleground in the thousand-year war between the Sontarans and the Rutan Host. The Doctor has run into both groups before and does his usual job trying to talk them out of war. As the Doctor and his companions (Tegan, Adric, and Nyssa) flee back to the TARDIS, the Doctor gives a little speech about the inability of people to deviate from their natural tendencies. The bad guy shows up and accuses him of endangering his innocent companions, which seems like a natural tendency of the Doctor. The bad guy kidnaps the trio of companions and the doctor starts to remember the previous kidnappings.

The Sixth Doctor visits 7200s Earth with Peri and Frobisher. Frobisher is a shapeshifter and has taken the form of a penguin since they are visiting Antarctica. Or I should write "Antarcticopolis" since the continent has become one gigantic city. They run into trouble when they visit the city and the locals think that the Doctor has kidnapped a penguin. A frantic chase ensues with the Master interfering, causing the Doctor to get locked up. Meanwhile, the bad guy captures Peri and Frobisher. By this point, a future Dcotor has left a message for the companions. Frobisher uses his shapechanging to escape his cell and starts to investigate the bad guy's lair.

The Seventh Doctor and Ace visit 19th century Scotland where two elderly aristocrats lie on their deathbeds. The Doctor is all too willing to help cure them, especially since there's an extraterrestrial element to what's going on. The villain turns out to be the Master, who says he is working with a partner who is trying to torment the Doctor. The villain is our recurring bad guy, who snatches Ace in the very last panel of the issue.

The Eighth Doctor takes Grace Holloway (also a doctor) on a supposedly quiet and unexciting jaunt through the universe. They wind up at a planet with a big moral dilemma and have an adventure resolving it. At the end, the Doctor confronts the unnamed bad guy/kidnapper, who indeed snatches Grace at the end of the issue.

The Ninth Doctor takes Rose to a colossal monument dedicated by the richest man in the universe to the richest man in the universe (typical Doctor Who stuff, eh?). They have their adventure and run into the bad guy at the end, who explains that he is Adam, a minor character in one episode of the first series of the Doctor Who reboot. Adam worked at the vault on Earth where they found a Dalek. He uses the other alien technology in the vault to get revenge on the Doctor. The Doctor had invited Adam to go adventuring but then left him behind with some weird alien tech in his head. After the exposition, Adam knocks out the Doctor and Rose, kidnapping Rose and presumably taking her back to his base.

The Tenth Doctor takes Martha Jones to 1950s Hollywood and the Griffith Observatory. There's a film crew there, but it's not Rebel Without a Cause, just some B-picture sci-fi thriller. The show is behind schedule because of disappearing crew. The Doctor and Martha investigate with the expected results. Adam shows up at the end and gets the drop on the duo, carting off Martha. The Doctor comes to and sends his message back to Frobisher. 

The Eleventh Doctor starts off confronting Adam, who snatches Clara. Then the Doctor tries to find Adam's lair, which he eventually does. Adam explains why he's so angry at the Doctor and reveals the Master as his ally. The Doctor warns Adam of how evil the Master is. Adam is uninterested and delivers his ultimatum--he will kill all but one of the Doctor's companions; the Doctor chooses who will live. And thus, he chooses the others to die.

The big finale unites all eleven Doctors to fight Adam and the Master. Naturally, the Doctors free the companions while the duo release other minions to have a big fight scene. It all ends pretty much the way you'd expect.

I found the series mildly interesting. I wish they had gotten to the mega-team-up quicker and spent more time on that, rather than rushing through an adventure for each Doctor and then rushing through the ending. Individual stories had different artists, making the style shift a bit from issue to issue. Also, the art winds up being more and less good with so many people working on it. This book is a great idea but a mediocre execution.

Mildly recommended.