THE THIRTEENTH DOCTOR WRITER: JODY HOUSER ARTIST: RACHAEL STOTT COLORIST: ENRICA EREN ANGIOLINI COLOR ASSISTANT: VIVIANA SPINELLI

When the Doctor fell out of the Sheffield sky and into the lives of Graham, Yasmin, and Ryan, they had little idea how much their worlds would change! Now the Doctor and her friends travel through space and time, righting wrongs, facing terrible danger, and witnessing magnificent wonders!

So when this book came across my desk to review I got excited. I’m a big fan of the books Titan puts out and I was curious to see how they would handle the new Doctor. Well, in short, I’m still waiting.

Ok, let me say first I understand that it’s tricky working with a licensed product, especially on a currently running TV show. Also I understand that most likely this story was probably written before the new Doctor even debuted on TV. So there is going to be some disconnect between how Jodie Whittaker portrays the doctor and how the Doctor is presented in this new comic book series. What I wasn’t expecting was keeping the story so light it felt like I didn’t read anything at all.

What do I mean by this? This first issue of Doctor Who The Thirteenth Doctor is all set up. There is no character development, nothing is explained and there is no resolution because there is no real conflict in the story. I kind of feel one of 2 things happened here, either Jody Houser, the writer, was given no direction by BBC on what was happening on the TV show and how the New incarnation of the Doctor and her companions were going to behave and interact tis season. Or Jody was simply writing this with the attitude of, this is the Doctor, everyone knows the Doctor and I don’t have to explain anything. I would like to give Miss Houser the benefit of the doubt and assume the latter.

So what it boils down to is I don’t feel right “judging” this book based solely on this first issue. I have an interest in Doctor Who so I will most likely continue reading, but if your a casual Who fan or new to the series/genre I don’t believe you will want to stick with this one.

Basically in the book a couple of thieves steal a painting and seemingly unrelated the Doctor with her new companions are watching a sentient nebula. While star gazing a vortex opens up and a hand comes out. The Doctor sees this a time anomaly and figures out how to track it’s next appearance. Then they pull the hand out of the vortex to see it’s one of the thieves. And then some soldiers come to arrest them. Seriously that’s like all that happens. No real character development other than the Doctor says a few times “If I’m right and I’m pretty sure I usually am”, which I’m assuming is meant to be her new catch phrase. But that’s it. There is not really enough to judge this story on.

I was hoping for some character and world building. Exposition to explain why this group is together and star gazing. Explain who the protagonist you are setting up is and what his motivation is. Something that would have granted a new reader would jump back in next month.

On the plus side I will say that the art is very well executed. I never judge a book like this based on how much does the art look like the actor portraying the character on TV, but does the art capture the actors spirit and is it consistent. And yes Rachael Stott does an excellent job with this. I feel she captured a whimsical feel in the Doctor and it works really well in this book. Also the detail on the TARDIS, the backgrounds and the main villain and his throne room is excellent. There are also quit a few splash pages, which feel like they were thrown in as filler, which are very well done and proves Rachael Stott has the experience and skill to make a light script work in a full length book. People should definitely check out her other work.

Bottom line, would I recommend this book? I would say if you are a fan of Doctor Who and what TItan has done with the property than you should definitely pick it up. If you are a new fan you might want to wait till a few books are out, because you may leave this one feeling frustrated.

I give The Thirteenth Doctor #1, 7 out of 10 capes and hope it just gets better from here.

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