"You're going to have to invest in a whole lot of nappies."
This feels a lot like a finale for the eighth chapter of ten... next episode presumably sees all ten and a half doctors healing the Tenth Doctor. But then...? I'm sure it'll all work out splendidly, the plotting in particular has been a triumph so far, and I'm sure there will be other plot threads. Such as what was the Valeyard's "familiar" regenerated form?
This is epic stuff, though, a massive battle against the "Time Daleks" involving everyone, with 8 finally reunited with all his other selves and some nice character stuff, particularly with 9, a Doctor who has suffered things the others can barely imagine. Captain Jack is killed, but that's his party trick. And the dark turn of events with Leela's children is sort of undone... but if you're rejuvenated, and your children de-aged to become innocent babies again, a la Margaret Slitheen, the people they had been are, in a sense, surely worse than dead, as they never existed? But I'm overthinking things; it's an elegant solution that works on an immediate emotional level.
It all looks great, with a big splash page and massive numbers of characters. The art here is a tour de force. And there are, I think, clues as to where all this is going- a plan to change 8's timeline? Regardless, I'm enjoying the start of the denouement.
I like how Leela at last comes face to face with the Doctor she met, back in the form that she'd first met him so many years ago. Even if she'd liked the later Doctor she'd met, the man with the scraf before her would always be her Doctor...
ReplyDeleteConsidering 9's reaction to Rose being taken away in Chapter two, and when he is almost willingly to let Rose by killed by the Daleks in Chapter 8 but I think it matches with 9's traits at this point in time.
The Ninth Doctor is a flawed character, and he makes mistakes, but, when push came to shove and he had to make a choice, he was the man who would always do what he could to prevent the death of innocents.
He may have fallen when faced with evil at times, but he would never back down if there was anything he could do that wouldn't result in more people dying, acknowledging his responsibility while refusing to allow it to put him down.
He'd made a mistake in his relationship with Rose (the moment he seems to hesitately commit to letting her be killed), but they'd all made some mistakes in their friendships in the course of their lives; that was no reason to condemn the Doctor, after all.
I likew how 9 keeps shifting from anger to sympathy and guilt, looking over at his eighth self with as much comfort as he could master; he'd had to deal with a great deal of anger after his eighth regeneration, both at what his previous self had done and at the fact that he'd been left to cope with the guilt and grief inspired by those memories after his regeneration while trying to save the Nestene feeding planets, but he'd moved past it since his last regeneration, and was better able to accept what his prior self had done.
I like the glares the First Doctor, still staring at 9 with the cold intensity that was only made more intense by his physical age. The Second Doctor also looking coldly when 9 looks like he might let Rose die.
And now we lead to all the Doctors mind linking to save 10; we literally see all of them in the room, in the same image!
The characterisation of the Ninth Doctor is perfect here. He's had to consider going further than other Doctors would... but he's the Doctor nevertheless, and "a coward, every time!"
ReplyDeleteI love that image with all the Doctors together. It absolutely had to happen at some point!
I don't know when each chapter was uploaded, but I do recall on the archive website Morris noting the stock footage showing the Ten Doctors in the 2008 "Next Doctor" Christmas special with David Morrisey, so the "Eleventh Doctor" reference could be a nod to Tennant's announcing his departure and Matt Smith's announcement. I hasten to add there is "No Eleventh Doctor" in the comic; we already have 2.5. Doctor already.
ReplyDeleteSee? 2 having the 2.5. Doctor appear was important! The Dalek controlling 10 failed to realise 2.5. was an "imposter" leading 4 to have the element of surpruise and make a remark aware he is the most popular Doctor.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, it seems that fans can actually write Doctor Who better because they have more range than real life can do to the show. Out of all the unofficial Doctor Who stuff I've seen, I've never come across anything quite as good as The Ten Doctors comic. I honestly can't believe we live in the world where the Timeless Children is undoubtedly cannon, and yet this comic gets swept under the rug and is relatively unknown even by most Doctor Who fans.
ReplyDeleteThe story alone makes my day. This 2007-2009 fan comic run contains SO many characters- The first 10 main Doctors making fun of each other and leaning on the fourth wall such as 5 telling 4 it's nice he "bothered to show up this time" is exactly what I come to Multi-Doctor Stories for. But if you think that's it, be prepared to see nearly every companion and villain from the first 45 years of Doctor Who's long and complicated history, all collide.
While this may not be licensed by the BBC, this comic is more Doctor Who than most officially licensed Doctor Who content is. Of course, a glarengly obvious problem with trying to put this into canon is the complete lack of reference to the War Doctor's existence, but of course- If we live in a world where we can accept The Silver Turk into canon despite it being contradicted by The Haunting of Villa Diodatti, or The Power of the Doctor contradicting At Childhood's End and also any Big Finish release featuring Ace and The Master, as well as Farewell Sarah Jane Smith in that Tegan makes no mention of her partner Nyssa- In a canon as convoluted and messed up as Doctor Who, where almost every contradiction is just explained by the Time War somehow, I can't imagine how this can't be forgiven for the very few and very minor contradictions this story has to the main show.
This comic is incredible, and I wholeheartedly recommend it for any self respecting Doctor Who fan. Even with the state of the show over the past 16 years.