Vworp! Vworp!

In a previous blog post I was singing the praises of a Doctor Who comic entitled The Time Machination, when it struck me that despite it being by far the longest running of all the show’s spin-offs, the Doctor’s adventures in comics are still viewed as very much a poor relation in some quarters. They’re so often overlooked or written off by disinterested fans who would rather enjoy a hefty paperback, a CD audio drama, or even the television programme itself. Nothing wrong with that, and long may they continue. But I’d like to take this opportunity to champion a few of my favourite stories from 45 years of hand-drawn adventures in time and space.

 

The 10 Greatest Doctor Who Comic Strips

 

1. Time In Reverse (TV Comic)

Doctor Who first appeared in comic strip form in the pages of TV Comic, with Neville Main chiefly responsible for the crudely-drawn adventures of Dr. Who and his grandchildren John and Gillian (contractual reasons – presumably TV Comic being too cheapskate - precluding the use of any television companions at this point). The stories were a bit mad, frankly, and not always faithful to the spirit of the television programme. It wasn’t unusual to see the Doctor battling enemies such as the real Pied Piper of Hamelin, and meeting Father Christmas. But occasionally, the strip stumbled across a genuinely intriguing concept – such as that found here. The TARDIS lands on a planet where time flows backwards, and the travellers have to work out what they need to do in order to get back to the ‘beginning’ on their adventure. For all its flaws – not least in the artwork department - it’s a very enjoyable tale that’s head and shoulders above many of its contemporaries, and offers something that couldn’t have worked nearly as effectively in any other medium.

 

2. The Daleks (TV Century 21)

This is a bit of a cheat, as strictly speaking, this is a series of stories – and none of them feature the Doctor. But The Daleks is possibly the most influential of all Doctor Who comic strips, as it had a real impact upon the television series and its spin offs. This epic comic strip had a plum position on the back page of 60s comic TV Century 21, better known for charting the exploits of Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the like, and tells the story of Skaro’s metallic monsters from their origins amidst an escalating nuclear conflict to their status as a true galactic superpower. Along the way, there are action-packed space battles, a rematch with enemies the Mechanoids from TV serial The Chase, and most entertainingly, a mad Dalek who attempts to spread a ‘flower power’-style movement through subversion. Brilliant and barmy in equal measure, but it has to be seen.

 

3. Planet of the Daleks (Countdown + TV Action) 

No relation to the 1973 TV adventure of the same name, this is one of the best of the many comic strips to feature Jon Pertwee’s Doctor. Written by Dennis Hooper, with artwork by the brilliant Gerry Haylock, it essentially involves the TARDIS being hijacked by the Daleks and brought to Skaro as part of a plot to brainwash the Doctor and make him a Dalek. It all goes pear-shaped, of course, and climaxes with the Doctor and temporary companion Finney (a crook brought along for the ride after trying to steal the TARDIS) escaping through the jungles of Skaro, as the Daleks are set upon by giant dinosaurs native to their planet. Endearingly daft it may be, but Haylock’s artwork is great – at least for the first half of the story, published in full colour before the comic Countdown merged with its sister title – and it’s a perfect example of the kind of strips published during this period. The Doctor (or ‘Doctor Who’ as he’s frequently called here) is living a solitary existence in a cottage somewhere in the English countryside, his only friends seemingly the occasional gaggle of scientists who pop by for a demonstration of his amazing scientific prowess. For all its departures from the TV series, it remains a cracking Boy’s Own adventure, and the first Doctor Who comic strip I ever read, when it was reprinted in the early 90s magazine Doctor Who Classic Comics. If only for inspiring my interest in the comic strips discussed here, it’s earned its place.

 

4. Doctor Who and the Star Beast (Doctor Who Weekly) 

After TV Comic had abandoned the Doctor, Marvel Comics picked up the baton in 1979 with Doctor Who Weekly, the first ongoing comic solely dedicated to the Time Lord. The pedigree of the main strip was excellent – written by the legendary Pat Mills and John Wagner, with artwork from the equally legendary Dave Gibbons. Doctor Who and the Star Beast is a wonderful, surreal tale which gave the Doctor Who universe Beep the Meep – an alien who used his cute and cuddly appearance to disguise the fact that he’s actually a sadistic alien warmonger. Beep proved so popular, he’s been brought out of retirement several times, and remains an iconic character. As with so many of the strips here, it didn’t necessarily reflect Doctor Who as it existed on television at that time, but this one did reflect the kind of world most of its young readers were living in – an everyday industrial town, populated by ordinary people. Among them were schoolkids Sharon and ‘Fudge’, who found the Meep hiding in the garden shed, little realising the danger they were in. Sharon went on to accompany the Fourth Doctor in many more of his Marvel Comics escapades, and has the distinction of being Doctor Who’s first black companion, a good few decades before the TV series caught up. Ultimately, Doctor Who and the Star Beast is a wacky and engaging tale by some of the best comics talent in the business, and deserves to be read.

 

5. The Tides of Time (Doctor Who Monthly) 

Shortly after Peter Davison made his television debut in Castrovalva in 1982, his comic strip equivalent exploded onto the scene in this baffling epic, which took the Fifth Doctor from a cricket match in the sleepy English village of Stockbridge (a recurring location in DWM’s comic strip from day one) to a battle with the demon Melancius. The demon has seized control of the Event Synthesizer, a kind of church organ that keeps the universe in balance and harmony, played by the Prime Mover (who might be God, or possibly just an intergalactic Reginald Dixon, I’m not sure), and time has begun to break down and merge. Teaming up with Sir Justin, a knight left stranded in the 20^th century thanks to Melancius’ meddling, and Shayde, a shadowy foot-soldier derived from the Time Lords’ Matrix, the Doctor sets off on an epic, rambling journey to stop him. There’s a great deal of surrealism along the way, including an encounter with legendary wizard Merlin, and very little of it makes any real sense. But it’s not about the story, it’s about the spectacle – Dave Gibbons, in one of his final contributions to the world of Doctor Who, does some of his best work for the strip, and you’re left with the overwhelming feeling that you’ve been reading something special. One of the most exciting Doctor Who stories ever told, in any medium, and essential reading.

 

6. The Stockbridge Horror (Doctor Who Monthly) 

Another epic Fifth Doctor tale from the early 80s, which sees the TARDIS possessed by a mysterious Elemental being, which wreaks havoc throughout time and brings the Doctor to the attention of his Time Lord peers once more. This, in conjunction with The Tides of Time, is the comic strip’s answer to The Deadly Assassin in many ways, exploring and fleshing out the Marvel Universe’s Gallifrey just as that Tom Baker story did for its small screen counterpart. For the first time, we see the Time Lords’ war TARDISes, military vessels armed with time torpedoes, which incapacitate enemies by freezing time around them. The Stockbridge Horror’s additions to the Time Lord mythos have proved to be amongst the most influential in Doctor Who’s comic strip history, and its effects have been felt in other media in the expanded universe. Plus, of course, it’s a bloody good story.

 

7. Fellow Travellers (Doctor Who Magazine) 

Fellow Travellers is virtually unique in this list, in that it’s one of the few Doctor Who comic strips that feels like it fits in with the TV era in which it is set – perhaps appropriately, given that it’s written by Sylvester McCoy era script editor Andrew Cartmel, one of relatively few Who TV writers to branch out into comics. It plays with issues of race and prejudice, and feels considerably more mature than any other story on this list, and for that alone, it’s worthy of praise, I think. Okay, the Doctor and Ace are little more than observers to the action, but that’s an accusation that could be levelled at many a fine TV episode too. Have a look on one of the many second-hand and collectible booksellers online for the out-of-print graphic novel The Mark of Mandragora, and it’ll be in there, accompanied by several other stories, including the batty yet strangely loveable Doctor Conkerer!, where McCoy’s Doctor is revealed as a would-be conker champion….

 

8. The Final Chapter / Wormwood (Doctor Who Magazine) 

Basically, the most audacious hoax ever perpetuated within the pages of Doctor Who Magazine – including that old April Fool about footage being found from an unscreened William Hartnell story being worked into a new Peter Davison serial – and their own attempt at something approximating DC’s epic Death of Superman storyline. The Eighth Doctor sensationally regenerated after saving Gallifrey at the end of The Final Chapter, to be replaced by a new Doctor. Readers were shocked. I was shocked. It was the last thing anyone had been expecting, but in the absence of further TV episodes DWM was always pushing the comic strip forward as an ongoing story – having their very own Doctor seemed logical. Four or five months passed, and readers got used to the new Doctor (who strongly resembled Dalek voice actor and Big Finish producer Nicholas Briggs)… and then, wham. The Eighth Doctor made an unexpected return towards the end of Wormwood, when it was revealed his regeneration was all part of a hoax to trap the villainous Threshold. To pull off such an incredible twist once is good, to do it twice is genius, and this is a prime example of how writers such as Alan Barnes and Scott Gray made the comic strip one of the most important – and most enjoyable – parts of Doctor Who Magazine once more between 1996 and 2005. Paul McGann may only have had one story on television, but the Eighth Doctor went on to have numerous adventures in many different media. The comics were by far the best, and this is just one of the many, many highlights.

 

9. The Glorious Dead (Doctor Who Magazine) 

Fast forward a couple of years and the Eighth Doctor, accompanied by companions Izzy and Kroton (an emotional Cyberman, and a character whose origins go right back to Doctor Who Weekly and its back-up strip featuring anthology-style tales of the Doctor’s allies and enemies), finds himself up against his old nemesis the Master in this epic adventure, which holds the record as the longest Doctor Who Magazine comic strip story (and also, one of the very few times the Master has been used in comic strip form, in any publication). It’s actually a pretty humdrum tale… until the fantastic cliffhanger where the Doctor wakes up in bed next to his TV Movie companion Grace Holloway, and realises it’s all a horrible dream. Or is it? The next issue’s instalment presents us with an array of different takes on the Doctor – from Chandleresque detective to fantasy wizard, and the wonderfully lurid cartoon cat ‘Tardis Tails’. It’s all part of an attempt to educate him as to the nature of the Glory, a kind of guardianship of reality for which he and the Master must do battle. Or must they? For its sheer mind-boggling inventiveness alone, The Glorious Dead deserves to be read – though it helps to be familiar with several stories leading up to this point. Happily, they’re all collected in the graphic novel of the same title, available from all good bookstores. Buy it. Buy it now.

 

10. The Time Of My Life (Doctor Who Magazine) 

In my own humble opinion, the new series hasn’t been kind to Doctor Who comics – Doctor Who Magazine’s strip in particular. After nine wonderful years of adventures for the Eighth Doctor, which felt like a proper series in themselves, the magazine was forced to rely on standalone stories featuring the Doctor/companion line-up currently appearing on television. The lack of an ongoing narrative, not to mention the fact that there could be no major character twists that wouldn’t be resolved by the end of the story, neutered the strip a little, and I started to lose interest. There are some good stories in this period – A Groatsworth of Wit, The First and the barking mad Death to the Doctor! are all worth a moment of your attention – but The Time of My Life is particularly of note for being only one of two DWM strips to feature Donna Noble, as played on TV by Catherine Tate. A celebration of her brief time with the Doctor, this ten-page strip (by Jonathan Morris, art by Rob Davis) portrays several unseen adventures for the pair, including an encounter with the Beatles, before culminating in a wonderful subversion of a scene from Christopher Eccleston’s swansong episode The Parting of the Ways. I won’t say any more than that, for fear of spoiling it, but if you found yourself somewhat gutted at Donna’s fate in Journey’s End, forced to have her memory wiped without even getting the chance to say goodbye, there’s every chance you’ll love this.

 

And so it ends. Only it doesn’t. There are still plenty of places to enjoy the comic strip adventures of the Doctor – in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine, or Doctor Who Adventures for the younger fans (or simply the young at heart), and also in a variety of comics published by American company IDW, who move forward with new adventures for the Tenth Doctor, whilst also revisiting the strip’s glorious past in Doctor Who Classics. If you’ve been affected by any of the issues raised in this column, I recommend you give them a try. Have fun.