The Child of Time

"The lights are going out all across the galaxy."

Writer: Jonathan Morris

Format: Comic Strip

Released: September - December 2011

Printed in: DWM 438-441

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Amy

Synopsis 

The clock is ticking as the Doctor and Amy find themselves trying to avert Chiyoko's creation and prevent a galactic war in Earth's future. The whole universe is hanging in the balance and the time vortex is close to collapse. Travelling between worlds that should not exist and meeting long dead souls, the Doctor and Amy's toughest adventure could prove to be their last. The end of everything is approaching at the hands of a little girl who wants to live forever...

Verdict 

Hurrah! So this poor and endless comic strip story arc with no direction has finally come to an end for me. Compared with the recent Eleventh Doctor and Clara strips and arcs, and other stories I've ventured into with the Third, Fourth and Ninth Doctors, the whole The Child of Time graphic novel has been a bit of a disappointment as a whole. Maybe I should have picked up Nemesis of the Daleks or The Chains of Olympus... Anyway. To the story at hand. Following on pretty much straight away from Apotheosis, the start of this seemed like there was going to be a saving grace to the arc. Awaiting for a really stand out story all the way from Supernature to the end and I just didn't get it. A couple of 9/10s is good but in the biggest graphic novel I've seen I would have expected at least one full mark story. The start of this comic strip was actually outstanding with it showing Chiyoko creating everything that was needed to bring about her own existence. I mean, it showed the freeing of the Axons from the time loop! But, Morris gave everything way too early for an arc conclusion story. I felt this story was just an extension from Apotheosis, which I've already mentioned, and it was just too similar, seemingly only on a bigger scale with a bit more 'timey-wimey' stuff included. Amy was actually wonderful in this which was nice to see. Just as he's on his way out it seemed the relationship between the Doctor and Amy from TV was eventually captured in visual print. The reference to her being his girlfriend was met with some marvellous humour. The similarity to Father's Day with the whole past selves thing was actually done brilliantly! I felt Chiyoko was given too much unexplained power. If she didn't officially exist yet then how could she manipulate things that did exist by a simple thought or expression? I'm not sure why a young small Japanese girl was given the role of arc enemy, I'm sure there'd be better options in mind. The continuation of the war between humans and Galateans in the far future was presented nicely and the artwork was outstanding as is usually the case with DWM stories. But as I've mentioned, it was déjà vu. No pun intended. The use of that term was done cleverly but then I felt things were repeated too much, even if the Doctor and Amy were going back to change a future that never should have occurred. The use of the Bronte sisters was just silly but I actually quite enjoyed having Alan Turing join the TARDIS pair along the adventure, not that he did much though. He did pop in with some good comments and scenes in Wilmslow were quite unexpected! The cliffhangers were good but I didn't like the lack of resolution. You can't just ignore a daunting cliffhanger thinking people will forget over four weeks. Well, I've got news, I always wait for the entire story to be completed before reading so work needs to improve. And with Scott Gray at the helm it has done so massively. The visuals of this strip were fantastic and the plot wasn't bad, but there were a lot of flaws. An emotional climax was tarnished by the way Chiyoko went from a God to a young child because of speech. Nah, I'm not buying that sorry. Overall, a decent story but lack of explanations and poor linking (apart from one scene) with the whole arc made this slightly disappointing despite the great aspects. 

Rating: 7/10