Doctormania

"What the hell is Doctor Who?"

Writer: Cavan Scott
Format: Comic Strip
Released: April-June 2016
Series: The Ninth Doctor #1-3

Featuring: Ninth Doctor, Rose, Captain Jack

Synopsis

A stunning new clue to Captain Jack Harkness's missing memories and mysterious past is uncovered! The thrilling race is on for Rose, Captain Jack and the Doctor to escape the clutches of a familiar foe... and a whole planet of the Doctor's biggest fans?!

Verdict

Doctormania was a great story to kick things rolling with the Ninth Doctor comics from Titan! Now, this is obviously not the first of the Ninth Doctor stories from them as we had the epic Weapons of Past Destruction but now we have a continuous run and that's very exciting to get a collection of stories with the Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack. It didn't take me long at all to get affiliated with the library in my new hometown of Bristol and of all the comics from Titan, this was the one I was after most. It is obviously not the only story to feature but as its the titular story, I feel now was the best place to talk about it. I was quite intrigued to see that the Slitheen returned to battle the Ninth Doctor in a story set before Boom Town. The Ninth Doctor had already battled them in Aliens of London/World War Three and The Monsters Inside so they certainly seem to have become the go-to villain for this incarnation of the Doctor. These weren't the Slitheen we had met already though as they were far more advanced. I guess that came with the 38th century setting. It was interesting though to see that they could now fit into skin suits that weren't so fat and they also didn't need to have murdered those they were impersonating. All they needed was an image and the Doctor gave them one when he let the galaxy know that his brain was up for sale. The idea of Doctor Who, the show itself, appearing within a story is not unique but it's something I love. The whole concept of the Doctor stating my used quite is just wonderful. Yani was a lovely character and I loved that the Doctor Who Appreciation Society got a namedrop with her as its president. The Doctor being dismissive of her initially was well in line with the personality of this Doctor but I really loved how he sent her his own private message and told her to be something great and not worship him. That was brilliant. I thought Rose was superb in this comic strip and I really liked the development of her relationship with Slist. The fake Chumblies were very amusing and I loved how angry the Doctor got at them being continuously referred to as something they weren't. The Raxas Alliance was decent and I thought it was good that the Jinglatheen wanted to benefit from the Doctor and co and take back control of the Alliance. That wasn't to be though and we had quite a good and exciting climax. The brief cameo of a past Jack, before his memory loss, was intriguing and I'm sure there'll be considerable story development to come yet. Also, the cliffhanger ending was good with Mickey returning. I'm not sure how that will fit in with Boom Town but I can't wait to read it! Overall, a very good comic strip adventure!

Rating: 8/10