Time Fraud

"Why are you pretending to be Time Lords?"

Writer: Richard Dinnick

Format: Comic Strip

Released: September 2012

Printed in: Doctor Who Annual 2012 (Comic)

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Amy, Rory

Synopsis 

The TARDIS is drawn to a time-lost chrononaut, which leads to the discovery of surviving Time Lords. How has the Doctor not realised that he isn't the only survivor of the Time War? Or are these merely fraudsters? Time will tell...

Verdict

Time Fraud was an excellent comic strip adventure and a wonderful way to continue reading the comic strip edition of the 2012 Doctor Who Annual segments in the second volume of IDW's Eleventh Doctor Archives! This really was superb and there was a lot going on for me that just worked to a peach. I thought the inclusion of the Ra'ra'vis was a huge coincidence given that I have only recently read Jorus and the Voganauts so I was really surprised to find that they actually appeared before their outing in the Myths & Legends book. I certainly didn't see it coming so that really did thrill me! The characterisation of the Eleventh Doctor was sublime with Matt Smith's likeness well captured along with his relationship with Amy and Rory. That has been a shining light of highlights from IDW thus far and I long for it to continue. The plot of this one was terrific and the idea of the Doctor tackling time fraud was one I really enjoyed. His reaction when he was informed that Gallifreyan help was present was fantastic and he immediately dismissed the possibility. As he had made very clear, he was the very last of the Time Lords. The Ra'ra'vis calling upon them for help with their time experiments and solstice was good but what was even better was the fact that it was Time Lord impersonators who answered the call! The very idea! When I think of it, I'm quite surprised that it hasn't been done before but I'm delighted that it finally occurred here. I was a big fan. Seeing the Eleventh Doctor with the Castellan outfitted enemies was a real treat and I had some seriously nostalgic feelings when he momentarily emerged from the TARDIS wearing the famed Time Lord collar. That really was marvellous and a lovely clash of eras. The Gizou being the ones impersonating the Time Lords was very good and I thought the Doctor's reaction to them was very good indeed. He didn't seem surprised but he was quick to sympathise with Nimu. She was lovely and was just doing everything she could to save her people. The Doctor could understand that which was fantastic and exactly what you would expect. The real enemy turned out to be Scott Thrower and as he wasn't a real Time Lord and therefore unable to regenerate, he wanted to use the power of the double solstice to rejuvenate his youth. It wasn't too much of a surprise but when it came to the Doctor giving him what he wanted, it was in an extraordinary form. He reverted back to a child but used his vortex manipulator as he was a time agent, and ended up in Scotland in 1965. Speechless and unable to talk, he would be a child that we would see Captain Jack sacrifice to the 456 in Children of Earth. The shadow appearance of Jack was fantastic and a sublime end to what was a brilliant comic strip!

Rating: 9/10