We Journey Through Space and Time to Bring You Coverage of ‘Doctor Who: Time Lord Victorious’ #1

The Doctor. The Last of the Time Lords. The Oncoming Storm. And now…Conqueror of DEATH ITSELF?! 

At least that’s what Time Lord Victorious, a huge multiplatform crossover event, supposes. Now, the event, which brings together the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Doctors (and maybe some surprises) comes to Titan Comics in the form of Doctor Who: Time Lord Victorious #1. Written by Jody Houser and James Goss, lettered by Richard Starkings of Comicraft, and with art by Roberta Ingranata, Enrica Eren Angiolini and Shari Chankhamma, this opening issue sends the event and the DALEKS, appearing in licensed comics for the first time in decades, crashing into Titan’s already strong Doctor Who efforts. Join us as we *EX-PLAINNNNNN* this new, massive Doctor Who endeavor. 

Justin Partridge: WELCOME, dear readers, to Time and Relative Opinions in Space, my pathetic attempt to cover my core and longstanding fandom love of Doctor Who on a larger platform than my inane Twitter feed. And where better to start than with a MASSIVE, platform-spanning crossover with multiple parts, across a few timelines, and with large swatches of many cast members?! That’s all very X-Men anyway, isn’t it?

Joining me is wonderful XF staffer and fellow Whovian Tony Thornley!

Tony Thornley: My goodness, where do we start with this? I’ve been more of a quiet Whovian, with the majority of my experience lying in NuWho (but plenty of love for classic!), but I’m thrilled for this. This is like a big comics event, but we’re going to get audio dramas, novels, magazines and all sorts of stuff out of this. It’s like the evolution of comics BS!

JP: ABSOLUTELY. And honestly, the whole event looks like a wonderful mixture of both New and Classic Era, so I’m excited people are getting the best of all these world(s). But enough of our preambling, ALLON-SY! 

Previously on … Doctor Who Comics

JP: So, obviously “whacking great crossover” doesn’t exactly speak to accessibility. And a lot of hullabaloo has already been made about the sheer size and variety of Time Lord Victorious materials, but I weirdly found this issue to be pretty accessible, not only as an aspect of this big thing but as an issue of Jody Houser’s era on Doctor Who (which has ranged from good to great since her “relaunch” of the title with Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor and her Fam and subsequent Thirteenth and Tenth Doctor team-up arc, which just wrapped). I feel like even though it’s a smaller cog in the larger story mechanics, you could give this to a non-Who person and they could get a full introductory experience.

We have a pretty juicy era of Tenth Doctor angst to work within; a fun setup for the arc, shuffling up the usual dynamics between the Doctor and the Daleks, as they ASK him for HELP against a returned ancient enemy of the Daleks, and some truly stunning, almost pretty show-accurate artwork threading it all together. What did you think, Tony? Have you been more worried or excited about Time Lord Victorious? 

TT: What I’ve been seeing and hearing has me pretty excited. This issue did not help either, because holy cow was it a big deal. This felt a bit like a series opener or series ender. It had this big grand feel.

Given what you said about the era, I’m really curious what time period this is exactly. The costuming doesn’t help because he wore this brown and navy combination shortly before Rose’s last story, and I think he wore it several more times before his regeneration. So is this post-Rose? Between Martha and Donna? Or the specials era? Hmmm… What do you think?

JP: I am SO glad you asked, because I was wanting to get into it. Though this opening smartly leaves it a bit nebulous where we are for THIS particular Tenth Doctor (one of the many benefits of the “paradox logic” one can apply to TLV as a whole), the overall event is set after The Waters of Mars. 

Enraged by the events of the special, the (or at least A) Tenth Doctor travels back to the “Dark Times,” the much alluded to time before the Time Lords, where Death is a but a concept. But then came Kotturuh, a sort of necromantic race that looks like this. 

Very Lovecraft-Meets-2001. I love it. The Kotturuh have literally got death and mortality down to a science and look to “gift” the universe with the sacred act of dying. But they didn’t account to face the Time Lord Victorious who defeats them, arguably KILLING DEATH itself, resulting in a massive paradox, the parts of which are scattered across the rest of the releases. This “main” story seems to be the focus of the first TLV novel The Knight, The Fool, and The Dead by Steve Cole (one of the event’s “head” writers), but the ramifications of the paradox seem to also be allowing writers the room they need to tell the stories they want to tell.

Which brings us HERE. Houser smartly keeps dancing around where THIS comic Tenth Doctor is. When last we saw him in the hands of Houser, he was fighting the Autons and Weeping Angels with Thirteenth and the Fam neck deep in the events of “Blink,” where he and Criminally Underrated Modern Companion Martha Jones were stranded in the 1960s. 

BUT after the massive paradox-generating actions at the heart of this event, there is no real telling WHAT Tenth Doctor we have here (even though Houser does continue to handle Tennant’s voice and cadence as the Doctor very well). We know for SURE he is traveling alone at this point, so it could be a number of places or times. 

I am also guessing the Big Finish audio adventures (which find Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor sharing the stage with Tennant’s Tenth) are going to use this same move, opening on a confused Doctor having to deal with the ramifications of the Time Lord Victorious going back into the past and KILLING DEATH (which is honestly just freaking incredible as a logline). This Is probably gonna bug some people. Did this bug you at all? The not knowing specifically?

TT: You ever start talking to someone thinking you know about a topic and then realize you know nothing? That’s how I’m feeling right now!

So I think the setup here is pretty great. This is very much in Jody’s wheelhouse. I really think she’s one of the best voices in licensed comics right now, and I’ve enjoyed her Doctor Who comics greatly. I haven’t read her Ten and Thirteen team-up stories yet, but her Thirteen “solo” stories were a lot of fun. I needed to sit down and watch the first Thirteen episode first, but otherwise just into her first volume and enjoyed it immediately.

Now, the protagonist waking up with amnesia and mid-crisis is one of the most classic setups in fiction. This is accessible as all get out, but it also provides a conflict immediately. Why is the Doctor waking up here, why does he feel it’s all wrong and what has caused the paradox he can’t get past?

JP: ABSOLUTELY. And not focusing on it for too long gives the issue a real drive so it can get to and then laser-focus on the fun elements of this specific story and less on the “canon elements.” If you liked her first arc, I REALLY think you would like the Thirteenth/Tenth Doctor team-up. It’s a really fun multi-Doctor story without ONLY being about the team-up and nothing else (Looking at YOU, The Two Doctors!). 

And I totally agree with you about Jody Houser, too. She’s really flourished on this line and has really nailed both Whittaker and Tennant’s voices, so it’s nice to see her getting to take the Tenth for a longer spin and keeping it on track, even amid a HUGE crossover event. 

Reintroduction of the Daleks

JP: BUT THE OTHER amazing selling point is THE RETURN OF THE DALEKS TO COMICS! 

For those uninitiated, the Daleks were once MARVEL CHARACTERS! Well, Marvel UK characters at least. The same threads that made Death’s Head technically a Doctor Who character (caught in the odd tangle that were the Marvel UK licenses, which also brought us Motormouth & Killpower and Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer) for so many years isolated the Daleks from the pages of DW comics for decades. But now the rights are untangled! And they can scream across the page like Davros intended!

We also get a really fun variety of Daleks, both in design and temperament. Obviously the big return is the dome-headed Emperor Dalek, but we also see the Tenth Doctor mixing it up, even TEAMING UP, with the scarred and ancient Strategist Dalek, who oddly ends up being a super endearing and interesting companion under the pen of Houser. 

Are you into this stuff, Tony? Were you excited to hear that the *DA-LEEKKS* were returning?

TT: I’m a little bit more of a Cybermen fan, but I ADORE the Daleks, and I doubly love how they are depicted here. But let’s back up a bit and talk plot.

So the Doctor wakes up with a bit of a headache and smoke filling the control room. He’s disoriented, angry and knows he should be somewhere else with someone but he can’t remember who. So he decides to step outside to try to clear his head, and what does he find?

DALEKS!

I have to say I absolutely love Richard Starkings’ lettering here. Houser captures the screeching cadence of the universe’s favorite “EXTERMINATE!”-ors, but Starkings creates fonts and balloons that FEEL like that grating electronic voice Who fans know and love.

After a goofy little chase scene, the Doctor realizes the Daleks need his help. Naturally he lords that over the Dalek Emperor, but being the Doctor he agrees.

So I think I knew about the Dalek Emperor, but I’m not really sure. So can you tell me about him?

JP: Oh, man Starkings’ lettering here is so fun. I love that he uses the “Dalek font” and gives them a real booming modulation through the balloons, it’s so fun to see. I also love that he and Houser elongate the “Os” in “DOCTOOOOR!” That’s such a Dalek thing, it’s so fun to see it recreated on the page. 

But YEAH. I could talk about the Daleks forever. So, this is the Emperor Dalek or Golden Emperor Dalek. This is another Dalek variant that’s been benched for a while. It made its first appearance in Invasion of the Daleks by David Whitaker and Terry Nation (the creators of the Daleks), which interestingly enough was one of the first longer-form Doctor Who comics. But this is the first time it’s been seen in stories for…quite a while, I’m pretty sure. Like 1960s quite a while. We got a version of the Emperor on TV here recently-ish in Christopher Eccleston’s last TV episodes, but this Golden Emperor variant has been largely out of fashion for a bit now.  

As the name suggests, the Emperor Dalek is basically a warrior-king for the Daleks. One of the few Daleks that can “rule” over other Daleks but one that has no problem rolling alongside his subjects and *EX-TER-MIN-ATINGGGG!* It’s a slightly goofy design, but I love it. 

TT: I absolutely expected to see his little bubble head pop more than once.

Then after the Emperor, the Doctor gets to team up with who you referred to – the Dalek Strategist – as they dive into a tomb of artifacts that even the Daleks think are too dangerous. Which… man. I wish we had gotten a full issue of just the two of them dodging booby traps.

Did you get a little bit of an Asylum of the Daleks vibe from this back half of the issue?

JP: Oh BIG time. And the idea of the Doctor having to team up with Daleks isn’t really a new one, but I feel like this issue finds an unexpected commonality between the Tenth Doctor and the Strategist Dalek. They are both long surviving members of a thought dead race and carry scars from that. Strategists’ are a little more literal than The Doctor’s, as it refuses to upgrade it’s casing (one of a few VERY interesting bits of character work Houser throws in for the Daleks), but I am oddly happy at the team-up.

Which this whole issue kinda is, right? You mentioned the slightly silly chase scene (which I loved as Comedy Daleks are always a good time), but once the “mission” is laid out, the issue transitions into basically a dungeon crawl with the Doctor and a Dalek, one brought to an expressive life by artists Roberta Ingranata, Enrica Erin Angiolini and Shari Chankhamma, even just over a few pages. What did you think of this sequence?

TT: Ingranata does really great work. Throughout the issue, she captures Tennant’s body language so well. Tennant has this rubber face that he used to contort without going full Jim Carrey. She captures that with just small tweaks in expression throughout the story.

I have to say that I’m not a fan of Angiolini’s colors though. I think she adds some lighting effects that oversaturate the page. I had to read the issue twice to realize the TARDIS console was on fire in the opening scene because of it. It pops up a few other times in the issue.

However, in this sequence, we see the art team at their best, leading up to the duo finding themselves face to face with the big bad of this miniseries, the Hond! A mud monster!

JP: WHO DOESN’T LOVE A MUD MONSTER!? But I think that’s a fair criticism. You have to thread this odd needle with Doctor Who in that, yes, you CAN do anything and go anywhere, but you have to give us a bit of grounding visually. Usually the TARDIS control rooms are our “true north” when it comes to location sets in Doctor Who, so I totally get how frustrating it could be to not really get that from the more “trippy” or cosmically inclined colors of Angiolini.

BUT YES! New monsters! The Hond, which are framed as an ancient enemy of the Daleks who are just as good at killing as they are. They kinda seem just like goopy bog monsters right now, but I’m excited to see more of them going forward in the series. I think they are more major players in the two prose novels coming up, but I’m not sure exactly. Their introduction in the issue’s cliffhanger is kinda quick and very Scooby-Doo, but I am excited to hopefully see them more down the line.

Multiplatform Crossovers and You

JP: But honestly, I feel like the REAL great strength of Time Lord Victorious #1 is how well it stands on its own. Obviously there are dozens of other elements of the crossover one can indulge in, but I still feel like the overall “importance” of following it all was stressed a bit TOO much, much to the chagrin and annoyance of those trying just to get bits and pieces and not a whole huge thing.

I think (or at least hope) that most of these you can take on a more case-by-case basis. This opening issue really strengthens that theory, too. I think that this is not only a great example of just a singular Doctor Who tale, but how to allow your stuff to stand out amid a big ol’ crossover. I know it’s kinda early days (and I haven’t listened to the available audios, but I don’t even think a lot of them have started to hit shelves yet), but I was pleasantly surprised at how well I was able to hang with this first real contact with TLV. What about you, Tony?

TT: Without the Time Lord Victorious branding, this would have been a very fun start to a Tenth Doctor mini or ongoing. With the branding, I’m curious to know more and see what happens from here.

Is it going to be like your typical comic book event, or a truly exciting new experience? Time will tell!

JP: NO, TOTALLY! And I’m guessing we will have to wait a BIT just to see how this fits into the overall narrative of the event and how it mechanically fits in the whole thing, but totally. VERY happy that not only Doctor Who comics are back but they are genuinely fun and affecting in all the ways that Doctor Who can be.

Short Trips

• LOVING the fact that they are bringing back older Dalek designs and trying to weave them back into the fabric of the series. Big Finish does this a lot, too, but it being just an auditory medium cuts the fun of it off a bit. I’m living for seeing the classic Silver and Blue “soldier” Daleks back along with the Strategist and Emperor. Now if we can JUST get the Victory of the Daleks New Paradigm Power Ranger ones back. 
• Also really neat is the way the art team incorporates Circular Gallifreyian into the main set pieces. Again, not really a new artistic device, but the way the scenes are almost backlit amid the Gallifreyian is SO cool, and very striking to look at. I would also be curious to see if this was something Houser put in the script or if this was just an idea of the art team. Would VERY much like to know the translation as well.
• We are only planning on covering the Titan comic series so far, but if these do OK and people seem into it, we might cover some other TLV stuff. I know there is a Ninth Doctor comic strip coming up in the Doctor Who Magazine called “Monstrous Beauty” that looks pretty fun, and we still have the audios and novels hitting harder in October, but we will see! Obviously we can’t travel to Britain and do the escape room junk, but I would like to keep with this (Should y’all and Upstairs be into it).
• Tieless Tenth Doctor > Tie Tenth Doctor. DO NOT @ US!