Doctor Who Classics, Vol. 4

Doctor Who Classics #4

by Steve Parkhouse, Dave Gibbons (Illustrator), Mike McMahon (Illustrator)

IDW Publishing proudly presents the fourth collection featuring adventures of the Fourth and Fifth Doctors by superstar Dave Gibbons (Watchmen). Originally published in the U.K., these stories are making their first appearance in the States, and in color Follow the Doctor and his TARDIS as they travel through time and space, solving problems, righting wrongs, and meeting strange new creatures and people along the way.

Genres: Doctor Who, Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction

152 pages, Paperback

First published October 29, 2009

About the author

Steve Parkhouse is a writer, artist and letterer who has worked for many British comics, especially 2000 AD and Doctor Who Magazine.
(source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories in this volume get a bit more epic. There's a kind of multi-story arc; the fate of all creation is frequently at stake; and the Time Lords feature frequently, along with a new character, their mysterious agent Shayde. This volume also includes the stories that added the small English country village of Stockbridge to the Doctor Who mythos. I previously only knew Stockbridge from the Big Finish audios in which it featured, so it's nice to see where it began.

I think the character of Shayde is rather interesting - it's quite intriguing to have a recurring figure who's not an enemy, nor straightforwardly an ally, but someone who has his own agenda. I hope we get to see more of him in future comics. I'm less keen on the regular appearances of the Time Lords, especially Rassilon. They function more as a plot device than anything else, and it doesn't do much to enhance their air of majesty or mystery.

All these stories feature the Doctor traveling without a regular companion. Though this allows for some interesting surrogate companions, it has the unfortunate side-effect of making this a very male-centric slice of the Doctor Who universe. There's a really notable dearth of female characters. This probably passed without comment in the early 1980s when the comics were originally produced, but it jars now.

Despite this, it's an enjoyable volume, and I'm looking forward to the next one. Which I hope will feature more Shayde, more Stockbridge, and, for God's sake, more girls!

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Junkyard Demon is a somewhat silly story that makes fun use of cybermen [7/10]. The Neutron Knights is an old, tired Arthurian science-fantasy that's not either very Doctor Who or very original [4/10]. I have mixed feelings about the Tides of Time. It's a nicely epic story, and the ending is great, but the appearance of Rassilon is clearly non-canon and the idea of an event synthesizer is sort of ridiculous [6/10]. Stars fell on Stockbridge is a nicely quiet story about the Doctor's interactions with humanity [6/10]. The last story, "The Stockbridge Horror", has some neat and evocative imaginary, but the Gallifreyan elements again feel wrong and at the end everything doesn't make a lot of sense together [6/10]. As before, beautiful new color.

[Amanda [Novel Addiction] · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was alright. I preferred the previous volume to this one. There were several story lines I just wanted to get over with, and it just so happens that those were the ones with 4+ parts to them. I do hope to continue reading the rest of the volumes out.

[Charlie Kirchoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I colored this so I may be a bit biased. :)