Reviewed by Martin Hudecek

WRITER - PAUL CORNELL,
ARTIST - NEIL EDWARDS
COLORIST - IVAN NUNES,
LETTERER - RICHARD STARKINGS AND JIMMY BETANCOURT,
DESIGNER - ROB FARMER
EDITOR - ANDREW JAMES,
ASSISTANT EDITOR - KIRSTEN MURRAY
RELEASED SEPTEMBER 23RD 2015, TITAN COMICS

"Ah, Paris. have we just got here? There’s this cafe I know..."

The Eleventh Doctor to Alice - at some point in time during the many, many events.

A really perilous situation for the three most recent Doctors has unfolded with the Twelfth facing the inevitable fate of becoming leader of the Voord. Despite the efforts of Gabby and Alice to try and change history it appears that both were cut down in their tracks.

Or were they?

This final issue covers a lot of ground as it portrays a conscious decision by the team of Doctors and companions to play out a series of actions that are both similar and dissimilar enough to avert the gloomy end product of an evil aged Twelfth Doctor.

But even the victory may come at a price of sorts. The end may be justified, but even a Dark Doctor has his moments of decency and kindness, and cannot just be swatted away without a second thought.

. This is a very well crafted mini-series which has been taking us through a number of twists and turns and always feeling like the exuberance is just measured right against a steady framework of plot and characterisation.

Not knowing until issue three just who was behind the fell scheme that totally fooled Clara, and indeed all her friends - who went along with her understandable actions - was just the right point for the revelation about a twisted version of our contemporary onscreen hero.

The writing has been matched by very enjoyable artwork, panel after panel and page after page. And like any multi Doctor event there is plenty of continuity, but especially notable is that it is done well and its subtle references fit in organically, when they could so easily take even keen fans out of the story. Those fine little touches are what makes Paul Cornell for me one of Who's very best writers in any given medium.

There remains the nagging feel though that this excellent effort could have been outstanding, and by that I mean that the sidelining of the Time War apart from being the foundation for much of the plot, and the conceit that the Voords are cut off from the rest of reality and forgotten by even the Doctors, perhaps got hopes up for even more epic events and consequences.

Also the War Doctor is by far my favourite one off screen performance - naturally it would be as Sir John Hurtcan play anyone to the best standard - but to tease his involvement and no more was just a bit frustrating.

But we get a coherent arc whose reach does not exceed its grasp and so that is something to be treasured. (Perhaps the War Doctor in novel, comic and audio form can be explored many times to come in any case).

Because the 'Dark Doctor' is the Peter Capaldi interpretation, and because he is our present variant of the potentially immortal TARDIS pilot, it is only fitting he puts his foot down and orchestrates the eventual victory. We also get to feel real pathos for the Voord leader, who felt so much for their isolation and managed to bond with them as an outsider better than they would have ever thought in their wildest imagination. Just because they were vicious monsters in the Keys adventure does not mean they are quite so brutal now, even if they dispatched Alice in a very dismissive manner in Issue Four.

Also the mystery over how Clara betrays the Doctor is well done, and Cornell is to be commended for not explicitly saying what she does. Maybe this will tie in with Series 9 and the manner of Clara's writing out of the show proper, or maybe not. Alternate timelines mean myriad storytelling avenues.

So as stated prior, the celebration of Doctor Who's past is top notch, and the use of this vibrant colourful format is also optimum, but of course totally expected given Titan's pedigree. Watch out for another past Doctor and companion in a panel near the end, also.

Bonus Humour Strip - "The Doctor Shops for Angels"

Not just neatly reflective of the main story, but actually very relevant to the main plot resolution, I must commend Cornell on putting in the effort to work with different bonus artists over the course of this mini series. This last hurrah, which is a collaboration with Marc Ellerby, sees Doctor Eleven and Alice return to Paris to ensure some 'help' from another old enemy of the Doctor's will indeed come to pass. This will enable both his present and his future and past selves on Marinus to achieve a happy result. The return of the shopkeeper from the first bonus strip is a nice link, just to emphasise the Doctor's meticulous nature of passing on a message properly.

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