Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time is a fun series that has explored the history of one of geekdom’s most iconic heroes. Each issue of the series has featured an adventure by a different incarnation of the Doctor. A mysterious figure has been traveling through time and kidnapping the Doctor’s companions. This has been more of an excuse to skip through the history of the show than a legitimate plot, until now. (I suggest reading the “until now” in your best movie trailer voice. It will make me seem like a more impressive writer if you do.) This issue pulls off the difficult move of transitioning between mostly standalone issues and big, sweeping arc.
The fifth Doctor and his companions find themselves caught in the middle of the Rutan-Sontaran War. Stopping on a desolate moon to fuel the TARDIS, our heroes are taken to each camp in turn in a sort of war holiday. The danger from the war never seems too pressing, which is not a problem since there is another threat lurking in the wings.
This is a great example of the story that starts to emphasize the big bad without quite abandoning the self-contained episode model. I get the feeling that we are coming up on the point where new readers will not be able to jump in, but we aren’t there yet. This issue does a fine job of giving you an idea of the overall plot in broad strokes. It helps that we still don’t know who the mysterious antagonist is.
This issue wasn’t a revelation like some of the others in this series have been, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The writing is sharp and the art evokes the history of the show without abandoning the modern influence. This is a Doctor Who comic by people that love Doctor Who. I don’t think I could ask for anything more.
Four Giant Space Jellyfish from Space out of Five
