Rebecca Crockett is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.
Living on the US East coast does sometimes have it’s advantages and this past weekend was a major one – I was able to attend New York Comic Con for the first time.
As a part of the events at NYCC this past weekend, Titan Comics hosted a panel featuring some of the writers, artists, and creators responsible for the new Titan Comics Doctor Who titles. On hand were writers Al Ewing, Nick Abadzis, and Robbie Morrison and artists Alice X Zhang, Simon Fraser and Elena Casagrande. I had the pleasure of attending the panel and getting to hear first hand about what the writers and artists think about past Doctors, aliens, and companions. The main talk of the panel, however, was over three major announcements – sneak peeks into the future stories for both the Tenth and Eleven Doctors, a look at the very soon to be released Twelfth Doctor story line, and seems like the biggest announcement of them all, confirmation that Titan will be publishing past Doctor books, starting with the Ninth Doctor, in time for the rebooted show’s 10th anniversary!
First up was the trailer for the new Twelfth Doctor series, the first of which will be released this Wednesday, 15th October. The new story will feature an alien world, terraforming, robots, fencing, and strange new alien life, such that the Doctor and Clara have never seen before.
Check out the official trailer released by the BBC:
(Interesting note – when asked later about writing for the Twelfth Doctor, since we as an audience don’t know much about him, Robbie and others noted that the BBC has been good to them in terms of giving them advance scripts and other considerations so that their job isn’t an impossible one. While those writing and creating the comics don’t necessarily work with the entire team from the tv show, their work is a part of what the script editors and producers look at as a whole so that the stories don’t conflict. Good to know that someone out there is thinking of continuity!)
Next up was talk about future stories for the Eleventh and Tenth Doctor. Al Ewing noted that he and Rob Williams thought that Eleven’s new companion, Alice, is much older than he looks – if this were for the show, she’d be played by someone older than Matt Smith – so she won’t have the same attitude someone younger, like Clara or Amy had. She’ll have other issues and concerns that someone younger might not have, and that will lead to conflict between them. (We saw an image of Alice knocking the Doc over the head with something like a flower pot here!) Issue #6 will feature a story told backwards - time inside the TARDIS is moving backwards and the Doctor will need to figure out how to stop it!
For Ten, issue #4 will see a look inside the mind and thoughts of Gabby, his companion, during her first ride in the TARDIS. We’ll get to know what it’s really like for someone to travel with the Doctor, including some of her own sketches.
Issue #6 will feature a story drawn by artist Daniel Indro, and will be one set during World War 1, specifically the Battle of Mons, and will feature the Weeping Angels.
As seen below, Indro’s work is quite detailed, considering these are only work in progress images.
Now for that major announcement – starting with every 5th issue, Titan will be publishing stories featuring past Doctors. First up? The Ninth Doctor! Written by Cavan Scott, the writer of Who-ology, the story will include Rose Tyler and Captain Jack Harkness and will have a cover by artist Alice X Zhang to match those of the Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Doctor’s comics.
Above is the cover for issue #2. Issue #1 will be available for pre-order in January of 2015 .
The plan is to continue with adding new lines for each past Doctor if these first books do well. Titan now holds the license to publish comics for all of the Doctors, so these are being thought of as “backdoor pilots” into possible continuing stories. These will likely include new companions for each Doc as it was stated that Titan want’s to keep the stories fresh and new, and not rehash was has already been done – and to that extent, when asked if writing a story for the Tenth Doctor and the other Tenth Doctor was ever discussed, or if there were plans to bring Amy or River Song into the comics, the panel agreed that those stories and characters were done well by the show. They want to have new stories, not those that fill in some of those “blanks” or could be squeezed into already concluded stories from the show. (This girl still hopes for some River and Twelfth Doctor somewhere though…and I think the comics would be a great place for such a story!)
There was no real discussion on any set plans for which Doctor would be next after the Ninth Doctor’s miniseries is done, but the panel was open to having it be any of the past Doctors, from the First Doctor all the way through to the War Doctor, saying that there was still quite a bit of story there for the War Doctor between the time of Day of the Doctor and when he meets Rose Tyler the first time.
I am quite excited by all of this news! I’m still fairly new reading comics and am really looking forward to these stories. I find myself looking more and more toward not only literature but comic books as a way to still keep myself in the world of the Doctor when I’ve already seen the latest television episode. I’m also heartened to know that so far, Titan, at least, has plans to celebrate the rebooted show’s 10th anniversary. The show has become such an important part of my own life and has been thrust back into such a large place in pop culture that it needs to be celebrated!
The post What We Learned From The NYCC Doctor Who Comics Panel appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.