Can it really be 60 years since the Doctor first appeared on TV sets across the UK?

It is indeed; the 60th Anniversary of Doctor Who is fast approaching, so it occurred to me that it’d be a great idea to travel back in time to 2013 – and take a look at the incredibly ambitious project that the then-license holders of the comic book series, IDW, published for the Doctor’s 50th Anniversary.

IDW’s year long celebration for the Doctor’s half century anniversary was an ingenious idea, perfect for the medium given that it mattered not which actors were still with us or still even resembled the characters they played decades prior: a 12 issue storyline, featuring all of the numbered Doctors that had appeared until that point.

That meant publishing an issue a month, each of which focused on a different Doctor – from the First to the Eleventh, in order – with a final issue tying up the overarching storyline.

The first issue was, therefore, a First Doctor (played in the TV series by William Hartnell) story, with a framing story featuring a shadowy villain whose plan was to entirely isolate the Doctor by removing his companions – with every version of the Doctor falling prey to this nefarious scheme.

The second issue featured Patrick Troughton’s Doctor thwarting a slavery operation on a planet renowned for its commerce.

Naturally, by the issue’s end, his companions were mysteriously and suddenly whisked away.

In issue three, we were on an Earthbound adventure with Third Doctor Jon Pertwee, who had one of the most unique runs of any Doctor (Pertwee’s Third Doctor spent most of his time exiled to Earth, without a TARDIS).

Issue 4, then, whisks us away on a trip with Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor.

Still the longest running Doctor in terms of his episode’s air dates, the Fourth Doctor also tends to be the go to when you think of classic Doctor Who; when an occasion calls for a visual gag or a cameo by the Doctor in a throwaway reference, for example, Tom Baker’s appearance and attire tend to be the template that’s used.

So it’s no surprise that Baker’s larger than life take on the character, complete with bag of jelly babies, is so strongly written in this issue of Prisoners of Time.

Classic companions Leela and the beloved K-9 also make their presence felt throughout this story, which centres around a heavy-handed use of intergalactic police force, the Judoon.

It’s a great, very Whovian story – as they all have been – which does great work in distinguishing its particular incarnation of the Doctor from the others featured so far.

It’s great to see a classic Doctor (and companions) dealing with a more modern creation in the form of the Judoon, too.

My criticism remains broadly the same here as it has been for the prior issues – the crossover aspect feels somewhat tacked on, though in this fourth chapter, there’s at least a bit more interaction with the mostly unseen and unspecified villain.

Though I’ve felt that the crossover aspect was a bit too ambitious as a concept, it does feel slightly more developed here and hopefully, that continues over the rest of the series.

In the first few issues, it did feel as if the crossover could have been omitted entirely and we wouldn’t be missing anything from the series at all, but it does feel a little more integrated now.

It’s still a fantastic idea from IDW, a decade on; each Doctor really does have their own feel, flavour and personality – and the project has definitely succeeded in getting that across thus far.

You can buy the full collected edition of Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time from Amazon here.

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