Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time #7
Written by Scott & David Tipton
Art by Kev Hopgood and Charlie Kirchoff
Covers by Francesco Francavilla, Charlie Kirchoff, Dave Sim
IDW Publishing
Release Date: July 31, 2013
Cover Price: $3.99

Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time now turns to concentrate on the final Doctor from the Classic era, originally played by Sylvester McCoy, representing the Gallifreyan’s seventh incarnation. With a breath of fresh air, Scott and David Tipton step back from the continuing overarching plot, allowing this single adventure in which the Doctor faces off against the Master to have more space.

Across the vast expanse of space and time, an unnamed foe is reaching out into multiple points of the Doctor’s timeline and abducting his companions. Meanwhile, the Seventh Doctor, along with awesome companion Ace, arrives in Scotland in 1830, discovering a strange plot involving an aristocratic family and their manor.

Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time #6
Written by Scott & David Tipton
Art by John Ridgway and Charlie Kirchoff
Covers by Francesco Francavilla, Charlie Kirchoff, Dave Sim
IDW Publishing
Release Date: June 26, 2013
Cover Price: $3.99

If the first five issues were love letters to classic Doctor Who, then the sixth issue of Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time is a marriage proposal!

The Sixth Doctor era of Doctor Who, with Colin Baker taking up the mantle of the Time Lord, is an interesting era. It suffered from high criticism from the BBC, the beginning of a period that would inevitably lead to the cancellation of the series; and also made Baker don the costume that fashion forgot. Besides this, it’s the comic book era of Colin Baker’s personification that is of great interest – and an aspect of which that gets a great tribute in this new issue of Prisoners Of Time.

Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time #5
Written by Scott & David Tipton
Art by Philip Bond and Charlie Kirchoff
Covers by Francesco Francavilla, Robert Hack, Charlie Kirchoff, Adrian Salmon, Dave Sim
IDW Publishing
Publication Date: May 29, 2013
Cover Price: $3.99

With the fifth issue of Prisoners of Time, commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, comes the Peter Davison Fifth Doctor Era, in which we find our as-of-yet unnamed nemesis continuing to kidnap the Time Lord’s companions from multiple epochs of this Gallifreyan’s incarnations. The story continues to ramp up in this issue, as more pieces of the bamboozle fall into place.

The Fifth Doctor, not long after his regeneration and before the heartrending confrontation with the Cybermen, arrives on an unknown desolate and dark planet to use a small crack in time (such as the one in Cardiff, Wales where the Torchwood base would be formed) to recharge the TARDIS. Along with companions Tegan, Adric, and Nyssa, they begin scouting the area only to find them under fire.

The Doctor has inadvertently landed them in the middle of a skirmish amid the Sontarans and the Rutans – one of many battles during their centuries-long war. From Rutan capture to the base of the Sontarans, the Doctor finds himself in a quandary – he knows he cannot bring this war to an end, but is there a way he can reduce the unnecessary loss of life? And while he finds himself torn between two warring factions, the unnamed kidnapper watches him from afar for the right moment to strike.

Doctor Who: Prisoners Of Time #4
Script by Scott & David Tipton
Art by Gary Erskine with thanks to Mike Collins
Colors by Charlie Kirchoff
Covers by Francesco Francavilla and Gary Erskine
IDW Publishing
Release Date: April 17, 2013
Cover Price: $3.99

IDW’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who resumes with the Tom Baker issue of Prisoners of Time. While this fourth chapter continues some of the elemental highlights of the previous issue, there are some less-than-stellar characteristics that detract from the plot, though not enough to stop it from being an enjoyable read.

The overarching plot of Prisoners of Time looks at an as-of-yet undisclosed villain and enemy of the Doctor, who is invading moments from all 11 of his incarnations and kidnapping his companions. The motives and reasoning are not yet clear as to why he is doing this, though each Doctor will have their own issue, crowning in the 12th issue where presumably all Doctors will join forces.

Classic Doctor Who villains, THE ICE WARRIORS, make a triumphant return in Cold War this week, as the 7th Series of modern Doctor Who continues. In the story written by Mark Gatiss and directed by Douglas Mackinnon, the Doctor (Matt Smith) and companion Clara Oswald (Jenna-Louise Coleman) take a wrong turn in the TARDIS on the way to Las Vegas, and end up materializing on a sinking Soviet Submarine at the height of Cold War tensions in 1983.

While the materialization would ordinarily be an immediate threat to the Russian sailors, our heroes arrive in the middle of a crisis, with equipment damaged on the boat causing it to sink. Professor Grisenko (David Warner), attached to the command of Captain Zhukov (Liam Cunningham) for scientific drilling in the Arctic, has discovered a surviving Ice Warrior, who begins waging bloody war with the occupants of the submarine.

During TARDISblend 61, we celebrate a brilliant return of the fantastic Ice Warriors, their first appearance in 39 years. We also commend the performances by the spectacular guest stars on this episode, and look into the possibilities for the return of these characters, and perhaps more Ice Warriors adventures in the future…

As usual, we make some Classic Who recommendations too… All this and more on the latest TARDISblend!