Doctor Who: from TV to Comics

The good Doctor has been a comic strip star for almost as long as he's been a TV star (longer, in fact, if you consider that his strip adventures continued throughout the sixteen years the show was off air). but the comic strip Doctor has frequently borne little resemblance to his TV counterpart. The original TV Comic version was almost totally unrecognisable as the character played by William Hartnell and later Patrick Troughton. Later versions have come closer. But I tend to think the strip-unlike any other Who spinoff-tends to work best when it is going its own way. The TV Action strips were nothing like the asdventures Jon Pertwee was having on screen at the time, but they are nonetheless definite high points of the doctor's career in comics, while Panini's eighth Doctor adventures eventually unfold into a complex, interconnected web of stories which are a minor masterpiece in my opinion. Anyone else a fan?

I always loved the transition of DW to comics.

Actually Steve Moore gave Altered Vistas permission to make his Asblom Daak series (dalek spin off) into an animation which you can get free from here (along with a few other animations)
http://www.alteredvistas.co.uk/

For me only the 8th doctor and 3rd doctor comic strips were interesting. I found the rest to be very dull. The pertwee era was a golden age I'd say.

Hourglass wrote:I always loved the transition of DW to comics.

Actually Steve Moore gave Altered Vistas permission to make his Asblom Daak series (dalek spin off) into an animation which you can get free from here (along with a few other animations)
http://www.alteredvistas.co.uk/

For me only the 8th doctor and 3rd doctor comic strips were interesting. I found the rest to be very dull. The pertwee era was a golden age I'd say.

I don't think I'd say most of them were 'dull'. The Hartnell and Troughton strips were definitely aimed at a very young audience and were very simplistic as a result, but the majority of the Marvel strips (fourth Doctor onwards) were generally quite interesting and innovative in their own way. There was definitely a duff period in the mid eighties with the first few seventh Doctor strips, but then that pretty much reflected what was on screen. The third and eighth Doctor strips were the standout ones for me, though-and some of the fourth and sixth. I loved Mills, Wagner and Gibbons' stuff, and Voyager. Oh, and of course the fifth Doctor's strip debut, The Tides of Time. Arguably, the finest Who strip ever. Can't believe I forgot that one...

The Dr Who Annuals were more `Cerebral` especially the first Hartnell and Pertwee ones! I believe David Whittaker might have wrote much of the first book!

I.ve been watching some DOCTOR WHO stories on MSN freeview, including 60s Hartnell job 'WEB PLANET', and final 1974 Pertwee serial 'Planet of the Spiders '[or similar title].

Thet are the full serials, in sort of youtube format.

MR X wrote:I.ve been watching some DOCTOR WHO stories on MSN freeview, including 60s Hartnell job 'WEB PLANET', and final 1974 Pertwee serial 'Planet of the Spiders '[or similar title].

Thet are the full serials, in sort of youtube format.

The Web Planet is a weird one-a brave experiment at having an entire story with no human cast members except the regulars, let down by the inability of the costumes and effects to make the aliens even remotely believable. Nonetheless, the Menoptera and their Zarbi overlords were evidently deemed popular enough to warrant inclusion in the first Doctor Who Annual, a rare privilege for creatures from the TV show...

alanultron5 wrote:The Dr Who Annuals were more `Cerebral` especially the first Hartnell and Pertwee ones! I believe David Whittaker might have wrote much of the first book!

That wouldn't surprise me-he also wrote the first ever Doctor who novelisation, of course, still one of the best Doctor who books ever even if it does rewrite sizable chunks of the televised history.

Check out Season Seven! The first Jon Pertwee year. No Daleks, Cybermen or the Master, yet a very straighliaced run of stories especially "Ambassadors of Death" The final story "Inferno" was originally to be the very final Dr Who outing as the BBC had only agreed to the one colour season!

A very late reprieve by the Beeb saw writer Don Houghton adjust his story to bring in the `alternate Earth` scenario as it was the regular Earth that was to be fried in the original story! Dr Who came within an inch in May 1970 of cancellation!

alanultron5 wrote:Check out Season Seven! The first Jon Pertwee year. No Daleks, Cybermen or the Master, yet a very straighliaced run of stories especially "Ambassadors of Death" The final story "Inferno" was originally to be the very final Dr Who outing as the BBC had only agreed to the one colour season!

A very late reprieve by the Beeb saw writer Don Houghton adjust his story to bring in the `alternate Earth` scenario as it was the regular Earth that was to be fried in the original story! Dr Who came within an inch in May 1970 of cancellation!

Now I've never heard that before! If true, it makes a lot of sense, but it's a snippet of info I've never come across, anywhere!

Tony! One of the DR Who monthly's unearthed it in a edition that featured Don Hoghtons contributions to the series!

Most people think it was with Pat Troughtons departure when the series was in most danger of cancellation, but the BBC were very keen to do one season in colour"! Jon Pertwee was only signed for one year-initially; hence him taking part in Hammer films "The House That Dripped Blood" as he only expected to be Dr Who for a year!

Don Houghton did mention more than once to fans how he had to do those last-minute re-writes to "Inferno" initially it was a six parter!

alanultron5 wrote:Tony! One of the DR Who monthly's unearthed it in a edition that featured Don Hoghtons contributions to the series!

Most people think it was with Pat Troughtons departure when the series was in most danger of cancellation, but the BBC were very keen to do one season in colour"! Jon Pertwee was only signed for one year-initially; hence him taking part in Hammer films "The House That Dripped Blood" as he only expected to be Dr Who for a year!

Don Houghton did mention more than once to fans how he had to do those last-minute re-writes to "Inferno" initially it was a six parter!

You learn something new every day! Thanks, Alan-one can never have too much Doctor Who trivia.

Did not know this myself. Where ratings dropping or something? Why did they want to axe it.

Hourglass wrote:Did not know this myself. Where ratings dropping or something? Why did they want to axe it.

I knew they were uncertain about whether it would come back after Troughton left. I'd guess they weren't sure how it would look in colour or whether viewers would like it once its shortcomings were displayed that way.

Ratings for Season 7 were initially good-but fell away sharply. What saved the series was virtually unaninous positive critical responce! even the Broadsheets praised it! Not since the series `re-birth` when Chris Ecclestone made his debut has the series ever recieved such high praise! Season seven saved the franchise!

guess sometimes quality does count for more than ratings. Or it did in 1970, at least...

I agree though at least the TRUE quality was recognized. Can you imagine the papers of 1970 reviewing love and Monsters, heck they'd get the BBC licensed axed just for that (and I don't blame them).

Hourglass wrote:I agree though at least the TRUE quality was recognized. Can you imagine the papers of 1970 reviewing love and Monsters, heck they'd get the BBC licensed axed just for that (and I don't blame them).

I'm amazed that so many reviewers seemed to see that episode as an example of something brave and brilliant and groundbreaking. I can't help thinking Davies had writers block and cured it with ten pints of Stella, then emailed it in while he was still drunk-it's the only possible explanation for the script.

One thing I always felt DWC did better than DW TV were the cuberman stories. The flood especially was a very interesting take on them and I loved the design.

Hourglass wrote:One thing I always felt DWC did better than DW TV were the cyberman stories. The flood especially was a very interesting take on them and I loved the design.

The Cybermen, and indeed the other monsters, have frequently been given more depth in the comics, I agree. But then, the Cybermen haven't really had a decent TV story since the sixties. There've been a few clunkers in the comics too, though. The Cybermen in the early Doctor Who weekly back up strips were frequently rather more...highly strung, shall we say...than their emotionless TV counterparts.

tony ingram wrote:

Hourglass wrote:One thing I always felt DWC did better than DW TV were the cyberman stories. The flood especially was a very interesting take on them and I loved the design.

The Cybermen, and indeed the other monsters, have frequently been given more depth in the comics, I agree. But then, the Cybermen haven't really had a decent TV story since the sixties. There've been a few clunkers in the comics too, though. The Cybermen in the early Doctor Who weekly back up strips were frequently rather more...highly strung, shall we say...than their emotionless TV counterparts.

I know what you mean, especially if you look at Black Legacy (although I loved the idea of the Deathsmiths and the doomsday weapon).

Black Legacy was the story I was thinking of. Though the background Cybermen in Soul of a Cyberman aren't really any more emotionless than the supposedly 'flawed' Deputy Cyberleader Kroton, either!

Ive not read Soul, could you give me the story synopsis please?

this page has some good info on cybermen in comics http://www.alteredvistas.co.uk/html/cybermen.html

Hourglass wrote:Ive not read Soul, could you give me the story synopsis please?

The Cybermen are enslaving a peaceful planet, but Deputy Cyberleader Kroton finds himself troubled by strange thoughts and sympathising with the humans, a result of his conversion having partially failed to take. In the end, he throws in his lot with the rebels and helps them to escape, seemingly at the cost of his own life as he's left floating in space adrift in a dead ship until his batteries run down. Kroton later returned in Ship of Fools, in which he was found and revived by the passengers on a space liner that'd been stuck in a time warp for centuries (upon returning to normal space, the passengers instantly age to death, leaving Kroton alone again). And of course, he eventually turned up as a companion to the eighth Doctor.

In the 1968 telly story "The Invasion" a Cyberman was driven insane! That was quite something!

alanultron5 wrote:In the 1968 telly story "The Invasion" a Cyberman was driven insane! That was quite something!

Ah, yes-the crazed one stumbling through the sewers screaming, that's a really powerful scene! Great story, too.

I quite liked the design of the Cybermen in that story Tony! The `Cyber planner` was a really weird thing wasn't it! (The voice of it was very strange)

Of course this was the story with those great shots of the Cybermen coming down the steps outside St Pauls Cathedral-one of Dr who's most iconic images of all time!

They worked so much better in the sixties stories, I think. That inhuman buzzing voice! Not to mention the sleek design, robotic but with a chilling hint at their lost humanity underneath. The eighties versions always looked as though they'd been eating too many Cyber cakes to combat their evident depression at being a bit rubbish in the world conquering stakes.

Tony I read on Tardis wiki that Rassilon formed part of a group inside the matrix in some of the DWM comics. Do you know much about this?

Other accounts show that Rassilon lived on inside his creation, the Matrix (BFA: Neverland, Zagreus), with other beings. Together they called themselves the High Evolutionaries and would have some involvement in the affairs of the universe. (DWM: The Tides of Time, The Final Chapter) Rassilon and the other Evolutionaries once hired the Threshold to stop a Dalek plan to invade other realities. (DWM: Fire and Brimstone)

Yes-we first met one of the 'High Evolutionaries' in the last DWM fourth Doctor strip, The Neutron Knights. That was Merlyn, but we didn't learn he was connected to Rassillon until the end of inaugural fifth Doctor strip The Tides of Time some months later. They eventually returned years later during the eighth Doctor run of strips but their former agent, Shayde, has been a recurring character since the eighties.

Fave comic strips, the 6th Doctor Strips by Steve Parkhouse especially Voyager.

4th Doctor
The Iron Legion
Junk Yard Demon
The Freefall Warriors

5th
The Tides of Time
Stars fell on Stockbridge

8th
Children of the Revolution

And many more

Have you been reading the new American ones?

tony ingram wrote:Have you been reading the new American ones?

yes, when i can finf them, i have them all except the latest classics

THEDRUNKENMASTERTWO wrote:

tony ingram wrote:Have you been reading the new American ones?

yes, when i can finf them, i have them all except the latest classics

They seem to be doing quite well. About time, too!

Lucy after your classic series run, do you intend to check out any of the spin off ranges?