I got the graphic novel version of this one, and it includes all four main issues and the bonus Free Comic Book Day story.

The Free Comic Book Day issue acts as a prologue of sorts, but doesn’t really add much as it originally was intended to be a separate standalone story. So I’m going to talk about it as such.

I hope you enjoy today's special: two reviews for the price of one!

FCBD 2022

The Fugitive Doctor lands on Earth in the year 1962 and saves a bunch of children from a group of alien invaders... or rather the little kids save themselves and she just captures the bad guys afterward. She’s then deemed ‘cool’ and invited to ‘hang’, but she can’t stick around. Though she does reflect how Earth is starting to grow on her just a bit.

Then we cut to the First Doctor and Susan first arriving on Earth in 1963. The End.

I understand what they were trying to go for here; that the Doctor chose Earth as his first adventure with Susan, because he subconsciously remembers being Martin, but it doesn’t really work. Mainly because Martin’s Doctor doesn’t work as a pre-Hartnell incarnation. Even if you buy The Other/Timeless Child/Morbius Incarnations ect., she still doesn’t fit.

Look, for the sake of augment, let’s pretend that the Master and the Matrix wasn’t lying (even though they always lie); any pre-Hartnell incarnations wouldn’t call themselves the Doctor, they wouldn’t have a Tardis that looks like a Police Box, and they wouldn’t have the same moral code that we associate with the Doctor.

Hartnell is called the ‘First Doctor’ because he’s the person who grew into the Doctor. Both in the meta sense and within the canon of the series itself.

He wasn’t called the Doctor until Barbara and Ian gave him that name. He didn’t form his moral code until he met them and learned form them. And the Tardis didn’t become a blue Police Box until it landed in that junkyard in 1963.

To suggest otherwise is to s**t all over 60 years of character development, and that is where I draw the line.

Mess with continuity and the lore all you want. Reset the retcon button each era. I don’t care. But do not erase the development of the main character!

Fortunately, it’s all so incompetently done that it’s easy to ignore.

The connection between Martin’s Doctor and Hartnell’s Doctor is so vague and disconnected that you can just assume whatever you want.

Look, I like Martin, I like her Doctor. I’m happy to have her. But give me any other explanation for her other than Pre-Hartnell, or worst, mealy mouthed allusions with no resolution. Please, I’m begging you show.

Origins

Thankfully the main story is far better.

The Doctor is tasked by the Division to ‘eliminate’ a terrorist cult that threatens Gallifrey.... Only to find out that said ‘cult’ are really just Gallifreyans themselves, looking to leave their home planet and start life anew.

This deception, of course, is what inspires her to break ties with the Division and is supposed to lead into The Fugitive of the Judoon.

Well not quite. Lee is absent, so we’re meant assume that other stories exist between this one and Fugitive of the Judoon.

Instead we get Taslo as the Doctor’s companion.

I really like Taslo.

She has a lot of layers to her and a nice arc.

Similar to Romana, she’s a Time Lord fresh out of the academy and assigned by the High Council to assist the Doctor in her mission.

And that’s where the similarities end. They have two completely different personalities, skill sets, and character developments.

Taslo is primarily a solider, an undercover agent. Like all Time Lords she is smart, but not smarter than any other Gallifreyan. You get the feeling that she’s decidedly average by Gallifreyan standards, but was chosen for the job because she’s inexperienced and young, and therefore easier to manipulate by the Division.

That’s interesting.

Like, that’s really, really interesting. A Time Lord that isn’t amazingly special at first glance; who’s neither a renegade nor a person of political power. She’s just normal... or at least normal to a Gallifreyan.

And that’s fascinating because it gives us more of a glimpse into Gallifreyan culture than perhaps any story ever has before. How the machinations of those in power are viewed by the everyday citizens, and how someone who isn’t intended to be a female Doctor clone (sorry Romana fans, but it’s true) would behave.

The dynamic between her and the Doctor is also great. It’s another mentor/student relationship, but its handled really well.

Over all I’m sadden that she’ll most likely wind up as a one off character.

Anything else? Oh I do like the idea of Time Lords being able to regenerate to match their environment. That’s cool.

All in all I highly recommend this comic. Especially fans of Martin’s Doctor. Also, the graphic novel version is probably easier to get a hold of. I went for the digital copy myself.