It's okay, I like the strategist a lot in TLV. The 13 cameo was unnecessary but a nice addition!

The story begins with the Doctor lying unconscious in the TARDIS. After he regains consciousness, it is revealed that he and the TARDIS have memory lapses due to the paradox they have experienced. I tend to think that this is the Tenth after the events of Alternating Current, as hinted at by the Previously... text at the beginning of the comic. That's why I noted in my review of Alternating Current that this is the Tenth shortly before the events of the Waters of Mars because, according to the official Time Lord Victorious timeline, Defender of the Dalek is set before the Waters of Mars.

In fact, as you can imagine, the Doctor is defending the Daleks (wow, really!). And it's a really cool move, and it immediately presents the level of threat, which is so high that the Daleks agree to forget their enmity with the Doctor for a while for the sake of their species' survival.

Since the events of the comic are part of the overall events of Time Lord Victorious, the danger comes from creatures that have somehow moved from the Dark Ages (shortly after the universe began) to the greater modern era. The hype around the Dark Ages was a feature of this multimedia event.

In Defender of the Dalek, the Doctor is assisted by a Dalek, the Dalek Strategist, in his fight against the creatures from the Dark Ages. And his interaction with the Tenth is simply the best part of the comic. This vibe is straight up awesome, and it's worth reading this comic for that alone. And in fact, this Dalek has an interesting past and even a character arc!!!

At the very end of Defender of the Dalek, when the Tenth is escaping from the Dalek ship after his victory, the Thirteenth appears and helps him escape from the Daleks, who have turned against him again. In fact, this sudden appearance of the Doctor is the same as her sudden disappearance at the end of Alternating Current, which I wrote about in my review.

Overall, Defender of the Dalek is a very good comic. Since it's not really connected to other events of Time Lord Victorious and its plot is understandable without external context, I would highly recommend this story.

This review is a translation of a part of my Ukrainian-language text, the original can be found here: https://www.mzut-podcast.com/post/2-paradoksy-4-doktory-1-dalek

📝7/10 = ENJOYABLE!

Time Lording through time and space, one victory at a time!

VICTORY X

Defender of the Daleks sees Titan Comics join the Time Lord Victorious event with a two-part story written by Jody Houser. It sees the 10th Doctor wake up in the TARDIS with no recollection of where he is and why, and then come face to face with the Daleks. They force him into an alliance against the Hond, an ancient race seeking to wipe out every living being, including the Daleks and themselves.

This adventure is fast-paced, even if it takes a good while to set things up. The big panels and the quirky dialogue see to that. There's also a light mystery: how does no one remember the Time War? Why are the Dalek defences on Skaro so limited? 

It's a bit confusing to place this story at first, because the last we've seen of Ten, he was initiating a battle against Eight, Nine, and the Daleks. In the Titan continuity, he's just been on an adventure with Thirteen and cannot remember it. The strange way some panels and scenes connect also confuses me.

Things pick up halfway through once the Hond are introduced. They look like green Clayface copies that wish for nothing but to die, because they are pain itself, made sentient. Hauser then brings the conflict to a very hasty close.

Thirteen pops up in the end to help Ten get out of the situation, and while it's cool to see Ten and Thirteen together, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense with the event in mind.

Hauser writes Ten with his usual quirks and humoristic quips. A bulk of the story is about him being witty to the Dalek Strategist, and this goes on for quite a while. It's both fun and a bit slow.

It's unclear exactly how this fits into the larger TLV arc—there are no Kotturuh here, no Brian the Ood, and no other Doctors. It seems very detached from the main TLV conflict. I think it would be better suited to being read early on in the order.

The big, colourful panels and the solid art style bring the story to life effectively.