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"Downtime: A Black Market Brawl and Familiar Beats"

Downtime takes the Eleventh Doctor and his companions to a backwater black-market planet for a supposed moment of respite. Naturally, things unravel quickly. Abslom Daak gets into a brawl, while the rest of the group attempts to piece together the larger mystery surrounding "Exterminhate."

This issue highlights some of the challenges of juggling a crowded TARDIS team. Alice feels particularly sidelined, and her interactions with the Doctor and River are disappointingly off-key. The Doctor’s unusually harsh treatment of Alice, coupled with River's out-of-character coldness, detracts from their otherwise dynamic relationships.

Bonaparte Devizes, a dealer in Dalek artifacts, is a standout addition to the story. His opportunistic yet hapless nature makes him a memorable pawn in the Doctor’s plans, as he unwittingly helps connect Daak to the elusive mystery of "Exterminhate."

While the setting and characters offer potential, the issue suffers from feeling formulaic. The narrative treads familiar ground: arrive at a new location, uncover part of the mystery, and flee when the Then and the Now inevitably appears. The repetition makes this arc feel overstretched and lacking in fresh momentum.

📝Verdict: 5/10

Though Downtime has its moments, it ultimately feels like a filler chapter in a series that’s beginning to lose its sense of urgency. Hopefully, future issues will break the cycle and push the story forward in more surprising directions.

Another issue of not much happening.... but in a good way?

Unlike the other stories where the plot is moving forward, but at what feels like a snail's pace, this story doesn't pretend to be moving the plot forward, it lives up to it's name and lets our characters have some Downtime.

Abslom is once again written really well here, returning to a bar where he's gone off the rails before, here he's just kind of sad. Once again we're reminded that his reason to keep going has faded, and that he's just kind of going through the motions a lot of the time at this point, it's great stuff.

This also does some great stuff for Eleven too, as the doctor with the youngest face and oldest eyes, how does he respond to these atrocities he didn't even know he did, he's also just sad and needs time. His interaction with Squire as well is pretty interesting, especially with her just vanishing, definitely wonder what's going on there.

River is unfortunately written pretty out of character with her interactions with Alice. Suggesting leaving her to The Then And The Now, basically to die, so that they can get away. There might be reason for this later, but for now it just feels off.

And then there's The Dalek Collector, I love his interactions with Abslom, and that suit with the dalek bumps (sorry, etheric beam locators) is just really fun, and that final page reaveal looks great.