Its in for a penny in for a pound for me, as I continue in my quest to take in the TLV story (having only planned on listening to the BF audios).

I read the novels, The Knight The Fool and The Dead, and All Flesh Is Grass, in which the Ninth Doctor turned up. It piqued my interest in how he got got involved...

The Ninth Doctor and Rose arrive on a planet, and the Doctor is instantly uneasy. Somehow they’re are in the Dark Times, before the Gallifreyans became Time Lords and there are vampires.

I’m not sure whether I was buying the Doctor Who magazine at the time this comic came out. I couldn’t be bothered to find them in the attic so a YouTube video had to suffice. Its not the best way to view the story as sometimes you miss the artwork by reading the text. But I would give a shout out to the person who made them, as it gave me a chance to enjoy it and they did a good job.

I’m not much of a comic reader - not at all really. So I can’t comment on how it compares to other comics.

It almost plays out as an episode. The Doctor and Rose get separated, Rose is in danger - a rescue. One or two surprises, crafty escapes. Etc

All the tropes of Vampires are here, Rose as the sacrificial girl in white, the four poster bed, bats, blood. There’s mentions of Bow ships. And a woman called Rassilon.

This doesn’t quite lead into the novels, but its enough to tie in with what happens next.

Though I hadn’t planned on reading this, I’m glad I did.

A pretty cool and interesting look at the Dark Times through the perspective of the Ninth Doctor.  It's really neat seeing this early version of the Time Lords and I, at least at first, was intrigued by the conflict with the vampires.  But in three parts for the Doctor Who Magazine, this comic basically amounts to a single issue's worth of content, and that's very, very short for a very, very big idea.  As such, everything feels truncated.  Rose gets kidnapped and turned into a vampire.  The Doctor teams up with an ancient Gallifreyan but eventually he dies.  The First Rassilon hunts down the Doctor and vows to find him one day.  It's all perfectly serviceable stuff, but none of these plot ideas get anywhere close to enough expansion to have any kind of emotional pay-off.

So the art is good and the dialogue is fine, just don't expect much out of this comic.  It's interesting more for the novelty than the storytelling.

📝7/10 = ENJOYABLE!

Time Lording through time and space, one victory at a time! This time: victory number 15!

The Ninth Doctor and Rose join the Dark Times on the pages of Doctor Who Magazine! The story starts by introducing the sadistic Commander Rassilon and the elderly Medicus Androkan—this is Gallifrey before the Time Lords, and it's under attack by big vampire bats!

I love the art style and the breezy pace of this. The story packs a lot despite its relatively short length, and it's interesting to see it explore Gallifrey in the Dark Times. The very traditional vampire characters and the three hungry sisters taunting Rose bring horror vibes, and the story deals with death through the Gallifreyans fearing it.

It's interesting to see the battle between the Gallifreyans and the vampires and the joy Androkan shows when he realises that the Doctor represents the future of Gallifrey. I also enjoy the climax, with a vampire Rose attacking Nine.

The red-clad vampire warrior Drogann is like a character from a superhero comic, and I like him.

Monstrous Beauty is simple and fun. A glance into the dark times, early gallifrey with the First Rassilon here and vampires in a powerful state of being. Not a lot happens but it's a nice look at this period. I enjoyed Androkan, the most interesting side character in this story and an interesting rivalry with Rassilon.

Great exploration of the Dark Times - adore the Vampire Alliance, and the ideas forming this - and the Doctor's response to this being so in character for the 9th Doctor. Meeting earlier versions of Time Lords is great as well, and really helps set this into the dark times well, with real senses of urgency and threat often missing in comics.