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“THE ROAD TO…: PORTALS, POINTLESSNESS, AND A PATH TO THIRTEEN”

The Road To… is the connective tissue running through the Road to the Thirteenth Doctor anthology, scattered across short interludes in each of the three featured issues. Each segment inserts a mysterious glowing portal with a beckoning hand into the backdrop of a past Doctor Who television story—one for Ten, one for Eleven, and one for Twelve. Ostensibly a tease for Titan's upcoming Thirteenth Doctor comics, these fleeting glimpses offer intrigue, but little substance.

TEN, ELEVEN, AND TWELVE ON DETOUR

The Tenth Doctor’s encounter takes place during The Girl in the Fireplace, and it’s very much in character for him: he simply runs away from the mystery, prioritising the events already unfolding around him. It’s a neat fit, though nothing particularly revelatory.

The Eleventh Doctor’s moment is slotted into The Power of Three, which is a clever choice given how much of that episode centres around the Doctor’s frustration at the sheer lack of action. True to form, he's too busy sulking about the quiet to even notice the portal open behind him. It’s a cute idea, though blink and you'll miss it—just like he does.

The Twelfth Doctor’s segment has the strongest visual style of the trio, featuring gorgeously expressive art and a stylised version of Twelve in full grumpy mode. It features Missy, always a scene-stealer, and Nardole, who notices the portal while Twelve and Missy bicker about her potential redemption. While it's fun to see Missy being her fabulous self, this instalment feels the most disconnected, despite being set during World Enough and Time, and ultimately says very little.

FILLER ON THE ROAD TO THIRTEEN

There’s a playful idea at the heart of these scenes—brief interdimensional flashes folded into the familiar timeline—but they’re ultimately just fluff. They slot neatly into their respective eras, and Titan deserves credit for identifying logical gaps to squeeze these moments into. But the hand-from-the-portal device never evolves into anything compelling on its own terms. It’s all prelude, all tease, with no real payoff within these pages.

The artwork across all three segments is strong, particularly Twelve’s instalment, but the narrative value is virtually nonexistent. If you skipped these entirely, you’d miss nothing crucial—though if you’re the sort who likes the idea of unexplained interludes running parallel to the show, there’s mild novelty in imagining these as deleted scenes from the televised adventures.

📝VERDICT: 5/10

The Road To… is stylish but shallow, an atmospheric but ultimately unnecessary tease that adds little to the mythology and even less to the individual issues it's attached to. While it's amusing to slot these odd little scenes into familiar TV episodes, they’re mostly filler and function solely as setup for stories yet to come. For completists only.

Overall its kinda very... nothing? At least in terms of leading into 13's comics that is. A small cameo that you wouldn't know was her unless it was advertised as such.

The Thirteenth Doctor #3

'The Road To..." (2018) from Titan Comics.

While not actually featuring Thirteen, I'm including this in my EU journey due to it being a prelude to her main Titan series. All of the short moments from previous Doctors' televised episodes are rather nicely done, and while it only serves to justify one line of dialogue from The Doctor in her own comic, it's an intriguing precursor.