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TARDIS Guide

Overview

Released

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Written by

Richard Dinnick

Artist(s)

Iolanda Zanfardino

Cover Art by

Iolanda Zanfardino

Colourist(s)

Adele Matera

Letterer(s)

Sarah Jacobs, John Roshell

Publisher

Titan Comics

Pages

4

Time Travel

Past

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Greenwich

Synopsis

Fresh from their meal on Epsilon Eridani, the Doctor and Josie Day examine the body of an Omsonii that Captain Finlay and his crew found in Africa. Realising that the Omsonii is an explorer, the Doctor scrambles to teleport her back to her ship.

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2 reviews

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

“THE TIME BALL: EIGHT, JOSIE, AND A LOT OF TEMPORAL WOBBLE”

Set in Greenwich, 1833, The Time Ball sees the Eighth Doctor and his original comics companion Josie Day attempting to return a wounded alien to its home while navigating temporal turbulence surrounding the newly introduced time ball at the Royal Observatory. The problem? The timey-wimey elements are vague at best. There’s talk of time disruption, paradoxes, and ripples, but it’s never quite clear what’s happening, why it matters, or how it gets fixed. Something about the time ball affecting alien tech, perhaps? If so, the script doesn’t make it easy to follow.

CHARACTERS OUT OF TIME

This incarnation of the Doctor, so often bursting with romanticism and eccentric flair, feels strangely underpowered. He goes through the motions with barely a flicker of the poetic, emotionally rich Eighth we know from Big Finish or the novels. Josie, meanwhile, is a bit of an enigma – and not in a good way. Her backstory is left blank, her chemistry with the Doctor is thin, and though her design is distinctive (fabulous blue hair!), she lacks the personality punch needed to carry the tale.

A SETTING FULL OF POTENTIAL

The Greenwich harbour setting and the historical detail of the time ball could have lent themselves to a rich period drama, blending educational whimsy with science fiction – something Doctor Who historically excels at. But here, the setting is more decorative than integral. The historical context is referenced, not explored, and the alien’s predicament, though it drives the plot, never feels urgent.

VISUAL NOTES

The art does its job without truly dazzling. The alien is nicely designed, the historical elements are rendered with enough flair to be convincing, and there’s a pleasant, clean style to the visuals. Still, nothing particularly memorable or dynamic – a serviceable but unremarkable affair.

A WASTED SIGNAL

Ultimately, The Time Ball feels like a story that’s ticking boxes without really doing anything new or memorable. It’s a shame, as the Eighth Doctor and Josie (a rare comics-exclusive companion) could have made a charming pairing with the right script and character focus. Instead, we get a hazy sci-fi plot, muted character dynamics, and a forgettable adventure.

📝VERDICT: 4/10

A story about time that seems to forget to make good use of it. The Time Ball offers a historical curiosity, a mysterious new companion, and a wounded alien – but none of it clicks. The Eighth Doctor is unusually flat, Josie feels like an outline more than a character, and the central time plot is muddled. Nice idea, lacklustre execution.


MrColdStream

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My first Josie story and I do like her, so that’s cool good job comic if I didn’t already own them you would’ve done great advertising for your Eight Doctor comics.

I really like the drawings, the staging is super creative, just looking at the pages of our two sillies hanging around on that ship is great fun and the colours are just so calming and nice and accompany them really well.

Story is complete nonsense, things happen just because that’s what the story needs them to do, you know the drill. Probably the worst offender of this yet.

Plot wise among the lowest scoring, but I love the art side and Eight and Josie on a ship is pure vibes so the sins are slightly forgiven.


Owen

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