The mini-series follows the adventures of Missy and Master Delgado and was timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Master's appearance in the series. And let me tell you, it's a gorgeous tribute to Master Delgado, to Missy, and to all the other regenerations of this Doctor's companion.

It's a shame Jody Houser, who wrote this miniseries, didn't try harder in Empire of the Wolf, which was supposed to be a celebration of the Eighth Doctor's 25th birthday, but instead focused more on Eleven and Rose than the Eighth. But let's get back to the good stuff.

Hauser didn't reinvent the wheel too much and took a cue from the episode World Enough and Time, where Missy played the role of the Doctor with the Twelfth's permission and supervision. And it's the same here. The Twelfth sends Missy, who plays the role of the Doctor, to get the Master out of prison to help save the world. And this move is absolutely gorgeous! As great as Michelle Gomez's performance as the Doctor is, Jodie Goucher and Robert Ingranata have captured and recreated all the vibe of the comic, her character, her boastfulness and her irony. This is exactly the moment when self-irony and pseudo-breaking of the fourth wall by the character and creators works best. It's a pleasure to read all of Missy's tongue-in-cheek comments about being the Doctor, especially the joke about the Master being a companion and nothing more.

The new Missy the Doctor design by Roberta Ingranata and the interaction between the character and her bow adds an extra twist. To be honest, I am delighted with the ducks on the hat, the huge question mark on the skirt (and Missy's joke about it), and the colour scheme of the whole costume (not only because she wears the colours of the Ukrainian flag, it's really just beautiful). And I have to admit that I laughed out loud when the Master cut Missy's headscarf and she was indignant, ‘how can she be Doctor Who without her spectacular accessories’.

On the other hand, in addition to a very good portrayal of Missy, we have a really good portrayal of the Master Delgado. His interactions with the Doctor/Missy are absolutely incredible, that obsession with the Master killing the Brigadier, I laughed out loud at the comments about the back stabbing and was thrilled when the sword duel started, it was soooo good. Although I do not deny that Master Delgado was not perfectly portrayed from all angles, maybe there were some minimal flaws, but it was done at a high level.

In addition to Missy and Master Delgado, their other regenerations were also covered, but they were not the main focus and served more as a background and subject for commentary and analysis of the current two regenerations. However, this does not mean that they were not handled well. I was delighted that Hauser brought the Child Master, who fought alongside the War Doctor in the Last Time War, into the story. It was a very nice touch. I also giggled at how Missy and Master Delgado describe Master Saxon as their emo phase. And another confirmation that Spy Master is after Missy, not before her.

Similarly, Missy has an interesting dynamic with both the Master and the Twelfth Doctor. And it fits very well with the character's arc in the series itself, where Missy is increasingly worried about her relationship with the Doctor and working on the latter's trust in her. And it's very sweet when, in the comic's finale, she doesn't betray him and motivates her decision to the Master through the prism of trust, not kindness. Although, to be fair, she did try to lecture the Master about change, and I'm pretty sure it came from Missy's heart, not from the need to play the Doctor. But there are also comic moments in this story, where Missy asks the Twelfth not to embarrass her in front of the ‘child’ (Master Delgado is about eight regenerations younger than Missy).

The spine of the plot itself, with the retrieval of the fragment of the Time Key, although not a star from the sky, works and clearly plays its role as a skeleton for the discovery of Missy and the Master. The cameo roles of the Brigadier and the Third Doctor are very good, the references in the plot and art to the events of the series and other Titan comics are nice and well woven into the overall plot. The only ‘but’ I can mention is the appearance of River. She appears suddenly and then disappears just as suddenly. In conclusion, it feels as if she was added solely for the sake of fan service. But it would be a sin not to note that her appearance also gives rise to a couple of very funny dialogues. Humour is, in general, a very strong point of this story.

I'd also like to mention Roberta Ingranata's artwork, which is beautiful. The artist has been assigned to almost all Titan's Doctor Who comics since 2019, and her work is not very smooth in the long run. I had some complaints about her drawing in Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor Year One, and at the same time, I loved her artwork in the 2020 Doctor Who miniseries. So although her run is not very smooth, she made a very good impression in the Missy miniseries.

In general, Doctor Who: Missy is a very well-crafted miniseries with good characters and humour that I would highly recommend everyone to read. Whether you're a fan of Missy, Master Delgado, the other Lords, or the whole franchise, there's something here for you and I hope you enjoy it.

This review is a translation of my Ukrainian-language text, the original can be found here: https://www.mzut-podcast.com/post/doctor-who-missy-review

In-Between Times was an exclusive comic for the gang in the Humble Bundle in 2018, which was then added to this collection. It's also a short five-page story about the First Doctor, Susan, Barbara and Ian. And it's a mind-blower! It's a very sweet story about Barbara and Ian's first days in the TARDIS, but the artwork by British artist John Stokes is just wow!

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/stari-doktory-novi-pryhody

There's nothing wow-y here, but the TARDIS has a beautiful design.

The plot of this backup story originates from another television adventure of the Seventh - The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. But this context is more of a nice bonus for fans of the classics, as this is actually a story about chauvinism with too obvious references to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany.

It's honestly not a bad comic for a backup story, definitely not a story that will sell the collection, but it'll do as a bonus.

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/stari-doktory-novi-pryhody

You know, I can even praise Operation Volcano. Yes, Jones's art is still flat and lacks shadow, but Cartmel's script... Cartmel's script really saves the story. Andrew does a great job with the Seventh Doctor and his mith, which is not surprising because he was the script editor for his era.

So in this mini-series, Andrew returns to his native land again, and brings back some unexpected characters - Ian Gilmore and the ICMG, or The Intrusion Counter-Measures Group. And why do I call this return unexpected? It's simple - this organisation has appeared on TV only once, in the story Remembrance of the Daleks.

The plot revolves around a spaceship that ICMG agents find in the deserts of Australia, but it quickly starts to turn into a hermetic sci-fi thriller like Carpenter's Creature, and then into aliens who somehow rule the world with a focus on nuclear weapons. It's an absolutely gorgeous story where Cartmel masterfully juggles twists, characters, and reader expectations.

I would strongly advise you to read it.

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/stari-doktory-novi-pryhody

This is the most typical story about the Third. It's as typical as it gets. The only fresh note was the return of Roberto Salamander, who was the villain in the Second Doctor's TV story. But in general, his presence doesn't really change the flow of the story and feels typical.

But if you're a fan of the Third Doctor and his adventures as a scientific advisor to UNIT and want the Master to be active in the story, then you might even like it (although the Master's moves here are typical of Delgado's incarnation). The drawing will not spoil your impression, although it is a bit flat and often lacks depth and shadows, but in general it is normal. It is comfortable to perceive and the plot does not suffer too much.

In general, everything is somewhere like that. It's a really good story, but I can only recommend it to die-hard fans of the Third Doctor and his stories.

I don't even know what to tell you here... Was it not terrible? I'll probably say it wasn't terrible. Williamson's drawing is very so-so, especially when it comes to drawing faces, if it's the Fourth Doctor's or Sarah Jane's face, it's a horror and you can see that the artist drew them from photos without any chance of stylisation, but the situation with the original characters is no better.

From something so good... The plot is not bad, I liked the basis on ancient Greek legends, all these cyclopes and the appearance of the Gorgon Medusa (which does not fit in with the plot of Eye of the Gorgon from The Sarah Jane Adventures, but we are not used to it), but the appearance of Zeus was, of course, a bit too much. It's not that he's a god here, but rather an alien who inspired the Greeks to Zeus and at the same time locked Medusa in the caves of Greece (as if there were no other places in the universe to lock up criminals). In general, it's not a bad story, I wouldn't say I'd praise it as a story about the Eighth, but I don't want to tear it apart either, because it does its unpretentious job.

Although I have a personal problem with the portrayal of Medusa Gorgon, who is simply a bloodthirsty snake who wants to kill everyone. I, on the other hand, support the perception of Medusa's story as a story about accusing a victim of sexual violence and further demonising a woman because of her natural desire for revenge against her rapist. And I'm of the feminist persuasion, so I always have a little problem with stories where Medusa is just a monster who wants blood for blood's sake and kills because why not.

In general, I honestly wouldn't recommend reading this series. The plot is not bad, but it doesn't balance the scales with the bad art, which ruins the whole experience. So it's better to avoid it.

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/stari-doktory-novi-pryhody

The final story, which actually gave the collection its title.

And it's a strong social fiction with a critique of the oligarchy, moral questions of the ethics of creating clones of oneself in order to transfer one's consciousness into these bodies. And you will say to me: ‘Oh, come on, you're making it sound like these are super fresh topics for 2016’. And yeah, it's not like George Mann is breaking new ground in science fiction, even within the Doctor Who comics, something similar happened in the IDW story Body Snatched in the Doctor Who ongoing (2011). But Mann works very well with these concepts and skilfully draws them into the overall plot of the miniseries. He shows how the Doctor reacts to an oligarchy that believes it has every right to replace the clones' consciousness with its own, and on the other hand, to the clones themselves, who managed to regain their own selves and then became supporters of radical ideas.

And in the middle of this is Josie, who turns out to be a kind of clone herself - a living picture (which she painted herself a couple of episodes ago). And now the slightly off-the-wall rich woman who was used to paint the portrait wants Josie's body back, because she considers her to be her property (although legally she is not, even as a portrait).

And the Doctor, who finds out that Josie has been lying to him about being human. But he still doesn't leave her and stands up for her, because he can't leave his friend

I honestly did not expect such a level of plot, story and climax when I first started reading this series.

In addition to the strong plot, a nice bonus is the very, very ending, when it turns out that it was Twelve and Clara who bought Josie from the sale of the ‘gone mad’ collection after her death, but before her resurrection in the body of a clone. And it was the Twelfth who brought Josie to the mansion and slipped a note into a copy of Jane Eyre to support the Eighth Doctor (but it's possible that he was partly motivated by the paradox, hehe).

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/stari-doktory-novi-pryhody

Another very good issue with a nice mix of folklore stories about fae with a touch of folk-rock. You know, the Doctor is almost always good at folk-metal stories, I think I'd like to see them more often.

Still, we have a living forest and a guy who is convinced that this thing with the forest is because of the Nix King (something like the king of the elves). After that, we're given a whole legend with kings, pagan sacred places and a special sword. And although in the conclusion it is all explained by aliens, I really appreciated the vibe of stories about the faeries. Another interesting detail was the criticism of the British nobility and the nobility as such through a funny optic: they appropriate the victories and achievements of their subordinates and subjects to pretend that they are the cool and powerful ones, building a clan legend around it.

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/stari-doktory-novi-pryhody

JUST A GORGEOUS ISSUE!

Sorry for the capslock, but I really love this issue! Although it seems to be the Victorian era again, evil doppelgangers from the mirror dimension again, we've seen it all a bunch of times in a bunch of media and even in the Doctor, more than once. But how beautifully it's all presented! What a charismatic villain, what a sweetheart the Eighth Sun is when he enjoys a magic show with tricks, what a slaying Josie in a Victorian dress with her dyed hair and piercings.

I simply advise everyone to read it (as well as the entire collection, actually!).

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/stari-doktory-novi-pryhody