The Doctor and Belinda make a prison break for the stars in Titan Comics’ new lively and fun series
The Fifteenth Doctor is back! Doctor Who: The Prison Paradox continues his adventures at Titan Comics, once again told by fan favourite writer Dan Watters of Batman: Dark Patterns fame. Appropriately for a Time Lord whose run was cut short on television, there’s a real sense of pace and energy. It’s as if this era is grabbing every second of extra time it can.
That extends to cutting out a lot of the standard Doctor Who set up in order to get to the action faster. We begin with the Doctor already on a shuttle to Pantopolis. The space station at the edge of a black hole is infamous as the prison from which there’s no return. From the start, he’s on a mission – to break Belinda out of prison. But before long, a whole gang of prisoners have surrounded him, eager to help. (Mostly because they recognise he’s their own best chance of freedom too.)
The cast of alien prisoners make full use of the comic medium to provide wildly entertaining designs
Even with this brisk pace, the nature of a first issue means that it spends most of its pages establishing the setting and characters. Indeed, not much happens that it’s covered in the promotional blurb for Prison Paradox.
Fortunately, that doesn’t matter much when it’s so full of energy and fun. The Doctor’s showman aspect is in full effect as he sets about antagonising the prison staff as soon as he arrives. Watters writes a note perfect Fifteenth Doctor, full of style, laughter and danger. He’s matched by Sami Kivelä’s dynamic art, taking full advantage of the comic medium to push the alien designs beyond even a Disney budget. Meanwhile, Belinda’s characterisation has that nice blend of holding the Doctor accountable while embracing the adventure. Their fellow prisoners already have entertainingly quirky personalities, even sketched in across just a few pages. And there’s enough intrigue about exactly what’s going on with the mysterious Warden to promise plenty of drama in the remaining three parts.
The Prison Paradox retains all the wit and stylish storytelling of Everyone Must Go! but with more polish and confidence. For anyone already missing Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor, the series is already promising as lively and charismatic a substitute as you could hope for.
Doctor Who: The Prison Paradox #1
20th Anniversary of the 1st appearance of the Slitheen!
From Dan Watter, the acclaimed writer of Doctor Who: Everyone Must Go!
Experience a Doctor Who adventure like no other as The Doctor, Belinda, and an unlikely team of allies infiltrate a prison holding monsters and villains from across the cosmos.
With new friends and old foes, and some old foes who might just be new friends, it’s an adventure that will take you across the Whoniverse… and beyond!
You can order Prison Paradox #1 now. Issue 2 is out on the 3rd of December.
