I’ll admit that I am not a long-time Whovian. In fact, after putting it off for several years, it wasn’t until six months ago that I finally found the time to sit down and see what all the fuss about Doctor Who was about. After only a few episodes into the series, my initial reaction was to hop in my own TARDIS and kick my past self in the butt for not watching it sooner.
Yes, it’s THAT good, but, of course, if you’re reading this, you’re most likely already a Whovian yourself.
As a geek, it’s already hard for me to accept being “new” to something, because I now have to gain all of the knowledge of this show, so I can talk it with the best of them. You know what I mean? I’m a newbie and I accept this. But, just because I’m new doesn’t mean I’m not dedicated to this new fandom. I’ve been interested in checking out the older Who series, but besides a few of the movies on Netflix, they are kind of hard to come by. So, when the opportunity to read this Doctor Who Dave Gibbons Collection came about, I jumped at the chance to read anything that would expand my Whovian knowledge.
Even if that meant reading almost 400 pages in 2 days.
Which I did! The Dave Gibbons Collection is 16 stories all illustrated by, you guessed it, Dave Gibbons and all focus on who is considered one of the all-time best Doctors, Tom Baker’s 4th Doctor. Besides a few clips I watched on YouTube, this was my first real introduction to the 4th Doctor. Just from the reading alone, I can see why he’s a fan favorite. The biggest joy for me was getting to see the things I recognized the most. K-9 joins the Doctor for some of the action, which had one of my favorite moments in the whole book where a crossed wire causes K-9 to malfunction and actually threaten the Doctor’s life. Brilliant. Another series was at first a bit off putting (the Doctor becomes a werewolf?), but luckily that was short lived and led to an incredible reveal of who the true villains were. Exterminate!
When I first started reading, I wasn’t sure how to feel. It didn’t feel like Doctor Who to me but more over-the-top sci-fi. And, not in a silly wa,y but more in the grand scheme of things. The worlds he visits and all of the different creatures he meets along the way are like nothing you would ever see on a television show, even by today’s standards. So, while it didn’t sit well with me at first, it really started to grow on me after the first few arcs. These were the stories too grand for TV. Too big. Too epic! Effects for television can only go so far, but the pencil is only limited by your imagination. Gibbons’ artwork is phenomenal and really captures the Doctor perfectly. You get the sense he has a deep passion for the character, which comes off beautifully in his drawing.
While I’m still new to the Whoniverse, I can’t recommend this enough. I did personally find a few of the stories to be a tad dull, but the collection as a whole more than makes up for it, and, if anything, made me want to get to know the 4th Doctor just that much more!
