Customer Reviews

Doctor Who Classics Omnibus

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It'd be great if IDW would invest its time solely in reprints of classic Doctor Who material rather than releasing new stories. Those new stories don't seem to be able to match the appeal of the content of DOCTOR WHO CLASSICS OMNIBUS Volume 1. The stories within are direct and tight, the characters are handled well, and the art actually has some depth. This is in almost complete opposition to the new material.

This omnibus collects the first three of IDW's Doctor Who Classics trades, which reprinted work from the Doctor Who Magazines of the '70s and '80s. The trades reprint the stories at a standard comic size, but for the cost, the smaller compact omnibus format is the best bet. Featured within is work from a who's who of British comics: Pat Mills, John Wagner, Paul Neary, Dave Gibbons, Steve Moore, Grant Morrison, Steve Parkhouse, Bryan Hitch, and John Ridgway. They lend their considerable talents to episodic tales that primarily feature the fourth Doctor, but you'll also see the first, sixth, and seventh incarnations, as well as companions Sharon and Peri, K-9, the Sontarans, the Cybermen, Beep the Meep, and Frobisher. The stories are light-hearted, but the humor is never overdone.

The page reproduction is impeccable, and the color is superbly remastered by Charlie Kirchoff. Gibbons' work, in particular, looks fresh and vibrant, and as he illustrates the majority of the stories, this book is a real treasure. I have to hand it to IDW - they've given these classic stories the treatment they deserve. Now if only we could see this quality of work on their new Doctor Who releases.

The Doctor Who Classics Omnibus is a great bargain -- for relatively little money, you get a huge collection of the Doctor's bizarre and colorful adventures. The presentation is excellent, too, with nice glossy paper and attractive (if sometimes a little muted) coloring.

As for the content itself ... well, I'd call it a "mixed bag." In comic book form, Doctor Who tends to vault over the budgetary restrictions of the TV show that inspired it; there's a heavy emphasis on weird alien creatures, exotic environments, massive battles, expoding spaceships etc. On the whole, these changes to the Doctor Who format leave me cold; I prefer the more realistic locations and less action-oriented stories of the television show. These comics also suffer a bit from stilted dialog (Robert Holmes wrote more naturally than this), grotesque characters (who's that weirdo with the Space Hog ship in the Dalek story?), and violence that is sometimes effective but sometimes just tacky.

Nevertheless, some of the stories are pretty good. "The Time Witch" has always entertained me a lot, and reminds me of high-fantasy Doctor Who episodes like "The Celestial Toymaker" and "The Mind Robber." The Beep the Meep story is memorable, too, and has become a fan favorite. The artwork, meanwhile, is top flight; the work of Dave Gibbons, in particular, is full of marvelous detail and simply buries the cartoonish art I see in most contemporary comics.

So I can recommend this, but with a few reservations. These stories are great to look at, and pretty cool, but to me they're not quite "real" Doctor Who -- the wit and humanity of the show is somehow lacking.

The book is ok. I like reading Doctor Who In fiction form beter them reading it in a comic. Some of the storylines in this book are good, But most of the other stories are realy stupid. It realy was great to see more realistic monters, then you could see in the original show. Mybe its beter to use your imagination in some things. When I read a Doctor Who fiction book, I like to Imagaine what the monsters could look like. But a comic monster sometimes is not that good. I read most of these comics when they origimly came out and I remember being very exited about them, But Now I don't know if they're that great.