‘Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor #3.13’ Review
Written by Richard Dinnick | Art by Pasquale Qualano | Published by Titan Comics
Will he be returning? Still not sure if there will be a Season Four of the comic book adventures of The Twelfth Doctor, so this issue may well be it for the foreseeable future. Peter Capaldi’s Doctor was loved by the purist’s, but was not quite the crowd pleaser that Matt Smith’s Eleven was, or David Tennant’s Ten for that matter. Or Tom Baker’s Four, though I doubt there will ever be a bigger crowd pleaser than The Fourth Doctor. That would just cause a temporal anomaly, and we don’t want that. So, let’s enjoy the issue whatever.
‘A Confusion of Angels’ has certainly been as good a Who romp overall as there has been this year. I would say a little uneven, but saved by the clever use and combination of the Weeping Angels and the Heavenly Hosts. Throw in a drifting in space cargo ship, The Doctor returning back to the present after being thrown back in time, Missy stealing the TARDIS, and unlikely allies teaming up to try and prevent a Sun swallowing the ship up. Lots of tension, lots of crazy. Good crazy.
Right, where to start? First thing The Doctor deals with is the Weeping Angels. They have been multiplying as they can possess the Hosts and anyone else who fall victim to their stare. The Doctor takes steps to avoid that. Missy and the stolen TARDIS is apparently not a bad thing, as something called Protocol 13-9 is engaged. Missy was meant to get the TARDIS apparently. Ship falling into the Sun? No solution there, so evacuation time. The Doctor pulls his team into action, the ultimate plan being to get everyone off the vessel except the Hosts and the Angels. The Weeping Angels will be destroyed and neutralised, the Hosts will, in a matter of speaking, ascend to Heaven.And that’s it. Feel a little churlish saying this, but felt this ending was a little weak.
Considering the setup, and the clever idea of using the Heavenly Hosts and Weeping Angels, I was expecting a grandstand finish. Instead, everything fizzled out to a pretty standard, by the numbers conclusion. A whole lot of talking, and not a lot of much else. Little tension or excitement either. A shame, as I think this story deserved better, especially if this is the last issue of The Twelfth Doctor’s ongoing adventures. That’s not to say Richard Dinnick’s run hasn’t been great overall, it has, or that this story hasn’t been fun up to now, it had. Perhaps it was never a four-parter, and just stretched too thin.The art, by Pasquale Qualano, was nice enough. Great layouts, and what pace the story did have was probably due to the artist. The larger panels always impress too, and the likenesses aren’t bad either.
Season Three, overall, has been a strong run. As the writers can’t rely so much on The Twelfth Doctor’s personality to carry every story, like certain other timey-wimey Doctor’s, more depth has to be put into the plots, more substance even. On balance, that has been achieved this year. Yes, this final issue of the final storyline was a little disappointing, needed a bigger resolution apart from anything else, but certainly not the run. That was solid.
I hope we do see another year of The Twelfth Doctor, and that Richard Dinnick will be back to write it. Twelve is gone, but never forgotten.
*** 3/5
