It was during my early days of being a Doctor Who fan, sometime after seeing the 1996 TV movie for the first time. I had managed to get my hands on the last volume of the 8th Doctor comics and wanted to read more of his earlier adventures on the comic book pages. It was during one of these searches that I stumbled across Rich Morris’ The 10 Doctors, which is still one of my favorite pieces of Doctor Who fan fiction.
The story kicks off with a rather melancholy 10th Doctor taking a break at the Eye of Orion after the events of “The Runaway Bride.” However, he soon finds himself joined by most of his other incarnations and their companions, something that under normal circumstances shouldn’t happen. The assembled Doctors attempt to piece together why they were all brought together, starting with the discovery that their 8th incarnation was unaccounted for, with his successors having no recollection of his whereabouts. Before they can start to investigate, their companions are kidnapped. An erratic 9th Doctor tries to pursue their kidnapper, but in the process disables five of the other Doctors’ Tardises. The Doctors are forced to split off into teams, each with a different mission, in hopes rescue their companions and solve the mystery surrounding them.
The 10 Doctors was probably the first actual webcomic that I followed, even through its many hiatuses. By the end, the comic had been going for almost three years with over 240 pages (excluding one-shot Christmas and April Fools pages, amongst others.) It basically started just after David Tennant’s first year as the Doctor and ended during his last. Of course, some things revealed since then, like the Eye of Harmony being located in the Tardis in the series opposed to on Gallifrey in this story as well as the revelation of the War Doctor, make it a little hard to fit into the series proper.
The art was pencil drawn, which can give a rough and sometimes unfinished appearance but still well done. The characterization of the many Doctors and supporting cast is spot on and the interaction between them is entertaining, especially the bickering between Rose and Ace and the fact that the 2nd and 7th Doctors are the only two who really get along. He even does a decent job balancing out how much of a role each Doctor plays, preventing one from outshining the other.
The comic dips, no, dives into the over 40 years of Doctor Who history, though it sticks to the series, avoiding the expanded universe. Recurring characters like the Brigadier to one-off characters like the Celestial Toymaker make appearances, and little nods to both previous stories and behind-the-scenes facts about the show are dropped. Of course, the amount of continuity porn may deter new Who fans that may not have the time or patience (or money) to revisit the classic series. Not to mention that many of these characters tend to add another storyline in an already plot-heavy story.
Rich almost immediately followed The 10 Doctors with Forever Janette, a crossover with the 90s detective/vampire show Forever Knight featuring the 8th Doctor. Other stories followed, with the current stories being A Time to Kill, a crossover with (every official) James Bond featuring the 10th Doctor that’s on a rather lengthy hiatus, and The Genosha Sequence, a Stargate SG-1/Young Avengers crossover that’s updated frequently. Rich tends to get behind due to family and work, but if The 10 Doctors taught me anything, its patience.
As they say, good things come to those that wait.
Links
Rich’s Comix Blog
Downloads including The Ten Doctors and Forever Janette
