Doctor Who: The Child of Time

Doctor Who Magazine Comic Collections #14

by Jonathan Morris (Writer), Martin Geraghty (Artwork), Dan McDaid (Artwork)

Join the Doctor and Amy Pond on their amazing adventures in space and time, in these exceptional collected comics from the pages of DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE!

Featuring nine amazing stories: Supernature, Planet Bollywood!, The Golden Ones, The Professor, the Queen and the Bookshop, The Screams of Death, Do No Go Gentle Into That Good Night, Forever Dreaming, Apotheosis and The Child of Time!

The Doctor has a new companion — Amy Pond — and together the two of them embark on a thrilling journey through time and space. Along the way, the two friends arrive on a planet with some extraordinary plant life, encounter a society that keeps bursting into song, and enter a surreal dream world where they meet the mysterious Dark. The Doctor also faces his old enemies, the Axons, in Tokyo, and a new mystery begins: just who is the strange little girl, Ckiyoko, the enigmatic 'Child of Time'...?

PLUS! A bumper commentary section where the writers, artists and editors reveal the stories behind the strips, featuring never-before-published artwork, original story outlines and much more!

An essential collection for fans of Doctor Who and classic British comics!

Genres: Doctor Who, Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

241 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Jonathan Morris is one of the most prolific and popular writers of Doctor Who books, including the highly-regarded novels 'Festival of Death' and 'Touched by an Angel' and the recent guide to monsters, 'The Monster Vault'. He has also written numerous comic strips, most of which were collected in 'The Child of Time', and audios for BBC Audio and Big Finish, including the highly-regarded comedies 'Max Warp' and 'The Auntie Matter', as well as the adaptation of Russell T Davies’ 'Damaged Goods'.

Recently he has started his own audio production company, Average Romp. Releases include a full-cast adaptation of Charles Dickens' The Chimes', an original play, 'When Michael Met Benny', and three episodes of a SF sitcom, 'Dick Dixon in the 21st Century'.

For details visit www.averageromp.com

He also originated his own series, Vienna and script-edited the Nigel Planer series 'Jeremiah Bourne in Time'. He’s also written documentaries and for TV sketch shows.

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Reviews

[Seb Hasi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Supernature

A pretty average story, not particularly notable but not bad at all. I enjoyed the design and the alien aspects looked wonderful but when you actually stop to think about the plot, the Doctor faces about two minutes of adversity before immediately resolving everything. I mean the lack of a proper antagonist didn’t help as we are left with no conflict to get invested in, just a bit of a scientific cock up that gets fixed pretty simply. It’s odd that I despise Amy Pond on TV but in the comics I quite like her sometimes, she is given some pretty generic dialogue; mostly there to react to things, which probably helps eliminate her sanctimony, arrogance and all round frustrating being insufferable.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Planet Bollywood!

This story was a musical adventure and the novelty of that was unintentionally something that covered the paper thin plot. Even the musical stuff wasn’t entertaining given you can’t hear this implied melody; not helped by the fact that the Doctor and Amy do absolutely nothing in the story but observe these weird aliens and join in a bit. There’s a minimal page count and you can tell that’s because the story goes nowhere so not exactly more they could’ve done extending the story for more meaningless humor.

⭐️1/2

The Golden Ones

The plot in this story is quite clever but nothing that remarkable. The idea of manipulating everyday earth items into alien threats is a constantly used idea in Doctor Who, and the only difference here is that it is a returning villain from Classic Who. The main thing of note here is that the artwork is brilliant, all these many action sequences and high concept ideas get really well visualised and are the main reason as to why this story is effectively engaging. The ending is a bit of a cop out as the Doctor defeats the Axons by just doing exactly what he did last time, but if you put that small disappointment to the side you are left with a story where all characters have plenty of agency and the action makes it feel like something straight out of 70s who. It’s just a shame that when the Axons are about to win they always suddenly become massively incompetent, allowing the Doctor to easily defeat them; a necessary evil to give the story a resolution but with a plan as clever as theirs, it being foiled so easily does take away from the stories credibility.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Professor, The Queen And The Bookshop

This story was just a generic fantasy theme adventure, something very constant in the 11th Doctor’s era. It’s just a sort of pastiche of different fantasy story ideas and is based around Amy Pond. This naturally lowered it in my standings as I despise her, so I had to look for any positives. The artwork wasn’t great but I can say that the story didn’t overstay its welcome. It’s just a simple few pages to tell an intended ‘sweet tale’ so even though it did nothing for me, I can respect that it didn’t go over the top.

⭐️⭐️

The Screams Of Death

An operatic theme is predominant through this story, the setting, the villains singing, and of course the fact that the Doctor and Amy literally go to the opera. It’s a fun story and the visuals are quite nice, it’s not an art style I would say I like massively but it works for this story; giving the 19th century look to Paris quite effectively. As is quite the usual with comic book stories we build up to a big cliffhanger where the villains do something that looks really cool and then are easily dispensed with. I’m not complaining I’m just saying that no story this formulaic is ever going to exceed more than being just ‘alright’. There is no real depth of character beyond some clichés, but the dialogue works well and I really can’t fault how concisely the story is told in two parts. Not bad, just nothing special.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

This story went for sort of ghost story theme with a twist and did that really well. I didn’t expect to find a story that went by with Twilight Moments twists, to lead to such a sweet ending. It was the ending alone which surprised me as it is really quite touching, and feels very in theme with the 11th Doctor era. It does the ‘not a proper villain’ story format really well and manages to have lots of action and drama while maintaining quite a short page count. It’s quite simply a story that will put a smile on your face and there is nothing better than that. It’s not an all time classic but well worth a read, and something that does have a lot of surprises within.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Forever Dreaming

Forever Dreaming was a fun psychedelic adventure with lots of nice 60s themes throughout. Admittedly nothing exemplary, but still I enjoyed the plot and characters in a way that kept me engaged. The villains were rather easily dispensed of but I did really like simply based on how good they looked. A real creepy design that stood out in the very minimalist art style used for the story, made them look fab. The story is Amy driven but even with that considered I didn’t mind it at all, and did think that it being rather short benefited it not overstaying its welcome. Nothing special, but a fun little read with some interesting artwork is the most in depth I can describe this story.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Apotheosis

This story was quite fun, and I admit that despite its relatively unoriginal plot; I did quite enjoy it. The artwork was great and added some real depth, especially in its detailing which was the most notable part of the story. It was mostly a precursor to the titular story to come next but viewed individually, the characters are expressed well and I was able to take the story in and enjoy it. There’s nothing special about the story really but it’s one that I got through with great ease and quite enjoyed.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Child Of Time

For the big climactic story of the graphic novel it was really quite disappointing. For me it was mostly because the titular ‘child of time’ was so incredibly annoying, and of course provided the conflict in the story to tie up plot threads from previous comics. There was some great moments that are depicted well in the artwork, but at the end of the day it was just that the villain wasn’t despicable; just genuinely incredibly annoying. The resolution to the story was good and quite simple, not the typical comic book ex machina however there was not much else of note here. It’s quite a long story so of course there are some brilliant moments but those are sparse when the entire thing is overall underwhelming.

⭐️⭐️1/2

[Adam Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book collects the first twenty-two Doctor Who Magazine comic strips featuring Matt Smith’s 11th Doctor along with Amy Pond. Like the last Tenth Doctor collection, the Crimson Hand, this collection features one writer (in this case Doctor Who Novelist/Audio Script Writer Jonathan Morris) writing his own series of Doctor Who in comic strip with an ongoing plot, only this time, there’s a TV series that runs concurrent to the comic stories.

Supernature (421-423): The Doctor and Amy land on a mysterious Earth colony where the colonists are prisoners (though that has little plot relevance) and mysterious monsters are appearing.. It’s a pretty standard Doctor Who story that’s well-done. It’s a good first run for both the 1th Doctor in Comics and Morris as his writer. Grade: B

Bollywood (424): It’s Doctor Who as a Bollywood musical. Have to be honest that much of this goes over my head as I’ve never seen a Bollywood musical, but a short ten page comic strip were colorful characters break out to song is quite fun. Grade: B

The Golden Ones (425-428): A brilliant colorful UNIT story in Japan featuring kids being memorized by a strange drink and a TV show. Love this story with a nice return of a classic Doctor Who monster. Will say this story has the most dubious look for Amy. Don’t really see pigtails as something she would wear. Grade: A-

The Professor, the Queen, and the Bookshop (429): Reimagining Doctor Who as a sort of C.S. Lewis fantasy story. It’s so-so with a little too much fanboying for a ten-page story. Still, it’s better than The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe. Art by Rob Davis really fits the mood. Grade: B-

The Screams of Night (430-431): The Doctor and Amy Arrive in 1860s France where several young women are becoming opera stars….but at a price. Solid, creepy story, helped by some very good visuals. Grade: B+

Do Not Go Into that Gentle Good Night (432): Elderly people without relatives are disappearing from a nursing home. A surprising, well done, and emotionally resonant story. Grade: A

Forever Dreaming (433-434): I was initially taken aback by the weird art of this story, but as I understood the strange psychedelic locale, I realized the art was odd with a reason, and this one case were very stylized art works a treat. In this story, the Doctor and Amy land on a beach planet, the Doctor tells Amy to run, and then turns to sand. And the story gets crazier from there. Grade: A

Apotheosis (435-437): The Doctor and Amy arrive on a weird alien planet where there’s a time field that ages people and a lot of mystery. This story ups Steve Moffat’s silliness of militarized priest by offering us armed nuns in full habits. It’s absurd but not in a good way. The plot works in a lot of good twists. and leads in to the conclusion of the book’s arc. Grade: B

The Child of Time (438-441): This is one of those arcs I like. There are a few panels that give hints that something is going on, but nothing that interferes with enjoying all the other stories. The Doctor and Amy have to stop a paradoxical girl from becoming the absolute ruler of the universe who is worshipped by Androids. The story finds the Doctor meeting Alan Turing and the Bronte sisters, fully armed with weapons. It’s a timey-wimey extravaganza worthy of the TV show, but better than most of the TV series finales (though not quite as good as the Series 5 finale that readers would have just seen.) It manages to use the power of the comic genre to tell a story that is fantastic and visually beyond anything you could do on TV. A good end to Johnny Morris really lovely run. Grade: A-

These Panini Doctor Who collections are notable for including commentaries by writers and artists in the back. This gives some great insight into their inspirations and curative processes. This one is particularly entertaining as we learn at-length the challenges that come with trying to tell a story arc while there’s a TV series running. Morris kept trying to come up with the sort of stories that Moffat would do in order to meet TV audience’s expectations but he did too good a job as he kept having plotlines scrubbed by Cardiff. It’s a fascinating read to go along with some really good creative Doctor Who comics.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-child-of-time-by-jonathan-morris-et-al/

This is a compilation of comic strip stories from Doctor Who Magazine during the Eleventh Doctor era, all by Jonathan Morris; I had not appreciated it at the time, but they actually have a cleverly worked out arc (about, er, the Child of Time) which culminates at the end, shortly after we meet the killer Brontë sisters.

Having been working through the IDW Doctor Who comics dating to the same era, it’s interesting to feel a very different dynamic to the DWM strips, which have much shorter episodes and also had to respond to the TV show in real time – there are some very informative endnotes from Morris and the artists about the creative process.

Also I particularly like the story with C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Rather a jewel.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was able to read all the comic strips that are included in this collection except for "Forever Dreaming." I like how there's an overarching storyline throughout some of these comic strip adventures. I feel like the IDW stuff mostly stayed away from that whereas Titan honed in on that sort of thing. Given that Karen Gillan played Amy Pond, it was fitting seeing her in a jungle in "Supernature," though the wardrobe malfunction was unnecessary. "The Professor, the Queen, and the Bookshop is an unexpected sweet tribute to C.S. Lewis, though it's distracting seeing Rory's hair color change. And it's kind of weird in hindsight getting a story titled "The Child of Time" and then later getting "The Timeless Children."

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of linked stories featuring the Doctor and Amy, when she has forgotten Rory. There are some really good stories here, I particularly enjoyed the musical one and the one set in the old peoples home. The linking and finale story was well done as it tied in with all the stories in the volume. The bad guy is a real threat. The artwork has a few different styles but they all seem to tie in with the theme of the story. As always with Panini titles, there is a decent behind the scenes section on each story. It's amazing how many times they came up with similar stories to the current TV series and had to change them. There's also some artist sketches and line drawings. A really good read.

[John Parungao · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doctor Who comic strips are usually self contained with little or no continuity. Occasionally there are multi part stories, sometimes there are single issue strips. Child of Time as a graphic novel is more than just a collection of strips previously featured in Doctor Who Magazine, there is a linking narrative element that works despite the occasionally differing art styles. The artwork style changing might have bothered me, but the Doctor explaining the plot helped me along the way to enjoy the total storyline.

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of 11th Doctor comics plays out like a series of the show with lots of different stories (some seemingly pointless) actually building up to an epic finale. Clues are well thought out and peppered right throughout the book and it is an exciting ride from beginning to end. 5 stars.

[Stephen Theaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprised to see I had this down as unfinished on Goodreads, but there was indeed a bookmark in it. No idea why I stopped reading it with 50 pages of story to go. Enjoyed finishing it off, but the commentary makes writing the strip sound like an utterly miserable experience.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Supernature (421-423). This lead story does a surprisingly good job of getting the characterization of the Matt Smith doctor spot on … but beyond that it’s fairly mundane. [6/10]

Planet Bollywood! (424). Brilliant! [8/10]

The Golden Ones (425-428). Back to a more typical adventure here. Morris does a great job of bringing back an old foe in an interesting and mysterious ways, and once more really captures another culture. All around, an exciting adventure [7+/10].

The Professor, The Queen, and The Bookshop (429). What a wonderful tribute to Narnia and Doctor Who simultaneously. I want to read more! [10/10]

Screams of Death (430-431). An OK story with some fun timey-wimey silliness that really shines because of the terrific, scary artwork [7/10].

Do Not Go Gentle (432). The biggest problem with this story is that it’s so transparently “Kick the Can”. Nonetheless, it’s well-written and OK as a spooky, shallow story [7/10].

Forever Dreaming (433-434). This story is notable mainly due to the beautiful, psychadelic, ‘60s era artwork — especially when it depicts the scary Dark people. Beyond that, the story is OK [7/10].

Apotheosis (435-437). This story is a wee-bit plotty as Morris tries to fit together all of his plot points and set up the finale, but it’s still a good story with fun characters, fun SF, and fun action. However, this is a rare story where I think the plot (as explained in the authorial notes at the end of the volume) was better before the editorial work. The timey-wimeyness of Morris’ first draft, with Rory, was great. Alas! [7/10]

Child of Time (438-441). A superb ending to Morris' run. This nicely connects everything, creates an interesting future history, and plays with time travel in a way that Doctor Who rarely does. There are also great characters, great humor, and some real dilemmas. Overall, the strongest story in the book [9/10].

On the whole, Morris' Doctor Who run goes from good to great. The fact that I wanted to reread part of it as soon as I finished up the series made me give it the higher marks in the end. The authorial notes at the end really add to the whole volume as well (as usual).

[Alex Sarll]

Except during Who's finest hour, the early nineties, when it marched in lockstep with the novels, Doctor Who Magazine's comic has generally felt like one of the show's less essential offshoots. Jonathan Morris' extensive notes at the back of this collection are right about one aspect of that problem: the comic's tone was often a very long way from the show's. But what he misses is that the resulting stories, in all their strangeness and arguable 'wrongness', at least had a uniqueness and thus a reason to exist. And what Morris gradually realised while writing the stories collected here is that if you try too hard to match the show, you're going to keep treading on its toes, and when that happens the TV show will always have bigger feet than the comic. The notes list occasion after occasion where Morris came too close to Moffat's plans, and had to rework his stories; even in what survives you could score an awful lot of points in a game of Spot The Moffatism. TARDIS imagined back to reality? Amy aged? Scariness tracked back to alien technology which meant no harm? And so on, and so forth. If anything, Morris is even keener than Moffat to go a bit fanservice with Amy - who at one stage wears a schoolgirl outfit, bunches and hold-ups, and is elsewhere snogged by an undead maiden - to the extent that it rather distracts the artists from keeping the rest of the scene together. The best of the stories bring a very Sapphire & Steel creepiness to the table, but the rest of it must mostly be chalked up as a failed experiment: Pierre Menard, author of Doctor Who.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

While--as writer Jonathan Morris discusses in the commentary section at the end of the book--some stories are more successful than others, overall this book really captures the feel of the television series. I had read these stories serialized monthly in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine, and, reading them as a whole, they come together very nicely. Each one stands on its own nicely, but together, the overarching plot feels very natural and organic (which is interesting, considering how Morris details how they had to change their master plan due to conflicts with upcoming TV episodes).

Because these stories were serialized in monthly 10-page installments, they have a pace different from other Doctor Who graphic novels. This results in a book that feels very action-packed, and gives you a lot of bang for your buck. There's not a lot of padding or standing around in these stories!

A particular standout is the Christmas story, a loving homage to CS Lewis. It's clever and charming, and I almost wish it had been last year's Christmas episode on the TV series.

Morris and his artists really capture the characters of the Doctor and Amy. Speaking of the artists, they all do a great job, and again, it's interesting to read their comments on their own work, talking about about what they felt worked and what didn't, and why some of them aren't particularly happy with stuff that I thought works just fine on the page.

Overall, this is a great collection for Doctor Who fans looking for something to tide them over until the next new episode.

[Cale · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of Doctor Who Comics from the Doctor Who magazine, I believe. There are a couple of sparks in the collection, and the major arc of The Child of Time is very much in keeping with the feel of Doctor Who (lots of time travel madness and famous people and twists and turns) and manages to be as epic as anything on the show. Overall the writing is average, but some of the stories are inventive. The bollywood themed one in particular wasn't something I would ever expect to see in a comic book.

[Beth Huddleston · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I love a good Doctor Who tale any day of the week, what really interested me was at the back of book past all the graphic novel issues. The author and artists wrote about the creative process that produced this book. It was interesting to see how Jonathan Morris changed the main arc due to upcoming episodes in the show and how far the product came from the original drafts. Overall wonderful!

[Kendall (the Lord of Lasanya) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not gonna do an in-depth review, but I personally thought Doctor Who: The Child of Time was a pretty good book. It was based on my favorite doctor, so that's a plus. The big flaw with this book is that, through words, it's hard to capture the personality of Amy and the Doctor. I couldn't get the humor out of this as much as I could from the TV series. However, for a quick read about freaking Doctor Who, this sufficed.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly large book. The same size as British magazines. Collects the cartoons from the Dr Who Magazine with many artists. There's a couple of terrific stories and the over arching storyline is fab. Maybe the best 11th Doctor Who collection I've read; certainly the most value for the dollar.

[James Bowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A set of Eleventh Doctor comics, very much in the vein of the Moffat era - including a time-bending finale with parts stealthily assembled from bits of the earlier stories. The individual stories also range from good to excellent. Some great stuff here for fans of this Doctor! (B+)

[Caitlyn · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

3.5/5

Supernature 5
Planet Bollywood 2
The Golden ones 3
The Professor, The Queen, and the Bookshop 5
The Screams of Death 4
Do not go Gentle into that Good night 4
Forever Dreaming 3
Apotheosis 2
The Child of Time 4

[Lola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant timey-wimey mind boggling adventures!

[Jacquie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this as much as I did the IDW comics, but for a magazine story arc it was still pretty fun to read.

[David Rhodes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd read these stories in DWM however I think you get a deeper & richer experience in this compendium format.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three and a half stars in actuality. This felt like an enjoyable season of Dr. Who. I liked the common thread which tied the stories together. Not brilliant, but entertaining.

[Mary Havens · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think I was expecting graphic novel instead of comic book. I liked Supernature but that's as far as I got.

[Tori · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

4.5⭐️