Exiled in Geeksville

IDW has produced some pretty cool Doctor Who comics, not to mention the Doctor Who/Star Trek the Next Generation crossover they are currently putting out (Issue 6 (of 8) will be out this week!), and have recently relaunched the ongoing title with Andy Diggle writing and art by Mark Buckingham.

Now they are joining in to the Doctor’s 50th Anniversary (the program debuted on the BBC on November 23, 1963) with a new 12 issue Maxi-series called Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time. Each of the first 11 issues will feature a different Doctor, (beginning with the original, William Hartnell) The first issue will hit comic stands in January 2013 and is written by Scott and David Tipton (who are writing the DW/STNG crossover) and art  and covers by Simon Fraser & Francesco Francavilla.  Each issue will also feature a prose piece about that issue’s Doctor.  The First Doctor essay will be  written by producer, director and script editor for Big Finish Productions, John Ainsworth.

Of course there have only been 11 Doctors (Valeyards and Meta-Crises not withstanding) and the series will be 12 issues long.   So what will be happening in that last issue?  A gaggle of Doctors teaming up?  The Fall of the 11th at Trensilore? I discussed this IDW Vice President of Marketing Dirk Wood about this at New York Comic Con.  IDW thought about making it an 11 issue series, but decided 12 issues would work better.   I pointed out as the series was beginning in January, that the 11th issue would come out in November, timing it with series actual 50th anniversary, and suggested a double issue.  So who knows, maybe we’ll get a flip book this fall.

This is only IDW’s second time they have featured classic versions of the Doctor, as their license is very specific as to what they can produce.  The last time we saw new material featuring pre-2005 Doctor Who characters was in Doctor Who:The Forgotten, which came out in 20