The ten doctors by Rich Morris is a doctor who fan webcomic about all ten doctors in a combined adventure. I have been really enjoying this comic, it is surprisingly good.

The comic does require some knowledge of the doctor who universe since it does have pretty much everything from the series in it you could possibly think of.

What impresses me the most about this comic is the characterisation. All of the doctors, companions and various characters all have constant and accurate characterisation. The dialogue is excellent particularly in capturing each of the different doctors various traits. The story does however rely on the audience’s knowledge of the universe for much of the characterisation of the villans though.

For the first thirty pages the story is easy to follow, but when all the main characters go of in different directions to try and find out what is going on the story becomes quiet fractured with only a couple of pages being devoted at a time to each of the different situations.

The story does run the risk of collapsing under the weight of all of the doctors, supporting cast and every major villain in doctor who history. This criticism has been made before at this strip. At the moment I feel the story is just hanging together, we will have to wait and see.

I wounder if the webcomic form is exacerbating this tendency. The story is easier to follow reading in one big chuck rather than in as a webcomic update schedule.

I am interested in the format he has chosen to tell the story in. The page layout is very tight with a2×4 panel layout for every page. The dialogue takes precedence in each panel over the art like in EC comics. This means it tends to be a wordy comic similar in feel to golden age American comics.

The opposite of the cinematic or wide screen comics like The Authority which is popular at the moment in superhero comics.. The question that has formed in my mind is why? The complex nature of the story has a lot to do with this. I think also that the webcomic medium is another reason for this, wanting to give the reader as much comics goodness per post as is possible in the format.

I don’t know if this is the intention but it seems that the page layout has evolved as the story has progressed. Each page has a beginning middle and cliffhanger creating a serial type format for the comic. Which I find interesting because I suspect for long form comics this might suit the requirements of the webcomic audience rather than having to wait for a long form comic page three times a week which out of context may be hard to read.

Anyway if you like Doctor Who go read the comic. I’m looking forward to what happens next.

Tags: doctor who, webcomic

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