Doctor Who, vol. 1: Winter's Dawn, Season's End

Doctor Who, vol. 1: Winter's Dawn, Season's End, 408 pages

Originally published as single-issue comics, this weighty volume follows the Tenth Doctor (the one portrayed by David Tennant) in a meandering tale that takes him from a silent-movie set in 1926 to about 10 years ago in London, and to an unnamed planet 4000 years in the future. He picks up a couple of new companions for the adventure, finds a new scheming villain, and meets up with some old-favorite races, like the Judoon and the Sontarans.

Compared to the long-running TV series, neither the story nor the artwork is particularly up to snuff, in part because so many artists are involved (depicting a character based on an actual human is certainly difficult, and the artists here had varying degrees of success). I also feel that Doctor Who is best presented in an episodic manner, which isn't really done here. Yes, there are characters and villains that appear and disappear/are vanquished at different points, much like the TV show, but unlike the TV iteration, this comes across as a run-on sentence. But for those of us who love the Tenth Doctor, we'll take any opportunity we can get to go on an adventure with the Doctor.

 *For those who are fans of the show, this takes place after Tennant's episodes with Donna Noble, but before the TV movies where he travels solo.