This week we kick off Titans year two with the Tenth Doctor stories collected in the TPB: The Endless Song.
The Singer Not the Song
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Cindy, Cleo and the Magic Sketchbook
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Medicine Man
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Please discuss below - no need to finish it first, discuss as you go along but please add spoiler tags for anything that could be considered a spoiler!
If you’ve previously read the book and want to join in the discussion, that’s great too!
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Really enjoying this right off the bat, I love when the TARDIS is used to just show off the worlds, and this setting is really fun (also music entity is very gender). The use of Synesthesia as a method to communicate with them is really cool.
I do think a little more could’ve been done like how they did in Echo with the onomatopoeia, but generally I think the story and setting here are a lot stronger (I’ve moved Echo down to a 6 from a 7).
I love the fact that we’re also seeing more different art forms through the 10th doctor’s run, it’s just really nice to go through them all with an artist as a companion, something I see will continue with the next story.
I really loved these cutaways before, so a story that focuses on them is incredible. I love the insight it gives into Gabby as a character and her reading of The Doctor. The age to his eyes she mentions and the page where it’s different sketches of him is really nice.
I also love the line about travelling in the TARDIS being somewhere between fear and euphoria (conjuring memories of An Awful Lot of Running for me), and the mentions of Turlough and Sarah are really sweet.
I loved Cleo from what we saw of her at the end of 10’s last year,so nice to see her again and nice to have a bit more of the aftermath of that (too often these massive events just get ignored after they happen). Confirmation that Hanif and Erik were gay is nice, but also makes that more sad.
Ebonite is very interesting and while it’s obviously not intentional, this side of the story does give major Pantheon vibes in terms of feeling a bit more mysterious and fantasy than Sci-Fi which is really nice.
And that last page reveal?? On I’m excited to see where this goes now.
The first part of this story with Munmeth is honestly just really charming. A medicine man who’s also an artist, seeing a modern day take on neanderthal life and cultures with Gabby’s interactions with him, the way even with the telepathic circuits there’s still some words Munmeth can’t understand and the way that’s shown to the audience.
After the sci-fi side of the story starts to rear its head though, that charm starts to be lost somewhat. Especially when it’s revealed they’re slavers from Gallifreyan myth, I’m sorry, I just can’t buy that. That works when they’re something that feels old or threatening without that, in those cases saying that can make something more threatening. These guys though, sure they’re evil, but they’re bog-standard evil, not mythologically evil. I don’t believe for one second that they’re the cruelest race teh time lrds worked with like 10 says here. The thing about them capturing people for The Death Zone is interesting, but they should’ve left it at that.
Sidenote, the doctor says he’s doing Venusian Akido but he’s fighting with a spear which just isn’t how Akido works
The world of Wupatki, the music-based Shan’tee, and the other life forms living in a symbiotic relationship are great concepts and wouldn’t work as such on TV.
It’s interesting to see a threat spreading a virus through music, threatening peace and life in Wupatki. But this also requires a lot of exposition, which slows down the narrative early on. There’s a lot of action after the first act, followed by more exposition, so this isn’t the breeziest of reads.
Tennant’s Doctor is written well, while Gabby feels somewhat sidelined. The supporting characters don’t pop out very well, with the exception of Smokey. The monster threat also isn’t very palpable.
The art style is good, but Tennant’s face looks weird at times.
The Singer not the song: I love the world-building here, Wupatki and the Shan’tee are really intriguing concepts, and the virus threat too. Good story, I like the art
Cindy, Cleo and the magic sketchbook: I like seeing an outsider’s perspective on the doctor and people traveling with him, and the sketchbook really makes full use of comics as a medium. The impressions of other companions Gabby has are cool too. And of course, Captain Jack Harness! Interested to see where this is going.
Medicine man: I liked that we got to see the story from Munmeth’s perspective first. This is actually such an interesting time period, but many stories exploring it seem to forget that prehistoric people were people and not primitives or something.
I’ve fallen behind on Comic Club (I blame you, Time Lord Victorious!).
Anyway, here’s what I thought of the final two stories in this collection.
Spoilers, sweeties!
The Magic Sketchbook = a weak 6/10
This is a Doctor-lite episode, focusing on Cindy and told through Gabby’s art and her diary entries to Cindy.
I’ve always struggled with these introspective issues—we certainly get a better grip on Gabby and Cindy, in particular, but it’s not very exciting.
It’s interesting to read Gabby’s thoughts on the various Doctors and previous companions. The tail end also changes things up as we realise that Gabby warns Cindy of Anubis and the Osirians, after which she faces Cleo and Ebonite in the next chapter of the Osirian saga. This is mostly set-up, but at least it brings back Captain Jack at the end.
Medicine Man = 6/10
This story takes us back to the Stone Age, where we meet a Neanderthal shaman who agrees to nurse an unconscious Doctor back to life. I like how these cave people are shown to be intelligent in their own way—knowing how to hunt, tend to wounds, and be artistic.
Soon enough, we have an alien invasion story in the Stone Age, complete with traditional flying saucers and a group of ragtag aliens who’ve gathered together to fight the Monaxi and prevent them from destroying the Earth.
We follow the story from Munmeth’s POV, and when Gabby uses words he’s not familiar with, they’ve been cleverly scratched out from the speech balloons. There are a few panels that repeat the same scene: how it really plays out and how the TARDIS translated it to Munmeth.
I like the discussion on the doomed fate of the Neanderthals. It seems like a classic theme in stories featuring them; see Ghostlight and Timewyrn: Genesis.
I’m a bit tired of these new alien baddies who turn out to be old foes of the Time Lords. It happens all the time in the Titan comics. The Monaxi here are no exception, even if we get a good climax with them.
Started reading The Singer Not the Song last night but kept falling asleep! Will go back to it tonight although I do remember this one from the first time round reading it.
Bit underwhelmed by The Singer not the Song. Very confusing panels - far too busy - trying to convey a concept rooted in sound and music meaning it really didn’t have much impact. All a bit messy. Gabby came across a bit generic this time round too which didn’t help.
Expected to hate this as I don’t enjoy the sketchbook conceit but actually really enjoyed this little Doctor-lite story. It was also a good way of reminding me about the story arc from the earlier strips which I’d started to forget about - Dorothy, Cleo, Anubis etc.
