This story is part of the third act of this event. This tells the story of how the Eighth Doctor and the Ninth Doctor ended up in the Dark Times. This does take place before Act 1 but I recommend reading this in the following order.
Monstrous Beauty
DWM Comic
The Ninth Doctor and Rose enter the Dark Times and clash with the Time Lords’ ancestors!
Well I’m glad I now know how the 9th Doctor got to the heart of TLV which is that… he just showed up I guess. Except unlike 8 it really isn’t any deeper than that as this has absolutely zero connection to getting 9 into 10’s story. Man that TLV glue is really falling apart now.
Still, in isolation I liked the story. One of the better DWM comics I’ve read. But I feel 9’s intervention here is pretty on par with 10’s, which is yet another instance of TLV undermining itself (even if we weren’t in TLV I would have said something).
I’m guessing Eccleston joined too-late in the game to do TLV audios?
I’ll be honest I don’t even remember what 9 is up to when he shows up at the end of The Knight, the Fool and the Dead. I know 8 is on a Dalek ship… Hopefully All Flesh is Grass fleshes his involvement out a bit!
8/10
I really enjoyed this one and how it fits the ninth Doctor into his appearances in The Knight, the Fool and the Dead and All Flesh is Grass
My review:
I do find this comic a fun little read, and it does kind of loosely explain why Nine arrives in a Coffin Ship without Rose (as she is recovering from her ordeal). It was also interesting to see Rassilon and the early Time Lords of Gallifrey
At the time it really felt like a missed opportunity that they hadn’t gotten Eccleston to do an audio, held out hope for a while that they were waiting to announce it…
A pretty good comic strip (which ties in nicely with my little 9/Rose binge at the moment).
I think the exploration of pre-Time Lord Gallifrey is good and I liked Drogann (reminded me of Richard Armitage) and Centia, the maid. I do think Rassilon was a bit wasted and seemed to be there merely so they could do a ‘look Rassilon used to be a woman’ thing but she was too generic as the sort of ‘mad’ chief character we often saw during Season 5 on TV.
Tying this into the DWM 8th Doctor strip, Tooth and Claw was a bit random but, even though I’m not a huge fan of vampires, I did like the way they were presented here with the coffin ship and the slaves.
I did feel the end was a bit of a cop out - turn Rose into a vampire and then just give her a magic cure but overall, one of TLV’s better entries (even if, still, the connective tissue between these stories is pretty flabby IMO).
I think that the comic is kind of fun, but I would have liked it to connect a little bit better with the books. However, it’s fun enough on its own to make a re-read interesting enough.
A decent story that would’ve been a good story even without being part of the TLV event. I agree that Rassilon could’ve potentially been better used here, or least made to stand out a bit more, but the comic does have their paranoia down well even this early in their personal timeline.
I came to this late after the majority of the TLV event, because I had to wait for this to be collected and available in the US. Thus it’s been far too long since I’ve read All Flesh is Grass. So, I have no idea how it actually ties into things.
It doesn’t really feel connected to the TLV in any way that’s meaningful, but it is a fun enough vampire story on its own. It’s not amazing, Rassilon really could have been any old character without much meaningfully changing, and the vampire stuff feels almost underplayed, too. Still, it’s entertaining and a pretty interesting adventure for Rose and the Doctor. 8/10
Well, I’m incredibly behind on the TLV journey. I had a big gap anyway because I don’t have the Big Finish audios. And then August happened, and I just didn’t have much time to get into anything much. So, here I go trying to get back to it and remember where we’re at with the various strands, including some I haven’t actually consumed…
Verdict after Issue One - Huh. I mean, other than being set in the Dark Times, I’m yet to see how this connects to anything else in TLV. Cool to have the vampires in, I knew they showed up somewhere and now I’m wondering if this is it or if they’ll play a larger role across multiple stories. Still, this is decent enough so far. Nothing especially memorable but I quite like the art style (even if they’ve done Billie Piper a bit dirty)! They do well to write the Doctor/Rose relationship well though, and capture Eccleston’s voice pretty effectively. No idea where any of this is going but I’m interested to find out…
Verdict after Issue Two - Again, this is fine, nothing particularly special. A nice smidgen of Gallifreyan lore, and I think the design of vampire-Rose at the end is cool. Otherwise, pretty forgettable.
Verdict after Issue Three - Yeah, more of the same. Nothing offensive and I really enjoy the art. But just don’t really see the point? Hey ho, on to the next thing…
