Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Volume 1 – Gaze of the Medusa

When the Doctor and Sarah Jane explore Victorian London on a lark, they don’t expect to find monstrous cyclopses or people being turned to stone. And when Sarah Jane is kidnapped by a mysterious woman hellbent on unlocking the secrets of time travel, only the Doctor and his new allies can save her. But will anyone survive when the Gaze of the Medusa is unleashed?

Arguably the most popular of the original Doctors, the Fourth Doctor finally makes the jump to comics in Gaze of the Medusa, and its monster-heavy, campy style seems to fit the Tom Baker era perfectly. With a touch of the timey-wimey shenanigans you’d expect from new-era Who, there’s something here for fans of all Doctors.

That being said, once you have the elements in place, the story feels a bit lackluster, since the reader has no problem seeing how all the pieces fit and how the Doctor will stop the threat. Doctor Who stories thrive on intimate moments and unpredictability, and I don’t feel like we got enough of either in this one.

Although this is a solid starter, hopefully the later volumes will ratchet things up.