The Cybermen are attacking at every point in history, at every point in the Doctor’s lives! The fabric of reality is collapsing, and only the Doctors can stop it! The Tenth Doctor takes a titanic machine into combat. The Twelfth Doctor finds an unlikely ally. The Ninth Doctor loses one of his own. And the Eleventh Doctor discovers something impossible! Witness the birth of the new Cybermen invasion, as the history of this aggressive Cyberiad is at last revealed…!

This issue gives us more of the same, with the various Doctors still going their separate ways, though the stakes are raised as the Ninth and Eleventh Doctors both face significant losses or setbacks that seem difficult or impossible for them to recover from. Meanwhile, Twelve is beginning to feel the after-effects of these attacks upon the timelines of his former selves – rather like the “cosmic angst” experienced by the Fifth Doctor in The Five Doctors – which perhaps suggests that the incarnations will soon be united against their common foe.

Also recalling The Five Doctors is a visit to the so-called Tomb of Rassilon (though clearly the man himself is still alive), and Eleven’s sonic screwdriver needing coaxing, persuading and encouraging in much the same way that Five’s TARDIS did in that 1983 anniversary special (which also had Cybermen in it, of course).

The Eleventh Doctor is confronted by some newly activated Cyber-Silurians, who look almost indecently naked, with just a few strategically placed metal components covering their naughty bits (Cybermen, of course, do not experience the emotion of embarrassment). It is curious that this should catch my attention when the Silurians of the classic series were always completely nude and yet I didn’t bat an eyelid about that – but then that wasn’t so noticeable, because the Silurians of old did not look so human in terms of their physique.

There’s also an exciting call-back to some of those one-page preludes featuring earlier Doctors that we’ve been enjoying in Titan’s other Doctor Who titles. All in all, the tension is becoming un-bare-able!

8

Richard McGinlay