Image Credit: BBC/Titan Comics (Fair Use)
Image Description: Inside the Defender of the Daleks Trade Paperback
By John Salway
Name: Defender of the Daleks Trade Paperback
Type: Trade Paperback
Price: £9.65
Current TLV investment: £192.50
Reader, before today’s review I must first make a small confession. When I initially started my Time Lord Victorious journey, and began ordering all the products I’d need, I made a tactical error. When it came to Titan Comic’s two-issue Defender of the Daleks, I thought I’d save a little cash and opt for the omnibus edition. However, when I clocked the later release date for this, and realised it would mean my comic reviews would be somewhat behind the curve, I hastily arranged to purchase digital copies of each individual release as well, thereby saving me absolutely no cash whatsoever.
But now finally, the complete graphic novel of Defender of the Daleks has arrived in the post, and it’s definitely worth the wait!
While the content of the comic hasn’t changed from my previous reviews, with the artwork and story’s high quality remaining easy to recommend, it’s just so much more satisfying to hold it in my hand and ruffle through the pages, feeling the glossy finish of the front cover.
My only minor complaint would be that as there is no gap presented between the two collected instalments, the centre of the book features a two-page spread where the same image is more or less repeated across each page.
After the story is concluded, there are a few welcome extras: a gallery of alternative cover designs, a very short interview with TLV supremo James Goss, and a feature showing the progress of key pages from sketching to outlining to full colour. There’s also that old familiar Time Lord Victorious content map, and a concise, well thought out reader’s guide for purchasing more Doctor Who comics from Titan.
If Defender of the Daleks sounds like a story you’d like to own, this is absolutely the best way to do so, and functions very well as a standalone product without needing to know any of the surrounding Time Lord Victorious lore.
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[…] Defender of the Daleks is a visual love letter to Dalek history, with classic pieces of Dalek design and architecture on display on almost every page, in a very realistic style. There’s so much Dalek love, in fact, that the story slightly neglects its main villains, gooey monstrosities called the Hond. This was also the first TLV release to focus on the Dalek Strategist, an ancient and sly fellow who keeps his eye trained on the future and his own survival. His fraught relationship with the Doctor starts here, and recurs throughout the range as one of its most compelling elements. […]
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