IDW Publishing is part of the celebration for this 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who with their twelve part mini-series Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time. Each incarnation of the Doctor will be featured in a story and then (hopefully) we will get the "team up" that Who fans cannot get in real life: a meeting of all eleven incarnations of the Doctor.
This first issue starts at the "beginning," with the First Doctor (as played by William Hartnell from 1963-66) getting involved in an altercation with a classic Doctor Who monster. The Doctor and his companions (Barbara, Ian and Vicki...I am a bit disappointed that this story didn't feature his granddaughter Susan instead) travel back to London in 1868 to hear a lecture from Thomas Huxley. This is an excellent nod by the writers (Scott and David Tipton) to Doctor Who's start as an educational program geared towards teaching about history.
In typical Doctor Who fashion, things quickly go wrong and aliens get involved. I know, reducing it down to one sentence like that makes the comic sound more cliched than it actually was to me. This was my first time reading one of IDW's current Doctor Who comics, in the past I just picked up some of the reprint collections. The Tiptons definitely know their way around a Doctor Who story, quickly immersing the story in the tropes of an early Doctor Who story. The handling of the characters is spot on. Vicki is her typically condescending self, making sure to point out how much better educated she is than the people of the time period they are visiting. Ian is square-jawed and heroic, providing the muscle needed at times in these early adventures. Barbara is, well, Barbara...and being the Doctor's general sense of empathy. The villain of this story is a direct followup to a Doctor Who serial from 1965. I would tell you the identity of the alien but I want to leave something for the readers.
The story is fast paced, probably much faster paced than the First Doctor serials were, but that is not a bad thing. People do expect faster paced stories these days, particularly fans of the newer version of Doctor Who where the stories are in and out in a single episode, rather than the multipart serials of the classic show.
Is this comic worth getting? Definitely yes. If you are a fan of Doctor Who and your exposure to the earlier incarnations of the character has been limited, this comic is a good way to learn more about the earlier incarnations of the character (so far at least). The characterizations in this story are in line with the characters that I remember from the old serials. The story is reminiscent and the aliens are taken directly from a Doctor Who serial. The portrayal of the First Doctor is spot on with my remembrances of how William Hartnell played the character. This Doctor is just as crotchety and willful as Hartnell's character was.
Go out and get this comic.