Is Doctor Who: The Steampunk Conundrum really Steampunk?
I suspect it’ll be a contentious issue to some. Certainly, the latest Doctor Who comic from Titan Comics set during the Victorian era and there are robots aplenty, but there’s not a great deal of steam; nor has anyone glued gears to a gold-painted Nerf gun. But it is an entertaining little trip, which sees the Doctor and his companion Alice getting into a scrape with some suspiciously advanced household automatons.
There’s no faulting the artwork; The 11th Doctor actually resembles actor Matt Smith rather than some bargain basement lookalike. There’s action aplenty, and the Doctor’s trusty Sonic Screwdriver gets a look in as the pair seek to unravel the robotic conspiracy. It’s short, coming in at under forty pages, including a short backup strip which features Matt Smith’s Doctor annoying former companions Amy and Rory. But it’s got the usual close scrapes and menacing monsters so if that’s your thing you’ll lap it up.
It’s just not a particularly creative outing and, given the book’s The Road To The Thirteenth Doctor, you’d expect more than Doctor-Who-by-the-numbers. There’s certainly no connection to Jodie Whittaker’s upcoming Doctor; I suspect those words have been slapped on in order to shift a few more comics. As an outing for Matt Smith’s gurning time-traveller, it hits all the right beats but it’s not going to set the universe alight.
Doctor Who: The Steampunk Conundrum is available now from Titan Comics.
