Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Volume 4 – The Then and The Now

The Doctor is accused of committing genocide during the Time War, but he believes it’s a frame-up. He’s being pursued across time and space by bounty hunters, accosted by a companion he can’t remember, and he’s trying to stop a growing monstrous entity unlike anything he’s seen before. Thankfully, he’s not alone. With his librarian companion Alice, the Doctor tries to clear his name. But to do that, he has to delve into his own history…as the War Doctor.

Volume 4: The Then and The Now throws a LOT of mysteries at the reader very quickly. In the first few pages, we meet the race accusing the Doctor of genocide, two bounty hunters, the strange companion, and the threat, and it’s a bit overwhelming. This feels like three episodes of the show running concurrently.

Impressively, the narrative manages to keep things moving while the Doctor and Alice puzzle out various pieces of these intertwined mysteries, and although we’re left with far more questions than answers by the end of the book, we’re also confident that the writers know where we’re headed. (Though you do secretly wish they were slightly less ambitious with their storytelling.)