The Many Lives of Doctor Who was solicited as "Issue 0"[1][2][3][4] or "Volume 0"[1][5][6][7][8][9] of Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor, published on September 26 2018.[3][9][10][11][nb 1]
Publisher's summary
Product summary
"That's the trouble with regeneration... You never quite know what you're going to get!" - The Doctor.
The ultimate celebration of Doctor Who, for fans old and new!
As the Doctor regenerates into their Thirteenth incarnation, they flash back across their many lives and many adventures - revealing brand-new stories from every era and face of the Doctor to date!
Written by Richard Dinnick (The Twelfth Doctor) and illustrated by a fantastic selection of mind-blowing artists, this is the perfect introduction to Doctor Who for new readers, and the ultimate celebration of the series for long-term fans!
Not just an ideal starting point for the era of the Thirteenth Doctor, as played by Jodie Whittaker, this collection is also an amazing doorway into a whole universe of Doctor Who comic book adventures!
Doctor Who: Thirteenth Doctor #0 is 100% all-new comic strip material!
Titan Comics website summary
It’s said that life flashes before your eyes when you die: as the Doctor regenerates into her Thirteenth incarnation, she relives memories from her many lives, showcasing unseen adventures from every past version of the Doctor!
The ultimate celebration of Doctor Who – a perfect beginner’s guide and a brilliant tribute for long-term fans, illustrated by a bevy of Doctor Who artists!
• Mariano Laclaustra drawing adventures for the Twelfth, First, and Seventh Doctors! • Giorgia Sposito drawing the Second, Fifth, Tenth, and Twelfth Doctors! • Arianna Florean drawing the Third and Sixth Doctors! • Brian Williamson drawing the Fourth Doctor! • Iolanda Zanfardino drawing the Eighth Doctor! • Neil Edwards drawing the War Doctor! • Pasquale Qualano drawing the Ninth and Eleventh Doctors! • Rachael Slott and Claudia Ianniciello drawing our first look at the Thirteenth Doctor!
Stories
| Title |
Doctor |
Featuring |
Released
|
| The Many Lives of Doctor Who
|
13th
|
Twelfth Doctor
|
26 September 2018
|
| The Path of Skulls
|
1st
|
Susan, Ian, Barbara
|
| Card Conundrum
|
2nd
|
Ben, Polly, Jamie
|
| Invasion of the Scorpion Men
|
3rd
|
Sarah, Dahensa
|
| Time Lady of Means
|
4th
|
Romana II, Tigil, Kemos
|
| Ophiuchus
|
5th
|
Nyssa, Tegan, Turlough
|
| Virtually Indestructible
|
6th
|
Peri
|
| Crossing the Rubicon
|
7th
|
Ace, Julius Caesar, the Tremas Master
|
| The Time Ball
|
8th
|
Josie
|
| The Whole Thing's Bananas
|
War
|
Dorium Maldovar
|
| Return of the Volsci
|
9th
|
Rose, Jack
|
| Nurse Who?
|
10th
|
Gabby, Cindy
|
| Without a Paddle
|
11th
|
Alice, River
|
| Harvest of the Daleks
|
12th
|
Bill
|
Notes
- This bumper issue of stories served as "Issue 0" of Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor. It can also be considered a graphic novel volume of the series given it is a collection of stories relating to the run and its additional branding as "Volume 0". Regardless of whether it is an issue or volume, it is included under The Thirteenth Doctor section in Titan Comics' Reader's Guide.
- The quote in the publisher's summary is from the Fifth Doctor, during part one of Castrovalva.
- This comic was exclusively announced by Entertainment Weekly, with first look images, on 28 June 2018.[12]
- Titan Comics' Doctor Who editor Andrew James stated to Richard Dinnick that though Titan was releasing The Road to the Thirteenth Doctor, there was "a gap before Jody [Houser] start[ed] the main line of 13th Doctor ongoing" and that "What we’d like to do is a multi-Doctor big event thing to bring everyone into the range".[13]
- The comic "started life" as The 13 Doctors, according to Dinnick, before "we realised there were 14 if not 15 in there; we’ve not got Cushing but we have got War. We haven’t done two Tennant stories – even though apparently he’s two Doctors!"[13]
- It was Jessica Burton who came up with the preamble of The Many Lives of... with the Doctor Who logo serving to finish the rest of the title, according to Richard Dinnick.[13] In Titan Comics' Reader's Guide, this comic is simply titled as The Many Lives Of.
- Richard Dinnick was instructed not to make a multi-Doctor story as per Supremacy of the Cybermen or The Four Doctors, but instead, as he said, "standalone stories to show the Doctors in their era, in their comfort zone with their companions doing a story that was reflective of their era". The other requirement "was not to have too much baggage" in terms of continuity references. He "liked [that] because [he]’d done two quite continuity-heavy stories for [the] 12th Doctor and a standalone that wasn’t". Though he "did put some Easter eggs in for fans".[13]
- Richard Dinnick considers The Many Lives of Doctor Who "in [his] mind at least" to be the 55th anniversary special, as "Every Doctor is in it". However, he does concede "we don’t see Daleks or Cybermen or Sontarans etc", but does point out Harvest of the Daleks is of course about the Daleks.[13]
- Dinnick "want[ed] to put an element of 13 in each story – for example there’s a story about some aliens that are based on the 13th element of the periodic table", referencing Virtually Indestructible.[13]
