Doctor Who Series 3 Volume 1: The Hypothetical Gentleman

"The Hypothetical Gentleman" by Andy Diggle and Mark Buckingham (artist)
"The Nurse and the Doctor" by Brandon Seifer and Philip Bond (artist)
Available now from IDW Publishing
Review copy

I thought I was downloading Doctor Who Series 1: Winter's Dawn, Season's End from Netgalley, but the book that downloaded was Doctor Who Series 3 Volume 1: THE HYPOTHETICAL GENTLEMAN.  No problem.  It was just the eleventh Doctor instead of the tenth, and a partial comic book season instead of a full one.

THE HYPOTHETICAL GENTLEMAN contains two stories.  The first is the eponymous "The Hypothetical Gentleman," wherein the TARDIS takes the Doctor, Amy, and Rory to Victorian times.  The story involves con artists, a machine to the other side, and a few strange turns.  It's fairly similar to an episode of the series.  I wasn't a huge fan of Mark Buckingham's art.  He's a fine comics illustrator, but he just seemed to be trying to hard to match the appearance of the actors.  He did fine with the Doctor and Amy, but his Amy was never quite right.  And all the close-ups of the Doctor felt similar, instead of offering distinct emotion.

"The Nurse and the Doctor" involves a forced guys' night out, which turns into quite the adventure through time.  Meanwhile, Amy gets stuck in the Great Beer Flood.  I liked that Philip Bond went with a more cartoon-inspired style, like something from Young Justice.  It wasn't my favorite look, but I wasn't distracted by it.  This is a fairly lightweight story, a little mini-adventure that would never make it to the screen.  It was fun to visit the characters again, but nothing overly exciting.

All in all, this graphic novel will entertain fans between seasons, but certainly doesn't stand on its own.  Even for fans, it isn't essential reading.  I recommend just checking it out from the library if you're interested in it.