A new planet sits in the sky. Silver giants stride across the Antarctic wastes. Human hands are poised to welcome nuclear winter. The death of the First Doctor draws near ... but is it the one he deserves?

Who is the First Doctor? What makes an embittered, selfish fraud embark on the Hero’s Journey? And what forces from the real world shape his final battle?

Not all heroes have memorable or meaningful deaths of course. They can die peacefully in their sleep. Or by tripping over that loose piece of carpet on the stairs. Or as the result of an ill-advised midnight snack. But a heroic and meaningful death sees the character pushed to their very limits, to a final battle where their courage, their strength, their genius, their invulnerability are exhausted and falter. They face the enemy bare, stripped of their armour and their brilliance.

And we see who they really are.

From Indie Ink Awards Finalist, writer and illustrator Francis O’Dowd, this unofficial and unauthorised series of beautifully illustrated books asks, ‘Do each of the Doctor’s incarnations die a death befitting a hero?’ The question is more complex than you might imagine ...

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