Lost souls seeking enlightenment. Forgotten daughters seeking dominance. A stolen talisman binding their fates. The death of the Third Doctor draws near ... but is it the one he deserves?

The Third Doctor is a caged animal, born in captivity. Yet he forged his own chains. He’s about to discover that the cost of freedom is his self.

This incarnation’s seething contempt for his captivity and suffocating nonautonomy are never far from the surface. He takes every opportunity to vent his frustrations by launching scathing tirades against every moronic government minister, firmly clamped shut military mind, or blinkered hubristic scientist to cross his path. For the same reason he relishes every chance his assignments afford him to speed recklessly in cars, motorbikes, quadbikes, jet skis, hovercraft, gyrocopters and milk floats; to indulge in hand-to-hand combat such as fisticuffs, Venusian aikido, and sword fighting; and to engage in any form of extreme activity such as potholing, ascending cooling towers, and Morris dancing. He’s the Second Doctor turned inside out with anger, no longer hiding in the shadows. There’s no more subtle orchestration or thoughts left unsaid. Everything is in the open and in the moment. With his elegant and outlandish clothes, he demands to be noticed, acknowledged, commanding whatever room he is in. To his friends and those in need he can be utterly charming, a complete gentleman. But there’s a storm forever raging within him. His sense of self has been damaged and his self-importance affronted. This is a man shouting at the sky, screaming at the gods.

He’s become a prisoner of his ego.

Rich in symbolism and metaphor, Planet of the Spiders is the first story to be constructed around the Doctor’s death and regeneration. It cements the lore and establishes a template for all future incarnations to follow or react against. It’s also a deliberate parable about Buddhist meditation. But as such, the arc of the Doctor’s dilemma, demise and rebirth is a metaphor for zen meditation, not the other way around. So can a quest for spiritual enlightenment corelate with a death befitting a hero?

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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