Doctor Who Circuit Breaker: Adversary of the Daleks #1 Review

 

Doctor Who Circuit Breaker: Adversary of the Daleks #1 Review

Writers: Dulce M Montoya & Dan Watters

Artist: Robert Ingranata

Colorist: Valentina Bianconi

Letterer: Richard Starkings & Tyler Smith

Editor: Jonathan H Wilkins

Cover Artists: Jay Anacleto, Photo, Robert Sienicki & Flops

Publisher: Titan Comics

Price: $6.99

Release Date: July 8, 2026

 

Time Travel is a tricky business. Forget stepping on a Butterfly. You can change someone’s life with a harsh word or a smile. And then there are the things we touch or take with us when we leave. Thankfully, there is an organization that keeps track of all these ripples in spacetime. The Unified Intelligence Taskforce safeguards the people of Earth from alien invasions, scheming mad scientists, and interference in the timestream. But how is UNIT watching over us? And who helps them prevent reality-shattering paradoxes? Let’s leap into Doctor Who Circuit Breaker: Adversary of the Daleks #1 and see!

 

Story

Osgood and Andrew were looking forward to working with the Doctor. But they didn't realize that the Fugitive Doctor would assist them. Unlike the others the Doctors have met, the Fugitive Doctor doesn't know about her other incarnations. Nor does she care what Osgood and Andrew think of her. She has a job to do, and she's doing it her way.

 

UNIT has amassed a storehouse of items from other planets and time periods. In Doctor Who Circuit Breaker: Adversary of the Daleks #1, the Fugitive Doctor must assess where they belong. When she takes each item to her TARDIS, it transports her to the general area where the item belongs. But the Doctor doesn't know who to return it to.

 

Dulce M Montoya and Dan Watters' story transports the Fugitive Doctor to ancient Greece. Instead of arriving amid the Trojan War, she finds a land at peace. The local town has a bustling marketplace. And the locals bring their offerings to Zeus' temple, even if it leaves them with little to eat themselves. Unfortunately, no one there recognizes the item the Fugitive Doctor is trying to return. And after seeing a man faint with hunger, she cannot help but hike up to Mount Olympus to discuss the gods' reliance on the locals' generosity.

 

The Fugitive Doctor arrived in Greece under a cloud, as Osgood and Andrew worried that her last mission might initiate a civil war. But the Doctor can't help their worries. They cannot blame her for other people's irrational actions. As the Doctor attempts to rectify the problems threatening peace in ancient Greece, she tries to help people work together to better their lives. But while an unseen party observes, the Doctor fails to recognize that not everyone shares her definition of reasonable behavior in Doctor Who Circuit Breaker: Adversary of the Daleks #1.

 

Art

After a view from space of other planets, the Doctor, Osgood, and Andrew walk between tall rows of open shelving. The Doctor plucks a pair of alien glasses and tries them on. Osgood rips them away from her. The Doctor frowns and looks away, her body language defensive. Then, the Doctor’s eyes fix on an item crackling with energy set on a high shelf. She runs outside, past the trees rising above a fence, and into her blue police box. The shape of the ceiling and the double-hexagon shadow on the floor evoke the First Doctor’s TARDIS. Then, as she sets the Dalek gun on the console, the Doctor sets her coordinates and pulls a lever as the weapon crackles with energy.

 

As Robert Ingranata portrays the Doctor amid pastoral splendor, Valentina Bianconi adorns Doctor Who Circuit Breaker: Adversary of the Daleks #1 with vibrant colors. The surrounding hills and trees recall the greenery beyond the UNIT base. The white-robed people in the fields seem as innocent as the grazing sheep. Villagers wear browns and pastels, while some in the market dress in more vibrant colors. She may be the Fugitive Doctor. Yet the Time Lord's bright purple hat and suit, accentuated with a multicolored blouse and hatband, command people's attention.

 

Richard Starkings and Tyler Smith fill white and green balloons and boxes with black uppercase dialogue. Raised voices enlarge words and turn balloons spiky. Giant white letters warn the Doctor of approaching danger, while giant red letters accompany its arrival. She faced down a red apple with certainty. But the Fugitive Doctor finds another red menace more difficult to reason with, even if it speaks in a font befitting the birthplace of modern philosophy. Thanks to Titan Comics for providing a review copy.

 

Final Thoughts

The Fugitive Doctor recognizes she needs to work on her people skills. Yet she doesn’t understand why people can’t get along. As she goes about her job, trying to prevent world-threatening paradoxes, she struggles to see things from other people’s perspectives. Still, she tries to help, even if success seems unlikely, in Doctor Who Circuit Breaker: Adversary of the Daleks #1.

 

Rating 9.2/10

 

To look inside see my preview of Doctor Who Circuit Breaker: Adversaryof the Daleks #1. 

 

Doctor Who Circuit Breaker: Adversary of the Daleks #1 Preview

 

COVER A: JAY ANACLETO

When the BBC shut down TV production after the Seventh Doctor and Ace's final onscreen adventures in 1989, work began on making a Doctor Who movie. As the property drifted between filmmakers and studios, all the scripts had one idea in common. Hollywood was fascinated with the Daleks. They just didn't know how to reinvent them for the big screen. 

Perhaps it's just as well the Daleks didn't feature in the 1996 American-made Eighth Doctor TV pilot, as the series eventual return to the BBC in 2005 proved that the Daleks didn't need to be reinvented. They were still capable of turning the Doctor's life inside out, and endangering the Earth, whenever they wished.

Yet every time they've appeared, each Doctor Who story has explored new aspects of the Daleks. What changes will the Daleks demonstrate when the Doctor discovers them meddling in Earth's past? And can the Doctor prevent them from destroying our future?

Here's all the info from Titan Comics: 

DOCTOR WHO: CIRCUIT BREAKER – ADVERSARY OF THE DALEKS

Writers: Dan Watters & Dulce M. Montoya

Artists: Roberta Ingranata, Sami Kivelä & Valentina Bianconi

Publisher: Titan Comics

Issue Length: 48 Pages (Full Color)

Price: $6.99

Release Date: July 8, 2026 

 

THE DALEKS ARE BACK! Titan Comics is thrilled to announce their involvement in the Doctor Who: Circuit Breaker mixed-media event, with TWO comics and an all-new graphic novel which will feature the Fugitive Doctor’s first encounter with the Daleks!

With Issue #1 launching the first full adventure of the epic Circuit Breaker mixed-media event, Titan will publish two thrilling adventures that send the Doctor across time and space into her deadliest conflict yet. In Adversary of the Daleks, the Doctor arrives in Thessaloniki in ancient Greece where she discovers that even the gods fear strange visitors from across the universe.

While in Dawn of the Daleks, the Doctor travels to the war-ravaged world of Skaro as the Doctor battles the Daleks with the fate of their Kaled forebears at stake!

Written by acclaimed comics writers Dulce M. Montoya and Dan Watters (Batman: Dark Patterns, Nightwing) - and brought to life by stunning artwork from Sami Kivelä (Undone by Blood), these comics will be a must-read for fans of Doctor Who, science fiction, and epic intergalactic adventures. 

 

Now, let's take a look inside:

 

 

 

 

 

Here are more cover options:

 

COVER B: PHOTO

 

COVER C: ROBERT SIENICKI

 

 

COVER D: FLOPS

 

COVER E: FLOPS - COLOUR YOUR OWN VARIANT

 

Jay Anacleto Inks Cover

 

 

Here's the full list of cover options for both issues:

 

ISSUE 1:

COVER A: JAY ANACLETO

COVER B: PHOTO

COVER C: ROBERT SIENICKI

COVER D: FLOPS

COVER E: FLOPS - COLOUR YOUR OWN VARIANT

 

ISSUE 2:

COVER A: NIPUNI

COVER B: PHOTO

COVER C: KIT WALLIS

COVER D: FLOPS

COVER E: FLOPS

Doctor Who: Circuit Breaker: Adversary of the Daleks #1 will be released on July 8, 2026, with Issue #2 on August 5, 2026, and the Graphic Novel to follow on the December 2, 2026. 

Thanks to Titan Comics for sharing this preview with us.

Mat Irvine On Bringing Words to Life

A spaceship waits on its launchpad
outside a lunar penal colony

Special Effects work has always demanded hard work, quick thinking, and ingenuity on the part of their practitioners. The Doctor Who story "Frontier In Space" proved especially so. In Science Fiction terms, author Malcolm Hulke's story occupied the sub-genre known as Space Opera. The events portrayed in "Frontier In Space" may not compare favorably with the interstellar journeys and battles in a novel by Peter F. Hamilton, but the story was pretty fantastic for its time. 

Unsurprisingly, "Frontier In Space" proved one of producer Barry Letts' costliest stories. Over six twenty-five minute episodes, the Doctor and Jo embark on numerous space journeys, get embroiled in several space battles, and encounter an Ogron-eating monster whom the Ogrons worship as a god. There's even a short appearance by the Daleks. Events take our heroes to Earth, the Moon, Draconia, and the Ogron home world. So, even if the Doctor and Jo repeatedly get locked up in cells by Humans, Draconians, Ogrons, and the Master, they also get out of them and have plenty to do to keep us interested and entertained.

The Doctor even stretches his legs in two spacewalks during the course of the story. 

Thousands of people are typically needed to create the special effects for today's blockbuster Sci-Fi movies, many more than would have been involved in the entire production of this 1973 TV serial. Producer Barry Letts had to stretch his budget to the limits to pay for elaborate twenty-sixth century sets, costumes, location filming, and of course, the special effects work. The latter involved an enormous TV wall-screen in the Earth President's office, the Draconians' makeup, battles involving laser pistol and rifle fire, and of course, all the events that take place in space. 

Despite the enormous scope of the story, the Special Effects team only received a fraction of the days they had requested to film the space sequences. Thankfully, the BBC had purchased a lot of spaceship models from Gerry Anderson's Century 21 Productions. While the Special Effects team weren't allowed to film any of the models, as they were too well known from TV shows such as Fireball XL5 and Thunderbirds, they were allowed to cannibalize the models for spare parts. So they built all the spaceships and sets required in the script, and hoped for the best when their short period of filming took place.

On one precious filming day, Mat Irvine realized that the size of the Master's Earth Police ship was too large to work with the set of the lunar penal colony. With only half-an-hour before the scene was due to be filmed, he set to work with a ping pong (table tennis) ball, bits of tubing, balsa wood for the wings, and some of the plastic parts cannibalized from the Century 21 models. He cut, assembled, glued, and painted the required model, and managed to set it down on the lunar set before the camera was ready to roll. It may not be the most impressive model ever built, but it helped draw viewers into the story, and make them believe that the Doctor and Master were really on the Moon.

Hard work, quick-thinking, and ingenuity, such as he demonstrated in "Frontier In Space," is what Special Effects work is about. Isn't it amazing, how an author like Malcolm Hulke can create enormous vistas that Special Effects teams have to spend so much money and time to recreate on the TV or movie screen? It makes me all the more impressed when I read novels such as The Reality Disfunction, and wonder if the aliens, space battles, sentient biospheres, and galaxy-sweeping events Peter F. Hamilton created with a few words could ever be brought to life on movie screens.

But then, we all know that words hold tremendous power, don't we?

Dragon Dave

Malcolm Hulke on Dragons & Distrust: Part 2

An SM-64 Navajo cruise missile
reminds us of an earlier era in Florida, USA

When Malcolm Hulke wrote "Frontier In Space" for Doctor Who in the early 1970s, war between the world's superpowers, the United States and the USSR, seemed inevitable. Indeed, it was already taking place. As the Cold War progressed, year after year, both sides circled each other like snarling dragons. While they occasionally belched fire on each other, for the most part they "defended" themselves by building huge stockpiles of weapons--including nuclear weapons--for a war they believed was inevitable. A war to end all wars, in which no one on our planet might survive.

As I watched the story last week, "Frontier In Space" reminded me of a more recent war. The United States believed that Iraq had stockpiles of WMDs, or weapons of mass destruction, which they could supply to terrorists. A few officials argued otherwise, but government leaders were swayed by overwhelming "evidence." So in March of 2003, President George W. Bush declared war, and the United States invaded Iraq. Two months later, he declared "Mission Accomplished." The United States had won its war. Unfortunately, it never secured the Peace. After eight years of constant violence, the United States pulled out of Iraq, but the violence and instability in that country continues.

Thankfully, few of us need to decide whether we will declare war on others. Or do we? Life brings conflict, setbacks, and disappointments. Each day we have to assess the statements and actions of others. Can we believe what they say? Can we trust them to act in our best interests? It doesn't help if they've lied to us in the past, or if we gauge their actions as unethical. It's easy to adopt the attitude of the Earth President, or the Draconian Ambassador, and demand proof of what the other person says before we believe them. In other words, judge them guilty until proven innocent. 

Skepticism and cynicism are easy attitudes to adopt, and safe positions to hold. But shutting others out limits our daily actions, and curtails our potential achievements. No "victory" ever comes without cost, and afterward we will face the long term consequences of our actions. The world is still dealing with the aftereffects of the 2003 War in Iraq. Likewise, the world is still affected by the Cold War, as aging weaponry and nuclear material find their way out of Russia. Can we believe that our own little interpersonal wars will not cast similar ripple affects through the ponds of our lives for years to come?

In "Frontier In Space," the Doctor's nemesis, the Master, developed a way of projecting sound that acted on the fear centers of the Human and Draconian brain. This caused crew members of ships on both sides to "see" those they most feared (members of the other superpower) instead of the Ogrons. After the Human and Draconian fleets had pounded each others' planets to rubble, the Master planned to send in the Daleks to conquer the survivors. In his egomaniacal mind, he no doubt believed that, at some point, the Daleks would exhaust their resources, and he would end up ruling the Human, Draconian, and Dalek empires. Until the Doctor and Jo stumbled on his plan, he was succeeding brilliantly. After all, how could any Human ever trust a race of people who looked like Dragons? How could the Draconians ever trust a race of people who looked so different from them? How likely is it to believe that a third party must be initiating or intensifying the conflict between them? 

Thoughts to muse upon, courtesy of the late, great Malcolm Hulke.

Dragon Dave 

Rex Dalek & K-9 Visit Krispy Kreme

The Final Dalek/Halloween Post of 2013!

Rex: Look at all those choices, K-9.

K-9: You are not my Master.  You cannot order me around.

Rex: I’m not ordering you.  I’m just suggesting that, as Master’s newest best friend, you might want to look at what’s available.

K-9: Very well, I will poke my head out of this pocket.  You’re right; Master is dithering between the Strawberries & Cream and the Lemon Meringue Donuts.  Can he not see the Halloween options?

Rex: Perhaps you could influence him to—

K-9: You are not my Master!  You cannot order me around!

Rex: I see your Mesmeric Beam worked.

K-9: I hope Master likes his Pumpkin.  I exist only to serve.

Rex: In that case, you’re serving him a fun, frosted donut with a gooey chocolate center. 

K-9: Yes, it seems a safe choice, but still…

Rex: Mistress seems to like her Chocolate Cobweb. 

K-9: She should.  That chocolate donut has a rich vanilla cream center.

Rex: Yes, I thought it would go well with her cream tea. 

Rex: Well, you can relax, my friend.  Master seems to be—

K-9: YOU ARE NOT MY MASTER!!!  YOU CANNOT ORDER ME TO RELAX!!!!!!!!!

Rex Dalek & K-9

Dental Swag

Denim: You know, a visit to the dentist gives a whole new meaning to the term swag.
Pocket: I've never heard of Stuff We All Get including cavities, but then, Fury's got his eyepatch, so I guess we all need to take care of ourselves.  

Pocket: I tell you what.  While I start on the toothbrush and toothpaste, you can get busy with the floss.
Denim: I don't understand, boss.  What's a Dalek supposed to do with dental floss.
Pocket: Let's go ask Spider-Dalek.  With his talent for web design, he should be able to give us some tips.

Denim: Maybe I'll just try to figure it out on my own.
Pocket: Yeah, that's probably for the best.

Pocket & Denim Dalek

Fury's Fury

I don't believe what I'm seeing!  You ate all your Halloween candy already?  Get up!  No, I don't want to hear your pathetic groaning, or your complaints.  Get up now!  

By the moons of Skaro!  You even ate Mistress' Snickers?  

Fine, don't get up.  I've got a better idea.  Thor, get in here!  I've found a new use for your hammer!

Oh, so you get up now that Thor's arrived, eh?  No, don't try to explain how one piece of candy tasted so good it forced you to eat another.  No, don't go blaming your bad behavior on your programming.  Your little moment of madness promises to get all of us in hot water with the Mistress, and that's a very bad thing when you're made of yarn!  

Now, leave my sight, you two.  The dentist gave me some cleaning supplies after yesterday's checkup, but I think you need them more than I do.  I expect you to use them, and I'll inspect your nutrient ingestion ports later, so you'd better do a good job, or Thor here might just find a use for his hammer after all.

No, Thor, I don't think I'm being too hard on them.  If they're going to bear the Dalek name, they've got to learn discipline.

I heard that, you two!  How dare you be rude about "Snakes on a Plane!"  There's some fine performances in that movie...for one actor in particular!  

And anyways, Agent Coulson's got the plane!

Dalek Fury

A Dalek Treat

Pocket: Look, the pumpkins are out!  You know what that means.

Denim:  Pumpkin Pie!!!!

Pocket: No, it's Halloween and time to Trick-or-Treat.  Get your costume on and we’ll go.

Denim: I hope we get Pumpkin Pie later.

Pocket: Okay, I'm ready.

Denim: Nice costume.  What are you, Eyesore Dalek?

Pocket: Don't be a smarty-humanoid-mutation-in-a-pepper-pot-shaped-travel-machine.  I'm your friendly neighborhood Spider-Dalek.  Where is your costume?

Denim:  I don't feel like dressing up.  I'll just go as an ordinary Dalek.

Pocket: No, this is Halloween.  If you want to Trick or Treat, you MUST wear a costume.

Denim: All right, hang on a minute, I'll go change.

Pocket:  Are you ready to go?

Denim:  What do you think, tiny Dalek?

Pocket: Uh, we'll talk about your attitude later.  Just remember the Mistress said it is Trick-or-Treat, not Exterminate-or-Treat.

Denim: Hulk Dalek thinks Smash-and-Treat is best!

Denim:  That was fun.  

Pocket: Aren't you glad you dressed up?  Everyone loves the Hulk!

Denim: You were right, sir.  Lets check out the candy we scored.

Pocket:  Wow, that's a lot of chocolate!

Denim:  Yeah, it's not bad.  But remember, Mistress said that any Snickers we got are hers.

Pocket: Still, I enjoyed Trick-or-Treating.  I hope we can go again next year.

Denim: Next year?  Why worry about next year, when we've got all this candy to eat tonight?

Pocket & Denim Dalek