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Was a bit confused by the final panel of Fiends, should that be someone we recognise (i.e. from the extended Edgiverse)? It didn't ring any bells.

I hope they go beyond visuals. For the post part, I've not had problems with how Doctor Who has looked since the reboot. Bar a few CGI horrors, it's mostly veered between fine and really good. But those other shows hang together because of the writing and the script editing. Doctor Who... doesn't.

Absolutely, you can often look past low budget effects if the writing is good enough, which unfortunately in the last five years or so hasn't been the case. I really hope Davies can get some good writers on board and restore the show's reputation again.

No idea who he is, since I've not seen the shows he's in. Am not remotely surprised they've gone for a black man and someone young. My main hope isn't about him – from a quick read, he clearly has the acting chops and charisma – but that the direction and scripts are better than the current run and, frankly, better edited than the vast majority of Doctor Who to date. When you're competing against shows like The Expanse, you can't be a kitchen sink show that doesn't make sense.

I suspect one thing it won't be is kitchen sink. This is a brand new production model for the show with a lot of Sony money being thrown at it, I'm sure they're aware that it's got to look as shiny and expensive as possible in order to compete in the same space (no pun intended) as things like The Expanse.

There's something quite bewildering about bringing back Skip Tracer yet again.

Maybe completely off the mark here, but when it started it felt like an experiment in creating another strip to run in semi-regular rotation a la Dante or Sin Dex, but one which failed to earn the love of the readers like either of those, which makes Tharg's devotion to it rather baffling. Especially as it had reached what felt like a natural ending point. And yet, here we are again.

Please let this be the last one, Tharg. It's had it's run, but it was clear from the start it was never going to be in the pantheon of classic 2000AD stories. Let it go.

Wow. The inference that mainstream British comics (which means, what, 2000 AD and maybe The Phoenix?) has "fast food" thinking and "cut corners". Hrnggg. (Also, apparently Spacewarp #1 was effectively a sampler; I thought it was originally mooted as an ongoing title.)

I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt that it's financially risky to produce an anthology at the moment hence focussing on individual stories, but...I'm also sceptical the first issue was as a much of a success as he's claiming it was. Who's buying it, exactly? Is it all middle-aged 2000AD fans or has it actually found the intended younger audience? I remain to be convinced of the latter.

It's definitely possible there may've been a bit of a drastic rethink to the publishing model and he's covering his arse a bit.

I can only add to the approval for the Future Shock, a really strong script and the art is reminiscent of Bryan Talbot, which is high praise for newcomer.

According to their website interview Honor Vincent has already got another story due to appear in the Regened Issue, which is great news. Clearly a talent Tharg is cultivating.

https://2000ad.com/news/interview-honor-vincent-lee-milmore-the-thought-bubble-talent-search-winners-unveil-relict/

Having now read the finale of The Citadel, I think in isolation it was a perfectly satisfying ending to a story which was possibly mis-sold to us as something much significant than it ended up being. In the end neither narrator is reliable as each could be spinning the truth to serve their own ends, and the real story may never be known.

If nothing else the self-contained nature of this tale has led me to reflect on how relatively static the world of Dredd and MC1 is now, compared to, say, fifteen years ago. There was a time when it felt things were constantly in flux and moving forward, even apart from the big event storylines you had things going on like PJ Maybe scheming to become mayor, Dan Francisco's ascension from TV star to Chief Judge, Dredd's efforts to reform mutant rights, etc. I think it comes back again to that issue of there not being an overall authorial voice for the strip, and all the regulars writers having their own individual ideas which don't necessarily coincide with each other.

[Dredd:]

Guess I should start this one since no-one else has.

Dredd: Praise Zort! comes to an end with a tease for future developments.

Deathcap: Goya's in a bit of a pickle as her condition has lead to a literal loss of identity, not to mention her [spoiler]arm, although since the same episode sets up that the shroomers can regrow body parts within a short space of time it's not really that much of a loss[/spoiler]

Diamond Dogs: A surprise reverse heel turn for one of the baddies, which would be more shocking if we actually knew anything about them or their motivations. It amused me that the other two members of Jones's crew are so unimportant that their fate doesn't even warrant a passing mention, so I guess they just got killed off-page somewhere?

Lawless: This is pretty much Metta hitting rock-bottom, having thrown away her job on a rigged election and with any attempt to investigate electoral fraud stonewalled by the SJS. Remains to be seen where this is heading but there are so many things in play it's anyone's guess at this point.

Surfer:  The chase continues with our hero pulling some tricky moves to evade capture. My only criticism of this story is it probably should've run in the weekly, as it's a bit too fast-paced for a monthly read.

I haven't read Hawk yet as I've still got the last couple of issues to catch up on.

I can't believe that[spoiler] Dredd offing a clone [/spoiler]is the big reveal. He does that on an annual basis!

I know, I keep thinking surely there has to be something more to it than that, but there's only one part left, so  unless there's a really massive rug pull coming it's all starting to feel like a bit of a damp fart.

The latest part of Brink makes me a bit sad that the 2000AD audiobooks project seemed to die a lonely death, as I could imagine the The Unreach being realised incredibly well in that format with some decent sound design. Guess we'll never get to hear that though.

"Chaos in Cardiff" is a phrase I have heard associated with this production team, but not cared eough to bother to see if what that entailed or if there was any truth to it - I am more concerned by Chaos on the actual end product

Plenty of rumours abound that the production of the first two Torchwood seasons under Chibnall were a complete shambles (which Si Spencer's pseudonymous write-up of his involvement with the series backs up), so it just sounds like he's learnt absolutely nothing about managing a show in the intervening time between then and him getting the Who gig.

Here's a handy summary of the Spencer essay for those who haven't read it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/gallifrey/comments/lmk1oe/behind_the_scenes_gossip_about_torchwood_s1/

[The Chronicles Of Lib Laroche]

Surprised to see no post about the first issue of Vol 2 which has now appeared in the shops

The centrepiece is the prologue of Liam Sharpe's new project The Chronicles Of Lib Laroche which looks to be quite the remarkable thing, as much of a prose poem as it is a strip, although I'm not sure if that format will continue into the story proper. I've not seen this much verbosity in a comic since the hey-day of John Smith. Really intrigued to read more of this, as I'm not sure I've read anything quite like it in comics before. I was hoping the interview with Sharpe would have a bit of insight into the background of it, but they didn't even mention it!

To The Death takes another twist as Dryagin falls in with a faction who possibly may not have his best interests at heart.

The action ramps up in Shifter as the conspiracy is revealed (and feels extremely pointed in our current Troubled Times) and it may be too late for Noah to do anything about it. Oh hang on... [spoiler]Noah...and there's a flood. I see what they did there.[/spoiler]

Soulwind finishes this issue, with a stylistic return to the opening pages (which I really need to re-read as I'd forgotten that's how it began) - Book 2 is apparently going to follow.

The only weak point is still Crucible, unfortunately, which I still find completely impenetrable. The good guys "win" although I'm not certain what they actually achieved in this or what they were even trying to do. This has also finished but a follow-up has been mooted, so, um. Well. Okay then, if people like it, but it ain't for me.

Overall, another really high quality and varied issue. Long may it continue.

[Dredd]

Dredd its all shooty action (no bad thing in Dredd) and reminding us of context in which to take the story and then BANG that last page and we have another reason why Dredd might not be quite Dredd. What is the truth here? Fantastic cliffhanger.

It's intriguing certainly, but it does worry me that[spoiler] Dredd clone storylines are very well-trodden ground at this point, so I hope there's something more to it than just another clone running around.

My theory before this episode was that "our" Dredd would die during the attack on the Citadel and be replaced by another clone, so I may've been half-right.

I wonder what Wagner's intent is with this? It seems significant that this story takes place during the Apocalypse War, the scene for arguably the single most morally questionable thing Joe Dredd has ever done - pushing the button to nuke the Sovs. This is reaching a bit, but I wonder if there's going to be any attempt to retcon Dredd's actions during the war by having another Dredd be responsible? But then, that wouldn't really fit with the guy's story that Dredd did something so reprehensible he was locked up to stop it ever being known. Hmmm.[/spoiler]

Lets not mince words, the quality control on these versions is dreadful. For instance why are double-page spreads on separate pages when they should obviously be joined? That seems so basic I can't understand how they could get it so wrong.

Another strong issue. Kora comes to a pretty definitive conclusion and I'm looking forward to re-reading this all from the start. Crucible...carries on, and that's about all I can say for that. Really enjoying To The Death and it seems to've reached a peak of twisty-turniness at the moment, really compelling stuff. Intrigued to find out what this new Liam Sharpe strip is going to be all about.

As for the preview strip...um, well that was something I guess. I wonder if there's a single cyberpunk/future noir trope that won't be touched on in this. I don't have any time for Quantick these days and based on this I probably wouldn't bother tracking down his novella. It reminds me of something that might've seen print in CLINT ('member CLINT?), the kind of thing that gets written (or ghostwritten) by some media personality who doesn't really have any experience in sci-fi or comics but decides they want to have a go, and the results are predictably mediocre.

I also spent the whole time thinking "Surely not that Mike Batt? The Wombles guy?" And it only bloody is him! It's bizarre, he doesn't appear to have a single non-musical writing credit to his name so I can't even fathom how he came to be involved in adapting this.

Oh hang on, I just turned the page and now I get it. It's some kind of media cross-promotion thing and there's also a game that looks from the advert like a Cyberpunk 2077 knock-off with 2003 graphics that apparently no-one is talking about or playing because I can't find a thing about it online. The website address just leads to a password login and the game itself appears to be some shitty free-to-play Roblox scam. This is really weird, the whole thing.

Oh and there's also a tie-in concept album which I'm guessing Batt is behind, which might explain how is name is attached.

See post above, I'm led to believe it is now on it's way. It is a bit off-putting that they had it for sale on the website without indicating it wasn't ready to be sent out, I had to email them to find out what was going on and they explained it had been held back due to one of the creators dealing with some family issues.

I should add I also picked up #10 today from the Smiths, so it is definitely out there.