Doctor Who: The Shadows of Avalon

Warning: Paul Cornell story. Get ready for quality stuff.

This is everything you could dare hope for in a Classic Who story. If you think Roger Delgado was THE Master, and Pertwee was a craftsman, sit back, because people who agreed with you are in charge of this excellent adventure. Bring a notepad, please. There are Easter Eggs littered in the pages that tie the story into the whole tapestry of WHO. One of Whodom's most obscure maniac/mad genius villains shows up here and the reveal gave me a flashback to watching the Master pull off his disguise and reveal himself in TIMEFLIGHT. The Brigadier is at his snarkiest and his battles with the Master (too-often, if you ask the Brig) are pure gold dipped in chocolate. Benton and Yates are in-character and dropping hints of future episodes as they quietly grieve the one-sidedness of knowing the Doctor and his companions. In all of this Jon Pertwee's Doctor and Katy Manning's Jo Grant take delight in another adventure even when it risks their lives; the artwork by Christopher Jones is delightfully on-point for Pertwee's massive range of expressions, and I'm impressed with Hi-Fi, the letterer (a too-often underappreciated form of art in itself) who crafts the word balloons into dialog as seamless as an episode on TV. This is more than a great story with twists and turns. This is a tribute on the high-water mark that returns the work of WHO actors and writers, with the courtesy of deep respect.