Monstrous Beauty is a three-part comic that was published in the Doctor Who Magazine as part of the Time Lord Victorious multimedia project. In this comic, we find the 9th doctor and Rose after they accidentally venture into the dark times at the very beginning of creation. Throughout this adventure they face multiple obstacles and encounter new, but ancient, species that seem to have a taste for blood.

I don’t hate this story, but I don’t love it either. The premise is interesting, and we get to see a little more of the dark times and some of the monsters that are supposed to make it so scary. It also did a great job of portraying the 9th doctor and Rose. The dialogue really made me feel like I was watching an episode with the two of them in it. The story also provided a glimpse into what the Gallifreyans were up to at this point in history, which was interesting but also confusingly contradictory to the current canon as outlined in the Timeless Children. For example, the Gallifreyan people we see in this comic clearly have mastered space travel, but their genetics are different from that of the doctor, which I assume means they cannot regenerate yet. However, one the most recent episodes of the show indicated that the first space traveler, Tecteun, was also the person who granted the Time Lords regeneration abilities. So, how can they have advanced space travel but not regeneration? Maybe I just missed some detail that explains this, but I still find it very confusing. Most importantly, the ending of this story was rushed and did not make sense to me at all. I think the story would have been better if it had more issues to flesh out the conflicts and resolutions.

Overall, I came away from this comic feeling underwhelmed and somewhat confused. While certain aspects of it were fun to see (it truly was a delight to see nine and Rose back together), this was clearly a forgettable, filler story to explain how the ninth doctor shows up in other parts of the Time Lord Victorious story. Therefore, I rate it 2 out of 5 stars.