Artist Gabby Gonzales has seen many strange and wonderful things since she started her journeys across space and time with The Doctor. Somewhere along the line, she picked up the power of “block transfer computations”, which allow her some limited ability to alter reality and bring the art objects she imagines into physical being.

Her training with the master artist Zhe – a friend of The Doctor’s with the same power – was starting to give Gabby a better handle on her new ability. Unfortunately, Gabby’s studies were driving a wedge between herself and her best friend, Cindy Wu, who is struggling with a new discovery of her own – a desire to be more than best friends with Gabby.

The Doctor, as usual, is oblivious to all of this, even before he and Cindy take off to investigate a doppelganger replacing the wife of another of The Doctor’s friends. This turns out to be only the first of many sudden crises demanding The Doctor’s unique brand of help, all facilitated by one group, who also kidnapped the now-unprotected Gabby Gonzales.

Who are The Time Sentinels? Who is the mysterious Lock Keeper that they claim to serve? And why are they so determined to destroy The Doctor, despite apparently sharing the same mission to maintain continuity in the universe?

Doctor Who fans everywhere would do well to check out the continuing adventures of The Tenth Doctor. The only real weakness to this issue is one that it shares with the television series itself – there’s too much here for new readers to take in! Even with blurbs on the inner cover that introduce the main characters and explain the story so far, there’s just too much going on to be fully appreciated unless you’ve been reading since the beginning of the year.

It is to Nick Abadzis’ credit as a writer that he has not only skillfully woven past threads of continuity into his work on this series but he has developed a tapestry of history as unique and wonderful as any single writer to ever work in the Whovian canon.  Gabby, Cindy and Cleo could proudly stand alongside any of The Doctor’s companions from the show – and probably outdo many of them!

The artwork by Giorgia Sposito and Adele Matera is largely excellent. Sposito is a great visual storyteller and Matera does a fine job choosing visually stimulating colors throughout the issue. The only glitch is an oddity in the final pages where one character’s outfit doesn’t seem to match what she was wearing on the previous page. (I regret I can’t give more details than that, but it involves a fairly big spoiler!)

Despite this, fans of the series will love Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor: Year Three #12 immensely. Newcomers would do well to check out the first volume and catch-up as quickly as possible.