Review: Recall the Time to No Return

Recall the Time to No Return was a story that had me hooked the first moment I started to read it, but as I continued I started to see saw some flaws in this crossover story. This why I was hooked on the story is that I am a huge fan of both series, Doctor Who and MLP:FiM. I'm pretty going to state, honestly and bluntly, what I liked and didn't like about this graphic novel. Since this is a crossover story, I will look at how this story handles both the universes and their characters.

Let's get into the good parts of this story, first. First, all the art is beyond fanatic. I liked the shading you give the artwork and felt like I was reading a published comic I would from ComiXology. Secondly, you nailed each of the mane five to a key there was not one moment that felt OOC for Rarity, Fluttershy, RD, Pinkie, and AJ and each of them have their moment to shine. I also loved Spike in the story being a leader and him giving cool moments as well. I also I love the premise itself, an Empress Twi who is old and wise and has been ruling Equestria by itself for years. The story is also fairly well passed too, and I felt this sense of dread throughout the comic and GashibokA nailed if that was there intention. On the MLP: FiM side of this crossover story, it is done fantastically. The story is set in a 1000+ year later story, and we get to know what happens to Equestria in that time. We get to know what happens to the Mane Six at that time too. If anything, GashibokA fleshed this future of Equestria they created. MLP side of the crossover graphic novel is done well.

Now for the criticisms for this graphic novel and oh boy, there is a lot. My first general criticism is that the plot twists you can see a mile away coming, without giving away any spoliers. You can the first time you see Twi you can already guess the first twist. For the MLP side of this crossover, there is only one criticism I want to through at it, and that is Twilight, herself. Outside of expedition, we never gave to chance to know this 1000+ year-old Twilight. We are told that Empress Twilight is wise and powerful, but we are never shown it, which is a shame because I would love to got know this Twi outside of flashbacks. My main gripes, however, are on the Doctor Who side of this crossover. GashibokA nailed The Doctor's bitterness well, but that is where my praises end with Doctor Who side of this story. First is how Rose Luck and The Doctor are handled. Rose has zero impact in this story, and her dialogue could be replaced by any of the mane five. Heck, some of her lines could be replaced by The Doctor himself. My other disapproval, comes with the monster for this story, and how it doesn't answer one basic question: Why are they invading Equestria? This question is never brought up, which leads to two other problems with the story. First, the Doctor doesn't try to talk to the main villain. In most of the Doctor Who's story I read or listen to, Doctor tries to find out why the villains are doing what they are doing. For example, in th episodes "The Sontaran Stratagem" and the Poison Sky, the Sontarans are given a reason why they are invading Earth. The reason is that war the Sontarans are fighting isn't going well and the need new soliders, so they need to covert Earth into a factory of sorts and The Doctor also tries to talk to the Sontarans first as well. Without the "finding out why" part of this Doctor Who story it leaves the monters and the main villains in : Recall the Time to No Return very one note or 2D villain. That transitions into the next problem (which are spoilers, so if you want to read the story blind don't read this next part) are that the monsters are just changelings, but they look like Zygons, instead of love, they feed on magic instead ( that's how I interrupted at least), and they even have their version of Queen Chrysalis, Brotonia. If you replaced the Zygons with the changelings in this story, it would have made zero impact. So The Doctor Who side of this crossover is done very poorly.

My feelings on Recall the Time to No Return left me with mixed feelings. The MLP side of this story was done fantastic, and I was wondering what was going to happen to our heroes throughout the story. When the story needed a quiet moment between the mane five, it did, and the art made each moment itself look beautiful, including those moments. However, the Doctor Who side of this story is disappointing at best, poorly at worst. The companion had zero impact on the story; we never find out why the monsters want to invade Equestria make them a very 2D villains. If were to grade this story it would be 70-75 percent title. When it does good, it's awesome , but when it bad its terrible.