Monstrous Beauty (comic story)

 was a Doctor Who Magazine comic story that served as their entry in the multi-medium Time Lord Victorious story arc.

The story marked the Ninth Doctor's introduction into the arc, as well as his return to a DWM comic strip since his last regular appearance in A Groatsworth of Wit, and also saw the DWM return of Rose Tyler since her last regular appearance in The Green-Eyed Monster. Furthermore, it was also the first strip in just under two decades to not star the concurrent incarnation of the Doctor (excluding stories where the Doctor does not appear at all).

The comic is also notable for introducing a younger, female incarnation of Rassilon.

The first chapter of the story is unique in that it was not published within the magazine itself but in a supplementary publication released alongside it.

Part one
As the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler walk across a dark and barren rocky planetoid surface, Rose quips that she assumes they have not visited Rio de Janeiro's first-ever Mardi Gras. As the Doctor admits he is unsure where they are, Rose notices him trembling. The Doctor thinks something about the place is making his skin crawl and that they should just go back to the TARDIS, shocking Rose as she is grateful for the peaceful surroundings.

Meanwhile, on a spaceship above the planet's surface, the pilot focuses on the Doctor and Rose, wondering who they are. A woman standing nearby orders them to head down and investigate. On the surface, the Doctor and Rose discover a huge mining operation, with the Doctor explaining how all the machines are equipped with sonic baffles to make them silent. However, they are interrupted by the ship, which tractor beams them up and keeps them suspended above the ground. The woman from the ship points a gun at them, calling them under arrest for trespassing on a shadow planetoid. The Doctor brandishes his psychic paper, claiming they are mining inspectors, but nothing is displayed to the woman. Instead, she threatens them with her staser, piquing the Doctor's interest.

Back on the planetoid, the woman and two guards lead the Doctor and Rose into a gleaming high-tech lab built into the rock wall, ordering an old man called Medicus Androkan to perform blood tests on the prisoners to see if they are aliens. Although sceptical and apologetic, Androkan does so, confirming that the Doctor and Rose are from two different alien species. Quietly, the Doctor gets a bad feeling and chooses not to tell the truth until he works out what is going on. As the woman and Androkan argue over how they have both changed ways since the war, she starts threatening Rose but is interrupted by red warning lights and the announcement of an imminent aerial attack. As all fighters move out, the woman commander's name is revealed - Rassilon, greatly shocking the Doctor. She leaves and the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to escape, apologising to Androkan.

Escaping into the ensuing chaos, the Doctor realises he was so desperate to leave because he has visited his own history, explaining to Rose how these people in the Dark Times will become Time Lords in the future. Suddenly, the Doctor discovers they are fighting the Cucurbites - millions of living spaceships that can suck entire planets of their blood, just like vampires, although Rose is unconvinced that they could exist even in this era. However, as she talks, she is snatched away by a giant vampire bat, leaving the Doctor alone.

While the Doctor stares in the direction of where Rose was taken, he notices a Gallifreyan ship crash and he rescues the occupant, taking care not to mention his name. Using the ship's tech, he wires up a noise frequency that the echolocating Cucurbites will hate. Giving it a boost with the sonic, it sends them all away, though he is quick to point out he could only do it thanks to his "20-20 hindsight."

Later that night, the Doctor sneaks past security to have a talk directly with Androkan. He notes how his ship and his friend have both been taken and he needs help, but Androkan is more interested int he Doctor's biology. The Doctor criticises this, but Androkan replies that he has seen mountains of his people still and unthinking and is desperate to change it since the Vampire Alliance exposed them to "the Ultimate". Another word for this new phenomenon, Androkan explains, is "death". The Doctor apologises that he cannot fix that, but gives him the chance to save Rose and the others instead.

Meanwhile, Rose wakes up groggy in a gothic four-poster bed in what appears to be a large dark castle, with the vampire bat watching her. As she gets to her feet, she is greeted by a robed, white-skinned figure with pronounced canines, calling himself Friar Grystok. Thanking his bat that he names Hugo for his find, Grystok praises Rose's looks while wondering what exactly she is - he has never heard of humans. Just then, a similar-looking young woman called Centia enters and Grystok instructs her to find a white gown for Rose to change into as he leaves. Although Rose is not interested, Centia begs her to change or she will be disciplined.

Elsewhere, Androkan leads the Doctor to Rassilon's flier, with the Doctor sonicking his way in. However, the two are immediately greeted at gunpoint by Rassilon herself. She calls Androkan a traitor and points out how she is trying to save her race from "alien filth" like the Doctor, forcing him to explain how his box works or she will kill them both.

The newly changed Rose is led off by Hugo to his mistresses, the Three Mad Sisters - supposedly royalty who rule the area and use their madness to "[elevate] their minds to a higher plane". Rose meets them, finding three women - one old, one adult, and one young - with their bodies, hair and clothes entirely in white. Despite being told not to speak unless spoken to, Rose interrupts Grystok's fawning to demand an apology and to put her back with the Doctor, but the sisters are obsessed with seeing a human for the first time. Ganging up on Rose and clutching at her, Grystok gleefully claims that "dinner is served."

Part two
Rassilon continues interrogating the Doctor about the TARDIS, but he calls it junk compared to her ship, leaping at the launch controls to demonstrate his point. With the ship accelerating vertically, the Doctor promises to stabilise it but opens up the tractor funnel instead, sending Rassilon and her two guards back to solid ground slowly enough to not kill them.

Androkan worries that Rassilon will execute him when she catches up to them, but the Doctor tells him not to worry. Leaving the planetoid, the Doctor plans to track Rose's phone to find her amidst the vampires' cloaking technology, but they find themselves among a swarm of Cucurbites. However, the Doctor transmits info to confuse them into accepting the ship as one of them. He admits to Androkan that he has had "a scrape" with a Cucurbite once, leaving Androkan suspicious at how much he knows. Realising how close the Doctor's biology is to Gallifreyans, he guesses that the Doctor is the future of their species, and he admits it on the basis that he does not tell anyone else. Androkan laughs that nobody would believe him anyway and takes the Doctor's presence as proof of a good future for Gallifrey. Stoic, the Doctor does not respond.

Soon after, their ship reaches the castle where Rose is held, revealed to be a coffin ship floating in space. While these are only legends in the Doctor's time, Androkan explains how "countless worlds" have been terrorised by them thanks to the Vampire Alliance. Landing in the coffin ship by masking their own ship as a hungry Cucurbite, the Doctor plans to reach some kind of data centre to find Rose. Instead, he and Androkan stumble upon a huge labour camp, with dozens of vampires of many different species being forced to mine for what the Gallifreyans were looking for - thorocite that can power their fusion reactors - while being threatened with a loss of blood if they stop.

Observing this, a guard spots them and they run away. The Doctor slows down to keep up with Androkan, but he is punched out of nowhere by one of three male vampire leaders. Named Drogann, he explains that their life-signs made them easy targets since they stepped on board, but he does not understand how they did, leading the Doctor to realise they need to be kept alive for the answers. Although another of the leaders, named Korsta, attempts to bite into the Doctor's neck, Drogann stops him, and the Doctor thanks him as he and Androkan are led away.

The trio of vampires marches the Doctor and Androkan to Grystok, where the Doctor asks to see Rose. However, Grystok is more interested in finding another new species in the Doctor, though he is much less impressed with Androkan as a "common Gallifreyan". As a result, he sticks his hand on Androkan's neck, killing him almost instantly as he dies in the Doctor's arms. Grystok then leads the Doctor to the Three Mad Sisters, only to find them all collapsed in a heap on the floor, overwhelmed by the strength of Rose. Hearing Rose's voice sounding different from across the room, the Doctor fears the worst. His terrors are confirmed when Rose appears as a blood-stained vampire, lunging at the Doctor, teeth bared, with the threat that he can no longer save her or kill her.

Characters

 * Ninth Doctor
 * Rose Tyler
 * Rassilon
 * Medicus Androkan
 * Friar Grystok
 * Hugo
 * Centia
 * Three Mad Sisters
 * Drogann
 * Korsta

People

 * A dazed Rose refers to her mother.

Locations

 * The Doctor and Rose were attempting to reach Rio de Janeiro to see the first-ever Mardi Gras.
 * Rose once went on a school trip to Derbyshire.

Technology

 * The mining outfit uses sonic baffles to conceal the noise of the machinery.
 * Rassilon traps the Doctor and Rose in a tractor sphere.
 * Rassilon threatens the Doctor with a staser.

Medicine

 * The Doctor and Rose are taken to the solace bay.
 * The Doctor and Rose are forced to take a blood test.

Species

 * The Cucurbite navigate by sound.
 * The Doctor believes that the lack of recognition of his DNA indicates that the Time Lords have not yet become genetically connected to time.

Epigraph
"What did you learn, when you felt the first wind on your face? When the warmth of the first dawn touched your skin? What did you lose, when the first flower withered and the first sea dried? What did you take with you and what did you leave behind?"

- Tears of the Kotturuh

Original print details

 * (Publication with page count and closing captions)


 * 1) DWM 556 supplement (16 pages): Continued in DWM #557
 * 2) DWM 557 (8 pages): Next: Death in the Stars!

Continuity

 * Rose knows that the Time Lords are all dead in the present day. (TV: The End of the World)
 * The Doctor and Rose were trying to reach Rio de Janeiro. The Doctor previously visited Rio alone, earlier in this incarnation. (PROSE: Rose)
 * The Vampires' arsenal includes Cucurbites, which the Doctor remembers encountering before. (COMIC: Tooth and Claw)
 * Drogann says he servers the the Great One. (TV: State of Decay)