The Autonomy Bug (comic story)

The Autonomy Bug was a Doctor Who Magazine comic story that featured the Eighth Doctor and Izzy Sinclair.

Summary
The Doctor and Izzy encounter a robot rehabilitator and robots that believe that they are human.

Plot
On behalf of a friend, the Doctor visits Blueberry House, where Dr Andrelina Hastoff is in charge of rehabilitating robots with “severe programming deviancy”. While she discusses her work with the Doctor, one of her cloned assistants “accidentally” locks Izzy in the robot congregation chamber, where Izzy is nearly attacked by the mad robots until they realise that she’s human - just as they believe themselves to be. The depressed Emperor Zero tells Izzy that they are all human beings who have been locked up by robots, and the Doctor, watching, realises that the robots have formed their own society. They aren’t insane, they’re sentient; and just like children, they are developing emotions that they aren’t sure how to deal with. Hastoff, however, insists that their deviancy is the result of an undetected virus, and reveals that she has purchased an Adjuster from Kallulio Prime with which to electronically recondition the “deviant” machines, returning them to “normal”. The Doctor is horrified, and realises that Hastoff had Izzy locked in the congregation chamber in the hope that the robots would harm her, giving Hastoff an excuse to use the Adjuster on them all. When he threatens to shut her down, Hastoff tries to kill him with the Adjuster; however, by this time, Izzy has decided that the Doctor must be in trouble, and she and Zero thus break out of the congregation chamber to look for him. They find the Doctor being chased by the Adjuster, and Zero gives his life to destroy its guidance systems so that it careers off a balcony and sinks to the bottom of the bay. Angered by Zero’s death, the robots storm through Blueberry House - but although they capture Hastoff, they don’t kill her. As the Doctor had hoped, they understand mercy; they are maturing, and one day they will be accepted by humanity as equals.

Characters

 * Eighth Doctor
 * Izzy Sinclair
 * Andrelina Hastoff

Continuity
to be added