City of the Damned (comic story)

Summary
Arriving in the City of Zombus built by the people of Zom the Doctor finds a city where the Brains Trust have ruled emotion to be the cause of all crime and outlawed it. With the Moderator General and the Moderators, the people are controlled and forbidden emotional experiences using Harmonisers to remove emotion from the brain. There is resistance however the Zom Emotional People’s Organisation, each of who carry and live by one emotion alone so as to preserve it until the arrival of the Great Emoter. The Doctor is seen as the Great Emoter and is helped to escape the city. But ZEPO’s Big Hate has a plan to destroy the Moderators using his savage Barabara (giant blood bugs). The Barabara are released into the city but feast on everyone not just the Moderators. The Barabara however are defenceless against adrenalin. The Doctor appeals to the Brains trust who agree to reinstall emotions to save what they have but the Moderator General is opposed and wipes them out. The Doctor overpowers the Moderator General and order the people into the Harmonisers where they regain their emotions. The Barabara quickly dies and the city begins a new life with a full set of emotions that the Doctor leaves behind.

Characters

 * Barabara / Blood Bugs  (Foe)
 * Savage, six legged Cybermat-like creatures about 30cm long that fed on blood, carrion insect creatures living on dead flesh. Native to the swamps on Zom, and bred by Big Hate for an attack on the Moderator's. Adrenalin was poison to them. When they entered the City the emotionless Zom people were an easy feast, offering no resistance.


 * Brains Trust  (Foe)
 * A genetically engineered group of five who with their vast collective intelligence, and expanded brains, guided and protected the people of Zom within the city from their Watchtower base.They used the Moderator's (lead by the Moderator General), to enforce a ban on all emotions, controlling the population even to the extent of selecting healthy breeding partners. Outbreaks of emotion were removed using Harmony Booths throughout the City and living areas. The Brains Trust were destroyed by the Moderator General who saw their move to restore emotions to the people in order to save them as an act of treason


 * Moderator General  (Foe)
 * Voice of the Brains Trust and controlling authority in the City, instrumental in creating a perfect society without crime and strife through the elimination of emotion (The Evil Way). When the Brains Trust were convinced by the Doctor to restore emotions (in order to save the people from the Barabara), he killed them for treason.


 * Zom (Planet)
 * Low gravity planet and homeworld to a once violent, criminal race with a population of 20 million.Beyond the City of Zombus the agricultural lands (used to grow Krakwheat) were mechanised and others were left as swamp. The Brains Trust were developed to find a solution to the problem and concluded the cause of all crime to be emotion. In the controlled enviroment of the City of Zombus emotion was removed. There was much resistance to the new ways that eventually meant that the people of Zom were fitted with cranial sockets at birth creating a direct link to the brain for the Harmoniser (an emotion eraser), In extreme cases a Ultra-Harmoniser was used for a full brain wipe. Emotion was later restored following the Doctors timely visit when the City was attacked by the Bloodbugs.


 * Zom Emotional Peoples Organisation (Z.E.P.O.) 
 * A rebel group on Zombus, who individually tried to preserve an emotion. They lived outside of the city and were hunted by the Moderator General. They awaited the arrival of the Great Emoter who would in turn restore emotion to the people. Members of ZEPO included Hope, Daft, Slightly Angry, Very Angry, Freddy Feel-Good, Will-to-Live, Need-to-Know, Nervous, Humble, Silly, Mournful. Big Hate led a splinter group of rebels on the City using the Bloodbugs he had bred.

Original Print Details (Publication with page count and closing captions)

 * 1) DWM Issue 9 (5 pages)  Next Week: Mind-Wipe!
 * 2) DWM Issue 10 (4 pages)  Next Week: Gauntlet of Death!
 * 3) DWM Issue 11 (4 pages)  Next Week: The Big Hate!
 * 4) DWM Issue 12 (4 pages)  Next Issue:  Night of the Barabara!
 * 5) DWM Issue 13 (5 pages)  Next Week: Bitter Harvest!
 * 6) DWM Issue 14 (4 pages)  Next Week: Streets of Blood!
 * 7) DWM Issue 15 (4 pages)  Next Week: The Last Hours!
 * 8) DWM Issue 16 (4 pages)  Next Issue: Join the Doctor and K-9 in Time-Trap!

Reprints

 * 1) Doctor Who Marvel Premiere (Issues 59-60) Reprinted in colour.
 * 2) The Iron Legion the launch title of a new series of graphic novels (published in 2004), reprinting cleaned up comic strips  covering strips from Doctor Who Weekly issue 1 through to 38.Reprinted as original, in black and white, with closing captions.

Continuity

 * The Doctor offers jelly babies apparently they stop the ears popping during transmat travel.