The Black Sea (comic story)

Opening narration box
The Doctor has brought the TARDIS to the English seaside ...

Summary
On a return trip for the Doctor to Whitby (where Dracula came ashore long ago), the Doctor and Donna witness a damaged short-range shuttle scout ship heading out to sea. The TARDIS follows the heat trail and lands onboard an oil rig in the middle of the North Sea. Using his psychic paper, he convinces the crew he is an electrical engineer. Three hundred metres down, one of the oil tanks has been ruptured by an unknown missile. Rather than spreading out, the oil escapes in a single stream upwards. The Doctor and Donna race to the rig's barriers in time to see a 'blob monster' emerge. The 'blob', which the Doctor suggests is actually a creature with a variable adaptive biology, absorbs some of the rig workers, but not before the Doctor gets a sample. The alien molecules are fusing with the oil, which is acting as a new host body. The Doctor attributes its aggression to its being in pain. Donna's suggestion for the Doctor not to "get in a lather" prompts him to concoct a soapy solution (using whatever Donna can find aboard), which is sprayed over the blob. The blob dissolves and the rig crew are returned. As the Doctor explains to Donna that Count Dracula was once believed to be able to take on loads of shapes, news comes in that another alien craft has crash-landed in Arizona...



Characters

 * Tenth Doctor
 * Donna Noble
 * Unnamed creature with a variable adaptive biology making it able to select a new host body or material. When the creature crashed in the North Sea and assumed a bond with oil it was defeated with a cleaning solution that broke down the molecular bond.

Original print details
(Instalment, publication with page count and closing captions)
 * 1/4 DWBIT 45 (4 pages) TO BE CONTINUED…
 * No reprints to date.

Continuity
to be added

Timeline

 * This story takes place after NSA: Ghosts of India
 * This story takes place before DWBIT: Sting of the Serpent