Merchant of Menace (comic story)

Merchant of Menace was a comic story published in Doctor Who: Battles in Time. It was written by Kieran Grant.

Opening narration box
The TARDIS has spun wildly out of control in the Time Vortex...

Summary
At gunpoint, the Doctor hands over the TARDIS key to Silas Wrench, telling him that with a broken chrono-loop spectrometer he may as well have it for scrap. The Doctor doesn't mention the TARDIS's meson recognition defence system, which results in Wrench being sent a shock. It stuns him and causes the TARDIS to be displaced to somewhere nearby, away from the threat of entry.

With Wrench unconscious, the Doctor and Donna search for the TARDIS, coming across Donna's mum's old washing machine (complete with dent) along the way. As they find the TARDIS, they feel the junk craft's oxygen field being energised and the lift-off beginning.

Wrench intends to take the Doctor and Donna and sell them to the Slave Masters of Zooveron. The friendly Horobot tries to save them by wrestling with Wrench. Wrench loses control of the craft, which crashes back on the planet. The Doctor and Donna, having made their escape in the TARDIS just in time, return to the crash site to check for survivors. There is no trace of Wrench, but they find the heroic Horobot badly damaged and in pieces. The Doctor uses the Horobot's head to replace the TARDIS’s broken chrono-loop spectrometer. As the TARDIS disappears, the familiar figure of Wrench appears, calling out for "any old iron?"

Characters

 * Tenth Doctor
 * Donna Noble
 * Silas Wrench
 * Horobot

Original print details

 * 2/2 DWBIT 44 (4 pages) THE END
 * No reprints to date.

Continuity
to be added