Final Sacrifice (comic story)

Final Sacrifice was the concluding story of the arc begun in Doctor Who (2009) #1. It was the last story of that publication and ended the Tenth Doctor's continuous run in IDW Publishing's comics. It also wrote out the IDW-only companions, Matthew Finnegan and Emily Winter, and served as a semi-sequel to an early one-shot story, The Time Machination.

Publisher's summary
Solicitation summary for part one: On a war-ravaged alien world, the Doctor and Emily fight to save Matthew from the Advocate, while avoiding a planetwide civil war and a space-and-time misplaced Edwardian Torchwood, still hunting the Doctor since The Time Machination ! Everything leads to this point—but who will die?

Solicitation summary for part two: Long live the Queen! As the war between the Soul Free and the Terror builds, the Doctor discovers who's really pulling the strings behind the scenes! And as 'Mr. Finch' faces off against Emily, Alexander Hugh and the Edwardian Torchwood agents choose their own sides in the coming war...

Solicitation summary for part three: War! What is it good for?! The Doctor discovers the truth about Kol'Ne Wah and finds Matthew, while Emily and Hugh try to stop the world from rebooting! But what is the Advocate's terrible plan-and why are the fifth-dimensional Tef'Aree involved?

Solicitation summary for part four: Tragic loss... Final issue! Final appearance of the Tenth Doctor! Sad farewells. A song ends. People die.

What, you thought we'd end on a high note? It's called 'Final Sacrifice,' guys! Multiple Eagle Award-nominated writer Tony Lee and Matthew Dow Smith close the book on the tenth Doctor...

Plot
On a war-torn planet, the Doctor and Emily encountered Robert Lewis, his colleague Eliza Cooper, Professor Alexander Hugh and his assistant Annabella Primavera from Oxford University, 1906, working for Torchwood, who were testing a time machine created from cannibalised alien technology. They were all captured by the Soul Free, who fought with the Terror Farmers for thousands of years for ownership of the planet. The Soul Free were led to a temple called Kol'Ne Wah, by the Gizou called Lau'Tan, opposing the Advocate. They were attacked by the Terror Farmers, causing Annabella's death. Lau'Tan disguised himself as the Doctor and was captured with Emily. The Doctor led the remaining group to the temple, where he discovered a lost and misplaced expedition, who made contact with the Tef'Aree and were given a terraforming device with which they hoped to make the colony self-sufficient. Realising that the Terror Farmers (Terra Firma) would defeat the Soul Free (Sol Three) and become the Terranites.

The Doctor realised that the Advocate planned to use Matthew's un-irradiated human DNA to reactivate the terraforming device which would wipe out the whole planet even as they headed into war. In his cell, Matthew received a visit from the Tef'Aree and suddenly understood everything: his and Emily's sacrifice would save the planet. He and the Advocate teleported up to the orbiting terraforming device and the Doctor followed in the TARDIS, but not before he put Professor Hugh down in the middle of the fighting to urge the two sides to get to safety aboard the colony ship. As the Advocate tried to get Matthew to activate the terraforming device, he finally revealed his true allegiance. She shot him and used his palm to activate the device. Squabbling on the ground between the Terror Farmers and the Soul Free was brought to an instant end as the device began to erase anything that wasn't on the planet a few thousand years before. They all ran for the temple. The Doctor confronted the Advocate, but she revealed that she rigged the terraforming device such that only Matthew could switch if off, and if he did it would kill him. Robert Lewis destroyed the colony ship's force field which protected it from the terraforming device, then shot at Eliza who sided against him with the Doctor. Emily jumped in the way and fell to the ground. The Advocate asked the Doctor if he was prepared to sacrifice his other friend or the entire planet below.

Emily recovered, saved from the blast by Turlough's diary while Robert Lewis was destroyed by the terraforming beam. The force field around the colony ship couldn't be repaired, but Lau'Tan realised it could be replaced. He transformed himself to replace the damaged component and restart the shields while Emily got everyone safely inside. Matthew distracted the Doctor, grabbed the Advocate and slammed his hand onto the terraforming controls. He and the Advocate died instantly, but the device was deactivated. The Doctor took Matthew's body to the surface of the planet where a Tef'Aree appeared and told him and Emily that it was once Matthew, transformed through sacrifice and the merging of energy with the Advocate into a fifth-dimensional being. He gave the Earth colonists the technology and created the Advocate so that his human self could one day be empowered and become the Tef'Aree. The Doctor was appalled by the level of manipulation, but the Tef'Aree was unmoved and vanished. Eliza elected to remain on the planet and help to rebuild it. The Doctor took Professor Hugh and Emily back to Oxford, 1906, in the TARDIS. There he explained that Annabella Primavera, like Emily, was a fixed point in time and space, but while Emily was supposed to have died, Annabella was supposed to have lived. Emily had to take her place to mend the web of time. Annabella discovered Archie Maplin and eventually set up United Actors in Hollywood.

Characters

 * Tenth Doctor
 * Matthew Finnegan
 * Emily Winter
 * The Advocate
 * Alexander Hugh

Continuity

 * The Terror Farmers and the Soul Free are similar to the Tesh and the Sevateem from TV: The Face of Evil; both were descended from a human colony which split into two and whose descendants forgot their origins.
 * The Doctor says he doesn't carry money with him and gives Emily a list of winning racing horses to bet on. This would be repeated in TV: The End of Time, when he gave the Noble family a winning lottery ticket.
 * The Doctor is wearing his space suit at the end of this story, and decides to take a trip to Mars. This leads directly into TV: The Waters of Mars.