The Lodger (comic story)

 was a one-part comic story in the pages of DWM 368. It featured the Tenth Doctor and Mickey Smith, with Rose Tyler in a reduced role. It served as the basis for Gareth Roberts' Eleventh Doctor television story of the same name.

The Lodger was notable for giving readers a glimpse into Mickey's life outside of his relationship with Rose and the Doctor, which proved useful for contemporaneous readers, as it premiered at the start of the broadcast of Series 2, with rumours abounded about Mickey joining the TARDIS crew, allowing a new audience to be reminded and informed of Mickey's past with the Doctor and Rose, as well as foreshadow some of the tensions between the Doctor and Mickey that played out over the course of the second series.

Summary
The Tenth Doctor lands his TARDIS in present-day London, but before Rose Tyler can emerge, the TARDIS dematerialises because the Doctor forgot to lock the time settings. The TARDIS jumps a time track and moves ahead several days. Left stranded in London while he waits for Rose to catch up — only a few seconds will have passed for her — the Doctor needs somewhere to stay. After an aborted attempt at visiting Jackie Tyler, who is occupied with one of her suitors, the Doctor decides to crash at Mickey Smith's flat, where he proceeds to be a less-than-welcome houseguest for Mickey Smith. Meanwhile, a Bandrigan fleet approaches Earth with plans to destroy it.

Plot
to be added

Characters

 * Tenth Doctor
 * Mickey Smith
 * Gina
 * Chris
 * Big Robbo
 * Little Robbo
 * Rose Tyler
 * Jackie Tyler

Worldbuilding

 * Mickey lies to his workmates by telling them Rose moved away to Northampton.
 * Mickey attempts to get the Doctor to use the alias "John from Southampton".
 * Gina expresses a desire to follow in the footsteps of singer KT Tunstall.
 * The Doctor drinks a Pepsi at Mickey's flat.
 * Mickey is shown sticking the Doctor's sonic screwdriver into his mouth. Sticking a sonic screwdriver into one's mouth results in tooth extraction, but the screwdriver is capable of putting them back in.
 * The Bandrigan threat is only minor, and only their vessels are seen on Mickey's television before the Doctor masks the Earth from their sensors, tricking them into leaving.
 * The Doctor is a skilled football player.
 * The Doctor is savvy enough with video games to find a way to win a shoot-em-up without resorting to digital violence. He also adjusts Mickey's TV so that it picks up TV programmes from a decade in the future, as well as images of an alien fleet in space.
 * While four days pass for the Doctor and Mickey, only a few seconds pass for Rose.
 * The Doctor tells Rose to watch EastEnders.

Story notes
to be added

Continuity

 * Mickey loses his teeth when he mistakenly uses the Doctor's sonic screwdriver as a toothbrush, something the Ninth Doctor once warned Rose not to do in COMIC: The Love Invasion.
 * The Doctor offers to take Rose to Oxyveguramosa, a planet previously mentioned in PROSE: The Ultimate Foe.
 * The Doctor once again plays video games with Mickey, and shows off his remarkable skills with them., something that had previously occured in PROSE: Winner Takes All.
 * Mickey makes reference to the Doctor's recent regeneration in TV: The Christmas Invasion and how he was abducted by the Nestene Consciousness when Rose was "stole[n]" from him by the Ninth Doctor in TV: Rose.