The Dyrons (comic story)

The Dyrons was a TV Comic story featuring the Second Doctor, John and Gillian.

Summary
The Second Doctor, John and Gillian arrive on a volcanic planet where a school party of stranded children are being hunted by a six tentacled race of octopus like creatures known as the Dyrons...

Plot
The Doctor's TARDIS whirls through time and space, carrying the Doctor, John and Gillian to a volcanic planet, where, amid pools of bubbling molten lava, they meet two boys on futuristic motor cycles, who are being chased by a pack of fierce looking six tentacled creatures known as Dyrons. The boys, Kim and Jinn, tell the space travellers to climb aboard their rides if they value their lives as the Dyrons are coming. Speeding off, the Doctor asks about the Dyrons and Kim tells him they are the most fearsome creatures imaginable. Unfortunately, the tyres of the bikes are then slashed on rocks they are travelling over, and everyone is thrown to the ground.

Concealing the bikes, the Doctor and the children spot a group of Dyrons slithering their way toward them, as Kim explains that they have a hideout in a cave at the base of the volcano and that the Dyrons are hunting for food. The food they are hunting for is that of Kim and Jinn's friends, however, not finding them, they begin chasing wild pigs instead. Once at the cave, the Doctor, John and Gillian meet many other children, who it turns out had travelled to the planet in a space ship that crashed, on a school outing, a crash that killed both the pilot and their teacher.

One of the Dyrons then begins to move the boulder at the front of the cave and the children flee into a network of other caves, as it is revealed that the creatures are afraid of the dark, but the Dyron has squeezed its way into the original cave and is slithering in pursuit of it's prey. The Doctor and the children head as far down a dead end tunnel as they can before putting their torches out and throwing the area into complete darkness. The grotesque Dyron follows the scent of the visitors as far as the dark cavity, with the Doctor thinking that their lives will be in the balance for the next few minutes. However, the creature won't go into the extreme darkness and instead heads for outside where it is lighter. Kim tells the Doctor that it is nearly dusk and that, at night, the Dyrons hide beneath the swamps about a mile away, somewhere the Doctor believes he may be able to rid the planet of these creatures once and for all. As darkness falls, the Doctor and Kim reach the swamp where the Dyrons will remain until the sun comes out, with the Doctor saying that they must take advantage of the dark hours.

Kim informs him that rays and bullets have no effect on the Dyrons. The Doctor removes a small bomb from the TARDIS, with which he intends to cause an earthquake around the volcanic area. The following morning, at sunrise, the Dyrons are encouraged to the surface of the swamp by human scent and the Doctor activates his bomb from five hundred yards away.

The surface begins to crack beneath the Dyrons, swallowing one creature after another into the mass of yawning cavities the explosion has caused. The tremors thereafter begin to stop and it becomes clear some of the Dyrons have survived and are on solid ground. The Doctor then takes his ray gun, and fires at the active area, to cause more explosions, plunging the rest of the Dyrons to their doom. Minutes later, as the shaking and rumbling dies down, a rescue ship arrives for the children and the space travellers say their farewells.

Characters

 * Second Doctor
 * John Who
 * Gillian Who
 * Dyrons
 * Kim
 * Jinn

Continuity

 * The Doctor is wearing his utility belt. (COMIC: Egyptian Escapade, The Witches, The Cyber Empire)