Time & Time Again (comic story)

Time & Time Again was a one-issue comic story in Doctor Who Magazine #207 which celebrated the 30th anniversary of Doctor Who. When published, it was a significant, well-hyped "event". At ten pages, it was longer than the then-standard comic in DWM, but it was also originally printed in colour — something that wasn't regularly done in DWM until the late 1990s.

Narratively, Time was a fan-servicing, multi-Doctor story, whose panels were filled with many visual references to the past, much like The Five Doctors. As with the earlier Terrance Dicks script, Paul Cornell's comic was less about intricate plotting than about building a structure that allowed meetings between the various Doctors.

The story took place almost exclusively in an alternate timeline in which the First Doctor had been prevented from leaving Gallifrey by the Black Guardian. However, the story ends back in the "normal" universe, with what is ostensibly a genuine account of the First Doctor and Susan's original departure from Gallifrey. It is the only time in which the event has been depicted in a visual medium,.

Summary
The Black Guardian has changed time so that the Doctor never left Gallifrey. This causes chaos amongst the stars. The Doctor must revisit his past and hunt for the Key to Time, which will put time back on track and defeat the Black Guardian.

Characters

 * Seventh Doctor
 * Sixth Doctor
 * Fifth Doctor
 * Fourth Doctor
 * Third Doctor
 * Second Doctor
 * First Doctor
 * Bernice Summerfield
 * Frobisher
 * Ace
 * Adric
 * Jamie
 * Zoe
 * Black Guardian
 * White Guardian
 * Dalek

The Doctor

 * Meets his sixth incarnation, who is fishing with Frobisher for gumblejack and takes his sixth's self's cat badge (as one of the pieces of the Key to Time).
 * Saves his first incarnation from a Dalek (which was an Imperial Dalek).
 * Takes the TARDIS Instruction Manual from his first self. (This is one of the segments of the Key to Time)

Bernice Summerfield

 * Meets the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe and takes the Second Doctor's hat (as one of the pieces of the Key to Time).
 * Meets the Fourth Doctor whilst in the Eden projection. She takes a jelly baby (as one of the pieces of the Key to Time).

Ace

 * Ace sword fights the Third Doctor at Sir Reginald Styles' mansion. Ace takes one of the swords (as one of the pieces of the Key to Time).
 * Catches a cricket ball bowled by the Fifth Doctor. (This is one of the segments of the Key to Time)
 * Ace is flirted with by Adric (she threatens to make sure he permanently limps) at Cranleigh Hall.

Continuity

 * The Doctor broke the Key to Time up in DW: The Armageddon Factor.
 * The Doctor last encountered the Black and White Guardians during DW: Enlightenment.
 * Bernice meets the Second Doctor during DW: The Mind Robber and the Fourth Doctor during DW: Nightmare of Eden.
 * Ace meets the Third Doctor during DW: Day of the Daleks. She meets Adric and watches the Fifth Doctor play cricket during DW: Black Orchid.
 * The Doctor saves the First Doctor just before the events of DW: Remembrance of the Daleks and An Unearthly Child.

Timeline
It is extraordinarily difficult to assign any meaningful time placement for this story for any of its character, other than to say that it likely occurs, for the Seventh Doctor, prior to DWM: Cuckoo (comic story). Anything else would be broad speculation.