The Highest Stake (comic story)

Summary
After being captured by the Lords of Jelsen the Tenth Doctor and Heather McCrimmon are forced into a spaceship race-or-die ‘game’ through the ruined cities of the abandoned planet of Jelsen. Their opponents in matching spacecraft are two young friends Jossi and Karter who were captured when they went too close to the planet. As the two ships, race it out, the Lords of Jelsen watch their progress. Pleased they summon the N-fish (large green stingrays of the sky). The N-fish attempt to trap the ships but realising there tails are there weakest point and about “as tough as hair”, the Doctor and Heather breakthrough, their path being followed by the other ship at the Fork of Fate, a corner offering several possible routes. Trapped ships surround them, hanging like ghost ships, each having been forced to race… and lose! Avoiding the routes with the ghostships the Doctor and Heather take the clear and safe route to the finish line. Fearing the ship behind will become trapped the Doctor engineers it so that both ships cross the line in the same split second. With a dead heat, the Lords of Jelsen are unsure what to do next. While they ponder their decision, the Doctor uses the distraction to bail-out of his ship (along with Heather), sending the ship on a collision course with the tower in the city that houses the Lords’ capture system. With the system destroyed, all the ships trapped are released and are able to make their escape before the Lords can get there act together. Jossi and Karter pick up the Doctor and Heather offering them a lift.

Characters

 * The Doctor
 * Heather McCrimmon
 * Lords of Jelsen
 * Jossi and Karter

Original Print Details (Publication with page count and closing captions)

 * 1) DWA Issue 148 (4 pages) NEXT WEEK! An underwater menace

Reprints

 * None to date

Continuity

 * This is the second comic strip story in Doctor Who Adventures magazine series to be headed in the opening frame with the caption “The Untold Stories of the Tenth Doctor”, being printed after the Tenth Doctor’s regeneration had been shown on television.
 * The story is set without a context, with no explanation as to where the TARDIS is or how the Doctor and Heather came to be on Jelsen and get captured.
 * The N-fish bore certain similarities to the Stingray that appeared in DW: Planet of the Dead.