The Clockwise War (comic story)

 was a comic story published in Doctor Who Magazine in 2018.

Part one
In the tower of Silent Memory upon the desert of High Remorse on Gallifrey, the Time Lord Bellator ascends, followed by General Kenossium, to prepare for a ritual that will lead him to his final regeneration. Telling the Time Lords to hurry up because "I've heard this malarkey eleven times already", Bellator begins to regenerate, but something goes badly wrong. Part-way through the process, he ends up twisted and elongated, and collapses to the floor, dead, before dissolving in an orange puddle on the ground. A Gallifreyan soldier arrives to inform Kenossium that all six regenerations that have taken place in the last hour have failed and led to the deaths of the people involved.

In the TARDIS, the Twelfth Doctor is in a great rush, even missing Alan Turing and Ranesh's wedding, but for a reason he will not tell Bill. Before he can elaborate, the TARDIS hits a massive energy field encompassing a huge variety of destroyed space craft floating in zero gravity, as the TARDIS is drained of its power. Realising they can breathe in the field, the Doctor and Bill leave to try and prevent the TARDIS being "sucked dry", before someone shoots the TARDIS. It is revealed to be Gol Clutha and her band of mercenaries, and they drag the Doctor and Bill to the dead remains of a colony ship. Gol seems surprised that the Doctor does not know who she is working for this time and believes the state of the ship is his fault, but he has no idea what she means. Gol shows the Doctor the other inhabitants of the ship - lots of people who used to be celebrities and geniuses on their own worlds, now stranded and homeless on the ship. Wanting revenge, Gol prepares to shoot the Doctor but is distracted by something.

Led outside, the Doctor realises that as Gol is a temporal mercenary, the ships stranded in the energy field are actually time machines, not spaceships. He eventually comes face to face with the leader of the ship - Count Jodafra. Like Gol, Jodafra also believes that the Doctor has set them up and has come to gloat, having made Fey Truscott-Sade work for him, but the Doctor still does not understand why he thinks this. Suddenly, before they can go any further, they are interrupted by a sight that shocks even Gol - the return of the Clockwise Men.

Characters

 * Bellator
 * Kenossium
 * Bill Potts
 * Twelfth Doctor
 * Gol Clutha
 * Maaakku
 * Jodafra

Original print details

 * (Publication with page count and closing captions)


 * 1) DWM 524 (8 pages) Next: The Sacrifice!

Continuity
to be added