The Warmonger (comic story)

 was a comic story published in Doctor Who Magazine in 2018. It was the first Doctor Who Magazine comic story to star the Thirteenth Doctor.

Part one
In the City of Radiant Stone on the planet Gatan, a lost young girl of the local species walks alone through the destroyed and empty city, clutching a teddy and shouting for her lost mother. A couple of looters ransack a nearby house and knock her to the ground as she begins to cry. However, a nearby woman's voice calls out to her, looking for someone nice, and she identifies herself as the Doctor, alongside her friends Ryan, Graham, and Yaz. The girl begins to warm to Yaz, and reveals her name as Tondi. As Yaz promises to help her find her mum, called Parnia, the other three look around at the destroyed city. The Doctor states that it is odd, as she should have landed in the planet's "party era", and Ryan and Graham volunteer to scout the area from the roof while the Doctor helps out Yaz.

From the roof, Ryan and Graham survey the burning rubble of the city, before having to dive out of the way as what Ryan describes as a "flying robot lady" on a hover vehicle floats past, despite the planet supposedly having roughly the same level of technology as Earth. Curious, Ryan decides to follow her, despite having to cross a very high-up rope bridge in doing so. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Yaz stumble upon some more looters. The Doctor decides to ask them for information, but they immediately start attacking her. However, she stays very polite, dodging all of the punches of their leader, Gorny, before hurling him to the ground as the other two run away. Before he can talk, however, a golden streak of light hurtles towards the ground and makes impact. To Gorny's horror, from out of it comes a large bio-mechanical solider, looking for an enemy to kill, and is quickly followed by another elsewhere. Despite the chaos and really wanting to help the Doctor, Yaz continues to carry Tondi to safety. The second soldier emerges, less mechanical than the other, and lunges at the other soldier, shouting that it will die in the name of its Kith-kind, with the Doctor and Gorny caught in the crossfire.

Part two
As the two soldiers prepare to clash, the Doctor as she calculates their heights, weights, and movement speeds. As she does, she discovers a maintenance hatch below her feet, opens it with the sonic screwdriver, and pulls herself and Gorny down it, all with 0.13 seconds to spare. On the roof, Graham and Ryan continue to watch the robot lady as she reports that she will get some good footage of the soldiers fighting and will go live very soon. The two continue to fight, revealing the first soldier's name as Tumat and the second's as Kraytos, as they smash each other through walls with no signs of damage. The violence is escalated by the arrival of the local army, who decide to use one of their few remaining weapons on them, but the explosion of the pallodium shells does nothing to stop them. With nothing left, they begin to consider nuclear weapons as their only remaining choice.

Underground, the Doctor discovers that the destruction of the city was not caused by an army, but only by Tumat and Kraytos' fight which has been going on for months. Determined to do something, Gorny runs off, but the Doctor cannot save him from being crushed by the collapsing roof of the sewer. Above the fighting, the robot lady flies over with a microphone, revealing her name as Sandola Dell, appearing to be broadcasting a report of the battle to viewers. Upon spotting Graham and Ryan, they end up arguing over not being local, and upon learning this, Sandola teleports them away. Meanwhile, Yaz continues to run away from the fighting with Tondi in her arms, and the two decide to try and find her aunt that lives nearby. However, they are stopped by having to hide from a group of drunken revellers who have apparently given up hope and are trying to live the ends of their lives in happiness.

Graham and Ryan are teleported onto a huge floating eye in the atmosphere above Gatan that Sandola identifies as the Eye Above - the headquarters of the Freedom Thoughtcasting Network of which she is a reporter. Their cashing in of the fight even involves getting a duo of actors called Bastian and Fortunio to act as them for the cameras. As Graham attempts to contact the Doctor, Sandola takes notice, and a woman who is watching them tells her to find the Doctor.

Back on Gatan, the Doctor finally decides to leave the maintenance hatch and dodges several attacks before being grabbed by Sandola. She teleports her off to her headquarters, where the Doctor finally meets the woman who wanted to find her - the daughter of an old enemy of hers: Berakka Dogbolter.

Characters

 * Thirteenth Doctor
 * Graham O'Brien
 * Ryan Sinclair
 * Yasmin Khan
 * Berakka Dogbolter
 * Sandola Dell
 * Tumat
 * Kraytos
 * Tondi
 * Gorny
 * Bastian
 * Fortunio

Original print details

 * (Publication with page count and closing captions)


 * 1) DWM 531 (8 pages) Next: The Eye Above!
 * 2) DWM 532 (8 pages) Next: Eternity of Hatred!

Continuity

 * Ryan has to climb up a ladder again. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, The Ghost Monument, et al.)
 * The Doctor mentions craving a kronkburger. (TV: The Long Game)