A Doctor in the House? (comic story)

A Doctor in the House? is a comic story across two issues, released on 5 July and 26 July 2023 by Titan Comics. It was released in celebration of the 60th Anniversary of Doctor Who.

It is the third and fourth release and the sixth and seventh overall story of the Doom's Day multimedia series.

Summary
Using her vortex manipulator, she’ll do anything to find the tempestuous time traveller, including cavorting with the maleficent Missy. Every hour a new adventure, every hour closer to death…


 * 0600

Coincidence finds Doom at yet another ball. Only this time, she's looking for answers as well as her target. But a priceless and dangerous treasure poses her another complication in her final day.


 * 0700

Doom arrives back at Stormcage for a new mission which is interrupted by an uninvited guest.


 * 0800

In her next mission, Doom finds herself at a futuristic fan convention. Who is her next target, and what could Missy possibly want with her?


 * 0900

A dead planet. The last of their kind. A tea party for three. Can Doom shake Missy off her tail and find the Doctor?

DD 1
New York, 1883. Message from Terri, Lesser Order of Oberon. Her target: The Thief.

Doom finds herself attending a Masked Ball, just like in New Venice. She spends a bit of time chatting with guests, searching for her target. A guest take notice of Doom, claiming to have met her before and dancing with her at the Collins Gala, but Doom brushes him off, continuing her search for the Doctor.

Elsewhere, Missy has joined the same party, having picked up a time anomaly while pretending to be "Doctor Who", on her path to redemption. In a similar manner to Doom, Missy chats with guests to find her own target, trying to sound like the Doctor, a guest says she must be an "avid reader of the Penny Dreadfuls". Spotting some suspicious Catkind, she makes her way through the partying people towards them.

Confronting them with threats, the Cats introduce themselves as Lord and Lady Prettypaw. Scanning them, she finds that they’re not her time anomaly. Doom watches from afar, deciding to follow them.

Missy is stopped by Ava, the host of the party, asking if Missy came from The Times. Missy says she is from a lot of times and, very annoyed, says she’s not supposed to stab anyone.

Having followed her target upstairs, Doom finds the Prettypaws in a room, stealing jewellery from a cupboard. Doom deducts that they’re looking for the Perpetual Topaz, telling them that the people of Earth in this time has no knowledge of its capability of destroying planet. Lady Prettypaw claims that a lot of money will be paid for the diamond.

Claiming the Topaz to be theirs, the Prettypaws attempt to attack Doom, but she makes short of her attackers, throwing her special mask at the Lord and shoots the Lady.

Having made her way upstairs following the time anomaly signal, Missy, finds Doom inside the room with the dead bodies, Missy claims to have missed the fun, claiming yet again to be "Doctor Who". A doubtful Doom activates her vortex manipulator and dissapears, leaving Missy to stand and admire her work, vowing to find Doom again.

Stormcage Containment Facility, 52nd century. Message from Terri, Lesser Order of Oberon. Her target: The Prison Broker.

Doom begins her search. Elsewhere, Missy finds herself near her past self's cell, the latter swearing at a cartoon he's watching.

Picking up signal from far too many time travellers, Missy asks herself what "Doctor Who" would do, besides making "puppy eyebrows" at River Song.

Having made her way to the Administrators room, Doom meets Cire and warns him that his job and the facility are in danger from a traitor who plans to make a profit by hiring out the prisoners.

Missy shows up, with Cire greeting her as the Doctor, to Doom's annoyance. Cire proceeds to tell Missy about what Doom just told him, but Doom makes him question Missy's lack of identification, giving her time to run off. As Cire calls for security, Missy walks off, telling him not to disturb her quest.

Making her way to a prisoner, he accidentally reveals the name of her target as she lowers the prison bars, and he proceeds to attack her. Doom quickly puts up the bars, cutting the prisoner in half, killing him.

Searching further, she finds Jaxxo, the target, wandering the halls and proceeds to kill him too.

Elsewhere, Missy is strolling along the halls, bumping into Doom on her way to time jump, telling Missy once again that she’s an imposter and that she’s too late.

Missy again is left behind, as Cire shows gratitude towards Missy for solving the issue. But upon learning that she has to fill out paperwork, she leaves, vowing again that she’s not done with her "murderous little poppet".

DD 2
Message from Terri, Lesser Order of Oberon. Her target The Extremist, Canis Major Overdensity Convention Center and Resort.

Doom finds herself at a convention on Canis Major. A clerk asks her name, and she indicates that she is "Flavariousa Orange, of the California Oranges, NOT the Florida Oranges".

She is given a badge and a lanyard and enters. She searches the convention for the Doctor, eventually bumping into "the NOT Doctor" again, who claims to be looking for the Perpetual Topaz that Doom took. Doom then exclaims she’s looking for the REAL Doctor, and what better place than a convention that celebrates their favourite planet. As Missy rambles on, Doom leaves, uninterested, which Missy laments.

Doom turns around to explain that she is looking for something as valuable as the diamond which can destroy the Earth, and a potential buyer wants to use it for evil-doings. Doom suggest she and Missy work together to find it. They do, and begin searching around the convention, before eventually landing in a library section. As Missy exclaims her boredom, Doom explains that "the right words can save the world. Or destroy it", and challenges Missy to find it.

At the same time, a woman comes forward offering a bag full of cash chips to buy all the books. Doom sees through the act and declines her. The woman begins rambling about how the Church of Omitted Yesteryear claims the past chains people, Doom explains that stories matter and destroying them would only damage the future.

As the woman pulls a gun on Doom, Doom retaliates and kills the woman. Elsewhere, Missy is busy reading through the library, having found A Doctor's Perspective on the Human Body and laments how humans really are fragile. She then sees Doom has already taken care of her target, complaining that she lied about a "magic book".

Doom activates her vortex manipulator and makes another time jump, leaving Missy behind as the librarian complains about the mess they left. Missy then signs the book she was reading with "The Who".

Message from Terri, Lesser Order of Oberon. Her target: The Last, a dying world. Name long forgotten.

Doom arrives on a barren, desolate planet, a planet seemingly completely left to die. She finds a lonely building in the middle of the deserted nothingness, and knocks on the door.

A little purple three-eyed man opens the door, already knowing who she is and asks if she wants some tea, to which she agrees.

Missy has also arrived on the planet and as she sees the house she remarks her own disgust with it. As she pushes the door open, Doom is waiting on the other side, remarking that Missy is late, to which Missy retorts she is exactly on time and agrees to tea as well.

As they sit down at the table with their tea, Doom snarkily remarks that the Doctor would not need her to explain why she was there. Missy remarks that it is obvious, and begins explaining, to Doom's surprise, exactly why she is there, also making the man angry in the process, saying that his people’s memory will live on.

He explains that he will launch an armada of destroyer probes to destroy everything they touch. Missy remarks that that is all counter-productive as dead people will not be able to remember anyone, to which Doom remarks that the best bit of his plan is that the man's probes are powered by bits of the Perpetual Topaz.

Missy, snapping back to the point, asks Doom curiously why the man is still alive, to which Doom says that Missy has been so distracting trying to prove she’s the Doctor that her work was interrupted, and poses a test to Missy, that if she is really the Doctor, she can come up with a way of stopping the man without violence and murder, even save him and his planet. Doom says she has to act fast as the man is about to die in minutes.

Taking a long time to think up something, Missy is too late as the man gives out a scream and falls lifeless onto the table. Doom reveal that she poisoned the man's tea before Missy got there.

At last Missy admits she’s not the Doctor, to which Doom says that she can’t help her. Missy asks why her cup of tea wasn’t poisoned, to which Doom replies that she isn’t a target. Yet. She activates the vortex manipulator and takes off.

Missy sits back, displeased with what she was told a she remembers all the man's weapons of mass destruction are free to take. As she leaves the house, she finds the landscape outside incinerated. Doom made sure the Topaz was destroyed completely.

Inside the TARDIS, Missy explains to the Twelfth Doctor about the Topaz and that the tea she gave him isn’t poisoned. She also tells him that she met a woman who was obnoxious and chatty and looking for him, acting like she knew him, before brushing it off as nothing and asks where they’re going next.

Characters

 * Doom
 * Man
 * Missy
 * Woman
 * Lord Prettypaw
 * Lady Prettypaw
 * Ava
 * The Master
 * Cire
 * Prisoner
 * Jaxxo
 * Convention clerk
 * Extremist
 * Convention librarian
 * Last man
 * Twelfth Doctor

DD 1

 * Previously...
 * The Doctor is the last of the Time Lords, traveling alone through time and space. Able to regenerate, and live many lives, the Doctor is a hero to the helpless. Doom is the universe's greatest assassin, currently traversing all of time and space in pursuit of the Doctor, who is the only one who can save her from the ever-approaching Death. She has just 24 hours and a vortex manipulator to save herself before her fate is sealed forever...


 * Next issue
 * Missy is in hot pursuit of Doom! With the body count piling up, the pair must decide whether to team up, or have one final face off…

DD 2

 * Previously...
 * Doom is currently traversing all of time and space in pursuit of the Doctor, who is the only one who can save her from the ever-approaching Death. Instead, she's found Missy, a morally ambiguous Time Lord posing as the Doctor, who has taken it upon herself to stop Doom's killing spree. (Or is she just after the Perpetual Topaz Doom stole before she had the chance to?) With Missy hot on her tail, Doom has less than 24 hours to save herself before her fate is sealed forever.

Continuity

 * Doom remarks the masked ball is just like New Venice. (PROSE: Hour One) Similarly her next hit takes her back to Stormcage Containment Facility. (COMIC: Target Selected)
 * Missy once again goes by the name "Doctor Who". (TV: World Enough and Time, COMIC: The Master Plan)
 * The Master is still imprisoned at Stormcage Containment Facility. Cire mentions how "the Doctor" took him off-site without proper procedure. (COMIC: The Master Plan)
 * The Master is watching a cartoon involving a dog and a bird, continuing their trend of enjoying children's entertainment. (TV: The Sea Devils, The Sound of Drums)