Quiet on the Set (comic story)

Quiet on the Set was the tenth issue of Prisoners of Time, and featured the Tenth Doctor and his companion Martha Jones.

Publisher's summary
Our yearlong celebration of Doctor Who's 50th anniversary continues! Brilliant! The Tenth Doctor takes the spotlight in this issue of a 12-part epic adventure featuring all 11 incarnations of the Doctor. The Doctor brings Martha Jones to 1950s Los Angeles and the Griffith Observatory to give her a glimpse of Gallifrey, but soon encounters a film crew whose members are mysteriously disappearing!

Plot
The Doctor's TARDIS lands in the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California, sometime in the mid-1950s. Exiting the ship, the Tenth Doctor tells Martha Jones about the facility before using his psychic paper to gain access to the telescope, the guard leaving the area but not before mentioning "all the hub-bub down on the lawn".

Charging up the telescope, the Doctor shows Martha the last residual image of Gallifrey before the Last Great Time War. After some grim musings, the Doctor quickly changes the subject and proposes a sightseeing tour of LA before they hear a ruckus from outside. Exiting onto the balcony, the two discover a film is being shot.

Descending onto the set, the two run afoul of the irate producer before they meet Deke Williams, the stunt manager, who tells them that production is days behind schedule as a result of people simply not showing up for work, a statement that draws the Doctor's attention to the collection of robot props. The furious director then shows up, demanding to know where Bianca is before he quickly notices Martha's beauty and decides to make her his new star. After Martha is given her costume, the Doctor tells her to let this play out.

Making a scene of himself, the Doctor then walks past the robot props, finally rousing the Quark into action. Though the Quark is quick to fire, its clunky body quickly allows the Doctor to outmaneuver it. Inspecting the corpse, the Doctor finds hints of limestone. Following the Quark's tracks, the Doctor finds a computer terminal, and is horrified by what he reads on it.

In her trailer, Martha has little to do but wait before someone beings impatient knocking. Opening, Martha is greeted by a second Quark who teleports her to a cell populated by her fellow crew. Two Dominators emerge from the shadows and reveal that everyone imprisoned has stumbled upon the Quarks before they were ready. Though the Dominators intend to use humanity as a slave labour force to strip mine Earth, humans are too stupid to make productive slaves. As such, the Dominators have hijacked production of the movie to broadcast subliminal messages that will enhance the human intellect for the specific tasks required and dull their will to resist.

Having heard enough, the Doctor makes his dramatic entrance, declaring his identity as the man who will stop them. Keenly recalling their last encounter with the Doctor, the Dominators have their Quarks open fire. The Doctor once again takes advantage of their poor design to have their weapons destroy the machine and themselves. With the muscle gone, the Doctor reveals that he's disabled all the other Quarks. Denouncing the would be conquerors as no better than bullies, he quickly orders them off the planet.

As the sun rises, the Doctor and Martha watch the film resume production, the latter grumbling about being replaced, the Doctor suddenly notices Adam Mitchell but can do nothing to prevent him from shocking them both and taking Martha away. Running out of options, the Doctor takes desperate measures, contacting Frobisher to enact a gamble to stay ahead of his foe.

Characters

 * Tenth Doctor
 * Martha Jones
 * Security guard
 * Producer
 * Deke Williams
 * Quarks
 * Dominators
 * Bianca
 * Adam Mitchell

The Doctor

 * The last time the Doctor was on a movie set, he told Georges Melies what the moon was like.

Locations

 * The Griffith Observatory is able to see a residential image of Gallifrey from before the Time War.

Miscellanous

 * The Doctor admires the confidence of Colonel Griffith J. Griffith for using the same name twice.
 * The Doctor bluffs that he is from Imperial College London.

Continuity

 * The Tenth Doctor mentions that he has met the Dominators before, in a different body. (TV: The Dominators)
 * Martha says that she is acquainted with Shakespeare. (TV: The Shakespeare Code)
 * The Doctor recalls Martha asking him to tell her about Gallifrey. (TV: Gridlock)