The Collector (DWM comic story)


 * For The Collector (The Sun Makers), see separate article.

Summary
The Doctor successfully returns Sharon to Blackcastle, although she isn’t sure she wants to return now that she’s grown up. The decision is taken out of their hands when they are accidentally kidnapped by alien anthropologist Varan Tak, who has been stranded in Sol’s asteroid belt for centuries. To alleviate the boredom he has been “removing” samples of human civilisations from the planet and keeping them in time stasis capsules while awaiting rescue. The Doctor offers to bypass the ship’s safety procedures and allow Tak to teleport to Earth so he will have company at last, but learns too late why the ship wouldn’t let him go; the artificial intelligence which runs the ship had fallen in love with him and was trying to protect him, as Earth’s industrialised atmosphere would instantly kill him. This has in fact happened, but the Doctor uses the distortion caused by the time stasis capsules to correct his mistake. He is able to take the TARDIS back in time only a few minutes, interrupting himself and destroying the teleport mechanism. The alternate future in which Tak died ceases to exist, and he must content himself with remaining to await rescue.

Characters

 * Fourth Doctor
 * K9 Mark II
 * Sharon
 * Varan Tak (the Collector)
 * Mother Ship Robot

Continuity
to be added