Memorial (comic story)

Memorial was a Seventh Doctor comic story published in DWM 191. It explored the ethics of war and was particularly hostile to such conflict.

Summary
In the town of Westmouth, the war memorial has a special significance for both the Seventh Doctor and Simon Galway.

Plot
Plagued by nightmares, Simon Galway - a World War II veteran — heads for the local cenotaph. There he meets the Seventh Doctor and Ace. He introduces himself and Ace notices that there is a Brian Galway on the memorial — his brother, who died in the war. The Doctor views the conflict as pointless but Simon tries to justify it.

The Doctor tells him the story of the Telphin — a peaceful race with no enemies, masters of psycho-sculpture and other arts. A warlike race called the Chaktra experienced an error in a garbled report and understood it to mean the Telphin were allied with their enemies and so destroyed them. Ace asks the Doctor if anything survived and he tells her something, a life form in the embryonic stage. Galway tells him that he shouldn't believe him, but he does.

At this point he recalls how, on 20 December 1945, the commemoration ceremony for the war memorial took place and Simon attended. It meant little to him and would not bring Brian back. He stayed behind after the ceremony and a man was there, holding something that alive. It was the Doctor — and he hasn't aged a day.

The Doctor tells him that he blocked his memory and Simon begins to glow. He tells Ace that he planted the seed in Simon and as he does so, the "spirit of the Telphin" emerges from the man, thanks them all and leaves. Simon thanks the Doctor and Ace before they also leave.

Characters

 * Seventh Doctor
 * Ace
 * Simon Galway

Worldbuilding

 * Ace deems Westmouth to be "more boring than Perivale".
 * Galway thinks that World War II was justified as they fought against "fascists and butchers".

Continuity
to be added