Lock, Stocks and Barrel (comic story)

Opening narration box
Jebelex has stolen the Treed Crystal so the TARDIS team and the Zaan are after him!

Summary
In the woods of a nearby village, Jebelex believing himself to be safe has gone into hiding before trying to sell the Treed Crystal to another buyer. When the TARDIS arrives in pursuit of Jebelex, the Doctor soon finds himself captured by the local natives and put into a set of stocks by a nearby pond in their village. Having left Martha in the TARDIS (the natives don’t like visitors), the pond, a living entity, rears up. Inside the liquid the Doctor can make out the half digested body of Jebelex still holding the Treed Crystal. On the Doctor’s instruction Martha emerges from TARDIS and uses Jebelex’s mater transmuter to turn the liquid into a solid. The Doctor breaks free from the stocks, smashes the now solid creature and retrieves the Crystal. The Zaan arrive to reclaim the Crystal and the Doctor uses the matter transmuter to return the pond creature to its ‘hungry’ liquid state. While the Doctor still holds the crystal he hasn’t won as the Zaan have captured Martha and, unless the Doctor takes the crystal directly to the Zaan homeworld, Martha will die. The Doctor decides its time to end this once and for all.



Characters

 * Tenth Doctor
 * Martha Jones
 * Zaan - Spiky-backed, green, bulky-but-agile, humanoid creatures with razor sharp teeth and capable of shape changing who stole the ultimate weapon the Vortex Cannon from Brendock Seven
 * Jebelex the Pulthasian – small blue, ball-like creature (not unlike a space hopper with a large face) and with long thin arms and legs. Burglar in the service of the Zaan warriors employed to steal the Treed Crystal from Miss Honey Vox.

Original print details
Installment, publication title with page count and closing caption.
 * 3/4 Doctor Who: Battles in Time Issue 24 (4 pages) TO BE CONTINUED!!!
 * No reprints to date.

Continuity
to be added