Dreamers of Death (comic story)

Dreamers of Death was a Doctor Who Magazine comic story written by Steve Moore and published between November and December 1980. Dave Gibbons provided the artwork.

The story featured the Fourth Doctor, K9 Mark II and Sharon Davies. It was notable for depicting Sharon's departure from the TARDIS crew. Aside from a cameo in A Life of Matter and Death, Sharon wouldn't be seen again until 2016's The Stockbridge Showdown thirty-six years later.

Summary
The Fourth Doctor and Sharon Davies visit some of his old friends on the planet Unicepter IV. A peaceful cohabitation between the population and the native Slinth creatures have granted them the power to harness fully-controlled dreamscapes. However, reports of fatalities regarding Professional Dreamers and their clients cause concern for the Doctor, but not one to turn down an adventure he nevertheless agrees to enter a dreamscape himself curtesy of Vernor Allen.

As the dreamscape soon turns into a nightmare the Doctor and co face off against a hoard of dead-men, devil birds and gigantic Slinths. K9 saves the day by severing the Doctor's connection to the dream world, and the Doctor is soon able to work out that the Sliths are in fact parasitic and feeding off the psyhcic energy being produced by the fear and terror experienced within the dreamscapes. Proving themselves to be more than a match for the Doctor, the Slinths combine into one large creature taking the form of the Devil. They plan to wreak havoc on the city and absorb the psychic energy from the population's fear.

Dreamers of Death
Inside a dreamscape, Karith battles an army of Kroads to save his fiancée Lyan who has been tied to a stone archway. No sooner has he broken through the hoard is Lyan being menaced by a devil bird which he is forced to slay in order to rescue her. As Karith and Lyan embrace in the company of her parents, Garret and Camilla, the four of them are awoken in the Dream Room. Professional Dreamer Scylla greets her clients as they wake and humbly combats their compliments of her work as a dreamer by stating that she was working with an excellent cast.

Elsewhere, the Fourth Doctor and Sharon Davies land on Unicepter IV and the Doctor wastes no time in tracking down his old friends Garret and Camilla. He is surprised to learn that it has been over six years since their last meeting and that Lyan is now a grown adult who is soon to marry Karith at the next Two-Moon festival. When Lyan mentions their adventures within the dream world, Garret explains to the doctor that a native animal known as the Slinth was found to possess telepathic powers which they could harness through a headset to create a fully-controlled dream story. Upon Lyan's insistence Garret agreed to hire another Dreamer, Vernor Allen, so that the Doctor could experience the dreamscape for himself. However, before their dream session, Garret received word that Lord Veith, his dreamer Enox, and two others had been killed during their dream session from an apparent electrical fault. Vernor arrived with his Slinth, Miki, and Sharon showed an instant interest in him - disappointed that he would not be joining them within the dreamscape.



Strapping themselves into the headsets in the Dream Room, Vernor informed the group that they would be dreaming of The First Landing on the Bliss-World Ansillar where they would be playing members of the survey team. Within the dreamscape the Doctor found himself in awe at how real the planet of Ansillar seemed, exclaiming that the environment even smelt like another world. The group were met by a welcoming committee consisting of several alien creatures, including flying Nymphs, but the man riding under a canopy took the group by surprise - Lord Veith.

Alongside Veith were the equally deceased-looking Scylla and Enox, and upon that revelation the flying Nymphs turned into devil birds and attacked the group. As the group beat a hasty retreat they found their rocket ship destroyed having been eaten by the ground, and they were forced to run for shelter from a sudden meteor shower. A cage appeared out of nowhere containing a trapped Vernor who revealed that he had lost control of the dream and that they were all in danger of dying from mental shock. His Slinth Miki had been transfigured into a gigantic beast that attacked the group.

Psychic vampires!
Back in the Dream Room, K9 Mark II sensed that the group's pulse-rate was reaching a critical limit and that their breathing had quickened, and so he severed the Doctor's dream headset from the main controls. The Doctor then decided to cut the dream off by its source by removing Vernor's headset - bringing the group back to consciousness in the real world. Although Miki turned ravenous and attacked Vernor, the Doctor managed to pull the creature off and allowed it to escape the Dream Room.



After turning on the Vis-News, the group watched as the Newsreader reported that there were a number of reported fatalities between Dreamers and their clients, and that the Slinths were believed to be responsible and should be treated as vermin and destroyed. The Doctor concluded that the Slinths were acting as psychic vampires and feeding off people's dreams. A further news report revealed that a giant creature was wreaking havoc on the 4th and 5th Districts. When the Doctor, Sharon, K9 and Vernor raced outside they realised that hundreds of Sliths had combined together to great the body of a giant Devil in an attempt to generate more psychic energy to feed on from fear and terror.

The Military arrived and attempted to shoot the beast with their weapons before it could cross the river, but the creature simply soaked up their fire power and grew even larger. The Doctor warned the Captain to cease fire as the Sliths were absorbing the energy from their weapons and would soon be big enough to cross the river and destroy the city. Having absorbed the power from a nearby pylon the beast became almost unstoppable, even when Vernor began firing at it using an old-fashioned weapon from a museum, and began to make its way across the river. However, the Doctor realised that it was avoiding the water due to the amount of electrical energy it was producing and, with help from K9, managed to tie a cable around its leg and blast it with water from a nearby fire truck's hose. The beast was electrocuted and the Slinths fell away from the whole which allowed the military to easily take care of them individually.



A few days later it came time for the Doctor to say goodbye to the Berrace family once more, but Sharon surprised him by revealing that she planned to remain on the planet with Vernor. The Doctor and K9 returned to the TARDIS with Sharon requesting that he come back and visit her sometime.

Characters

 * Karith
 * Lyan Berrace
 * Garret Berrace
 * Camilla Berrace
 * Scylla
 * Fourth Doctor
 * Sharon Davies
 * Vernor Allen
 * Miki
 * K9 Mark II
 * Lord Veith
 * Newsreader
 * Captain

Original print details

 * (Publication with page count and closing captions)


 * 1) DWM 47 (8 pages) Next: Psychic Vampires!
 * 2) DWM 48 (8 pages) The End.

Reprints

 * 1) DW84 8 (Doctor Who (1984) colourised reprint)
 * 2) Dragon's Claw
 * 3) DWC 10 (IDW colourised reprint)
 * 4) Doctor Who Classics Volume 2 (IDW colourised reprint)
 * 5) Doctor Who Classics Omnibus Volume 1 (IDW colourised reprint)

Continuity
to be added