Highway Robbery (comic story)

Summary
Stranded in a forest, the Doctor and Heather McCrimmon try to hitch a lift from a passing horse drawn coach. Lady Harrington-Fletcher, wary of highwaymen, orders the coach on, only to be stopped a bit further by a gun-welding masked highwayman who surprisingly leaves the valuables but takes possession of Lady H’s ammonium carbonate (smelling salts).The highwayman has gone by the time the Doctor and Heather catch up with the coach but Lady H offers a reward of five pounds and very soon all three are off in pursuit. Lady H, craving adventure follows as the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to scan for alien technology and leads them to the highwayman. The Doctor rightly guesses that the highwayman is a robot and uses his sonic screwdriver to scramble his circuits enough for the Doctor to re-programme it. The robot soon leads them to a crashed Cyrronak space pod in a wooded clearing. The pilot was injured and the robot went out in disguise to collect carbon. With all the carbon the ship needs to leave Lady H spots an armed mob approaching the pod through the forest on a scanner. The Doctor, Heather and Lady H create a distraction outside while the pod escapes its chemical engines giving off a green gas, like fog that also induces sleep in the mob. Fortunately the Doctor had found some nose plugs aboard the pod which stops them falling asleep. The mob will wake in about ten minutes with no memory of what had happened and Lady H assures the Doctor that she will keep the adventure quiet – with nobody believing such a fantastic tale anyway.

Characters

 * The Doctor
 * Heather McCrimmon

Original Print Details (Publication with page count and closing captions)

 * 1) DWA Issue 141 (4 pages) NEXT WEEK! Doomsilk!

Reprints

 * None to date

Continuity

 * The Tenth Doctor is seen wearing his brown coat and his blue suit.
 * The Tenth Doctor uses his Sonic screwdriver to scramble the robot highwayman's circuits and to activate the ships controls in order to view the exterior of the ship on the scanner.