Land of the Blind (comic story)

Land of the Blind was a Second Doctor comic story featuring Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot. It was originally published in Doctor Who Magazine.

Summary
The Doctor visits a planet that has been sealed off from the rest of the universe.

Plot
The TARDIS arrives in a spaceport on Denossus, but for some reason its engines continue functioning even after it has materialized. As the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe explore their surroundings, a young woman named Anna attempts to destroy the shield generator in the centre of the spaceport, but only manages to attract the attention of the Vortexians who now rule Denossus. The Doctor tries to intervene on her behalf, but the Vortexians politely arrest him and sentence him to five seconds in the Speculum -- an ordeal which normally destroys the victim's mind. Anna's father-in-law, Max, explains to Jamie and Zoe that the Vortexians sealed off the planet from the rest of the Universe twenty years ago, and have ruled it ever since; his son, Anna's husband Luther, was recently placed in the speculum for attempting to destroy the shield generator. The Doctor, however, survives the speculum, and recognizes the force within as the Time Vortex -- which leads him to realise where they really are.

Upon being released by the Vortexians, the Doctor and his friends set up a trap for them, and catch them in mid-transit when Anna lures them by trying to destroy the shield generator again. While the Vortexians are trapped, the Doctor switches off the shield generator's holographic sky- projection to reveal that the spaceport has in fact been removed from real space-time altogether and suspended in the Time Vortex. The Vortexians intend to unite all races in harmony under their rule and had transplanted Denossus into the Vortex as a test of their abilities. They break free of the Doctor's trap and attempt to arrest Anna, but Max deliberately shouts a racial epithet at them, causing them to administer a shock to his nervous system as punishment. But his ageing heart can't stand the shock and he dies, telling the Doctor he knew what he was doing. The Doctor points out that the Vortexians have broken their own moral code by killing Max, and the Vortexians punish themselves by restoring Denossus to its place in the Universe and departing.

Characters

 * Second Doctor
 * Jamie McCrimmon
 * Zoe Heriot
 * Luther Ronayne
 * Anna
 * Max Ronayne

Cameos

 * This story's large crowds feature many cameos, notably featuring several cameos from the early Doctor Who annuals. Lee Sullivan would draw similar crowd cameos in Bazaar Adventures and Liberation of the Daleks.
 * The audience in the arena scene in Part 1 include an alien resembling a Go-Ray, a Monoid, a Zrontak, a Pharaoh, and a Mechanoid.
 * The street crowd in Part 1 includes a Kandalinga Fishman and a woman with a Starfleet hoodie. Additionally, an Insoid is seen in the background of one panel in this scene.
 * The arena audience in Part 2 includes a Mechanoid, a Go-Ray, and a Menoptera.
 * A flashback in Part 2 includes a Quark in the background.
 * The arena audience in Part 3 include a CyberFaction Cyberman, an Ice Warrior, a Zarbi, a Robot Yeti, and RoboCop (Lee Sullivan had been a frequent artist for a RoboCop comic in the early 1990s).
 * As the Doctor and friends leave the arena in Part 3, they pass four characters from non-Doctor Who comics, including Mandrake the Magician. Land of the Blind Annual monsters.jpg cameo panel.]]
 * One panel in Part 3 has a crowd entirely of aliens from the Annuals, composed of (left to right): a Stagg and Deemon; two Ethereals; a Baggolt and a Rostrow; a Glacian and a dimension-explorer of the Life Force; one of Queeg's robots; a living matter reservoir; a Kandalinga Fishman; a Korad; a Voord, a being from the contents page of The Dr Who Annual, and the Robot King; a Zarbi; a humanoid Yend and a shapeshifting Yend; two burly Sensorites (per their appearance in The Monsters from Earth); a Kaark; and another Ethereal.

Continuity

 * The Doctor and Zoe recognise transmat technology. (TV: The Seeds of Death)