The Widow's Curse (comic story)

The Widow's Curse was a 2008 comic strip story featuring the Tenth Doctor. It was significant for being the first Doctor Who Magazine comic strip to feature Donna Noble, though it was not her comic strip debut. It also marked the second occasion on which author Rob Davis had introduced a televised companion to the pages of Doctor Who Magazine.

Synopsis
The Doctor and Donna Noble travel to an Island that doesn't exist where an old enemy is waiting in Westminster Abbey...

Part One
Zombies walk under the sea. On a boat people talk about where they have been. Donna Noble tells them all the places she has been by herself and with the Tenth Doctor. The others introduce themselves as Norah, Jean and Harry. They ask Donna where she is staying and she says the TARDIS. The others think it is a fancy hotel. Donna corrects them. Harry tries to talk to the Doctor, who stands next to Donna. He is looking through binoculars at Shadow Cay and says there is no such place as Shadow Cay.

The Doctor introduces himself and explains it can't exist because he has never met anyone who's been there. Harry reads the island's history from a book to prove it is real. Jean tells the Doctor he has a crooked aura. The Doctor says he had a nasty fall as a child.

On a beach on Shadow Cay, two people have found a spiky object they think is a sea creature. Suddenly a group of zombies attack them and take away the object. The boat arrives at Shadow Cay. The Doctor and Donna discover a model hand stuck in a wall. They see a building that looks just like Westminster Abbey. The Doctor tells them it is Westminster Abbey. The group from the boat prepare to enter the abbey but the Doctor is grabbed from behind. Two men close the doors, trapping the others inside. When a man protests, a skull on a rope swings out and catches him on the neck. He collapses. The Sycorax reveal themselves, telling the humans they are in the church of the Sycorax.

Part Two
The man who grabbed the Doctor did so to keep him from being discovered by the Sycorax - whom the Doctor recognises as female.

Inside the church, the Sycorax attack the humans, binding them with ropes, but Donna escape with Norah. As they escape, they run into another Sycorax. Donna sprays her with perfume. Donna and Norah try to find out where the Sycorax are taking people. The Sycorax discuss their plans with the leader - the Haxan Craw. Some zombies bring in a spherical object - which she reacts to with joy - they now shall have the truth.

The Doctor realises the "locals" are all zombies, as is the man who rescued him - the Sycorax are controlling them remotely. The man introduces himself as Lee Deverill. The Doctor notes he is different, but is puzzled because zombie control doesn't allow for individuality. They decide to go into the Sycorax ship.

In the church, some of the humans recognise the Sycorax as the Christmas aliens on television - but the Sycorax tell them not to speak in front of the Haxan Craw. Donna and Norah watch from behind rocks as the Haxan Craw brings in the stone. She orders the killing of the humans - but Donna protests. The Sycorax put the stone ball into a screen - which shows them what happened to their husbands. Donna realises it is like a Black Box recorder. The Sycorax watch the clip, which shows them being targeted by the humans and say they have been betrayed.

The Doctor and Lee come across a beach filled with the heads of zombies - the Doctor notes they don't exist. Lee tells the Doctor that a 747 has gone missing - the Sycorax seem to have hypnotised the entire world. They set off an alarm and are chased by Sycorax riders.

Back in the church, Donna looks on in horror as the Sycorax widows watch the clip of their husbands being destroyed over and over again.

Part Three
The Doctor and Lee run from the Sycorax riders. Lee is captured but the Doctor escapes by using the Sycorax ropes to pull them off their mounts. He steals a mount to get away. Inside the Shrine, Haxan Craw watches images her husband, the Sycorax leader Fadros Pallujikaa, meeting his death. The images show the swordfight between the Doctor and the Sycorax. Haxan Craw identifies a part the leader's bone jewellery as her rib, a marriage bond he wears. Haxan screams at the sight of her husband's death, draws her sword and stabs Harry through his chest. Jean tries to remove the Torkfish but Haxan says they only let go when the victim dies.

Lee is taken to Gilfane Craw. The Doctor also arrives and is slapped for commenting on Sycorax rites. The Doctor uses his Sonic screwdriver to threaten the Sycorax. WHe backs away to a man strapped to the mainframe of the island. It is Lee, the man who wrote a guide to Shadow Cay.

Meanwhile, the Sycorax are preparing to kill the humans when Norah throws the Sycorax's recording device into their screen ,causing an explosion. In the panic, the humans flee. Jean is tied to the rest by the Torkfish but cuts the rope so she can stay with Harry, who is now dead, the Torkfish has relaxed its grip. Lee discovers he is just a spirit in another man's body. He throws himself at Gilfane and both land in the pool of acid surrounding the mainframe and dissolve. The Doctor frees Lee from the mainframe and turns to face Haxan and her warriors. Donna and Norah board a plane.

The Sycorax wake the dead, who are contaminated with a spell/virus that will be spread round the world in the Sycorax's vengerance. Donna and Norah realise the plane is full of corpses contaminated with the virus, ready to be flown to London. The Sycorax declare this is their curse and advance on the Doctor. Haxan proclaims "No second chances, were that sort of a clan!"

Part Four
The Sycorax widows advance on the Doctor, who gives them a chance to leave this world. The Sycorax say they will leave this world to rot when the abstracts have freed the curse. The Doctor attaches himself to the Lithic womb to control the abstracts. Donna and Norah are aboard the plane with the disease carrying abstracts. They soon find out that the pilots are abstracts too.

The Sycorax prepare to kill the Doctor, who is in control of the abstracts on the island. He forces them into the lithic womb. They begin chanting, "I am the Doctor". The Doctor can speak through the abstracts. He tells Haxan Craw not to underestimate humanity and definitely not Donna Noble. Donna and Norah remove the pilots from the pilot seats. The Doctor begins to melt the walls of the lithic womb while a Sycorax falls into the acidic water, pushed by an abstract.

The Doctor realises he can use the Sycorax "magic" to replicate anything on earth. On the plane, Donna struggles to keep it in the air as the Zombies awake and begin breaking down the door.

Donna redirects the plane to Haxan's island. The Doctor replicates the drowning, giant sculpture and uses it to catch the plane. Haxan smashes the part of the lithic womb connected to the Doctor. He runs off, hunted by Haxan. The Doctor gets Jean to come with him on the way out. She is still upset over Harry's death.

The island takes off; it is a Sycorax rock ship. Haxan catches up with the Doctor, easily knocks him down and prepares to slay him. Suddenly a Torkfish winds itself around Haxan neck. She realises it is Jean. The Torkfish keeps the two together with the rope. Jean uses Haxan's spear to knock her over the edge of a building, intending to join her in a plummet to her death. At the last moment the Doctor cuts the rope, saving Jean. Haxan falls to her death.

The humans meet on a ferry as the island rises into the air. The Doctor says, "There’s enough pain in loss to bring down mountains, to crush whole planets...and if pain turns to revenge it can tear you apart!" The Sycorax ship explodes.

Characters

 * The Doctor
 * Donna Noble
 * Norah
 * Jean
 * Harry
 * Lee Deverill
 * Sycorax
 * Torkfish

Continuity

 * The Sycorax return, but this time it's female Sycorax, who were widowed when their menfolk were destroyed during their failed invasion of Earth.
 * Harriet Jones destroyed the Sycorax ship in DW: The Christmas Invasion.
 * Clips of the events from The Christmas Invasion are seen by the Sycorax and dialogue from the episode is quoted verbatim. The Doctor's killing of the Sycorax leader by throwing a satsuma at him plays a key role.
 * Haxan changes the Doctor's "No second chances: I'm that sort of man" to "No second chances: we're that sort of a clan!"
 * Donna says she's flown the Tardis (DW: The Sontaran Stratagem), so this adventure must be set after The Doctor's Daughter, which took place immediately after the two-part story.

Story notes

 * This comic mark the first appearance of Donna in the DWM comic strip series. However, her debut, in terms of what would have been available to the British consumer first, was DWBIT: "Any Old Iron".

Timeline

 * This story takes place after: DW: The Doctor's Daughter