The Champion (comic story)


 * The Champion was the first of two Doctor Who comic stories in the TV Comic Holiday Special 1969.

Summary
The TARDIS is pulled to a sports arena by a "strange web". The Second Doctor is brought, along with other creatures, to this sports arena to wrestle for the amusement of an unnamed, gorilla-like race. At first, the Doctor is paired with Grok, the species' champion. The Doctor easily defeats the giant by the proper application of leverage.

The time traveller's second opponent isn't so easy. A Cyberman steps into the ring and at first overwhelms the Doctor. Again, though, the Doctor's knowledge of physics allows him to get the upper hand. Soon, the Cyberman finds himself tied into the ring's bounding ropes and the Doctor slips away to the TARDIS. The inhabitants of the strange world allow him to leave, happy to have been so thoroughly entertained.

Characters

 * Second Doctor
 * A Cyberman
 * Grok

Continuity

 * The public announcer for the wrestling match twice calls the Doctor an "Earth creature". Though of course the Doctor isn't from Earth — and his status as an alien status was well-enough established by the 1968 publication date of this story —it's not exactly an error. The unnamed beings in control of the match never scan the Doctor's physiology in any way, so their assumption that he's from Earth is logical enough.

Timeline
There's really nothing that gives the reader any firm sense of when this story takes place. The Doctor's apparently travelling alone, which generally indicates a post-War Games story. But he's also wearing his stovepipe hat, which usually is taken to indicate a story set in the early part of season 4, when he was still travelling with Ben and Polly.