Death to the Doctor! (comic story)

Death to the Doctor! was a Doctor Who Magazine comic story written by Jonathan Morris and published in December 2007.

Although released during a run of stories featuring the contemporary TARDIS team of the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones, the pair only appear on the final page. Much of this story focuses on defeated foes of the Doctor's first nine incarnations plotting to defeat him together, while later turning on one another when the accidental electrocution of Kraarn leads the other six to incorrectly believe the Doctor is among them. Various incarnations and companions of the Doctor, including DWM companions Izzy Sinclair and Frobisher, also appear in flashbacks.

Summary
Enemies unite to defeat the Doctor.

Plot
On Research Base Truro, which is under strict quarantine due to an outbreak of Galactic plague, High Arbiter of the Darkness Valis is greeted by Kraarn of the Kraagaaron. The pair join a conference group made up of other aliens who have come together to speak of how they were defeated by the various incarnations of the Doctor. As the latest member, Valis was given the opportunity to retell his story first and he revealed how a fortnight ago he had appropriated the Crystal of Consciousness and, with the Eighth Doctor and Izzy Sinclair at his mercy, planned to place the crystal within his psychic web. However, the Doctor had managed to switch the crystal with a piece of perspex which overloaded Valis' machine.

Bolog, a toad-like creature, and the piscine Zargath are next to recount their defeats. Bolog explains how he was defeated by the Fourth Doctor who sent the whole Reptilios Invasion Fleet into the sun using a banana, while Zargath tells that the Ninth Doctor managed to defeat his takeover of the Powell Estate by using his sonic screwdriver to make it rain as the Zargath race are allergic to water.

Plink, an alien wearing a metal helmet, reveals that he has been defeated by several Doctors including the Sixth Doctor, and comments on his poor choice of clothes. Kraarn comes up with an idea: they must unite to defeat the Doctor. He starts showing slides, but is blown up. The other villains wonder what caused it and Valis comes up with the only explanation: the Doctor must be on the base.

The aliens then search for the Doctor. Valis talks with one of the villains, called the Mentor (who resembles the Master), and he reveals that he was defeated by the Doctor's third incarnation. In another corridor, Bolog asks Questor, an old humanoid, how he was defeated; Questor tells him how the Doctor's first incarnation defeated him in the Jungle of Tropicalus. The other two aliens reach the room with a Metabolic Interfermometer, which shows only six people in the base. As there are only six aliens, this can only mean that the Doctor is one of them. Not long after, a shot is heard — Bolog has killed Questor because he thought Questor was the Doctor in disguise.

The aliens accuse each other of being the Doctor, and attention switches to Valis, the newest member. He is shot by Zargath, but is revealed to be flammable, and Zargath is caught in the blast — but neither was the Doctor. There are now only three left, and each accuses the others of being the Doctor. They then hear the TARDIS arriving, but too late — they all shoot, killing each other.

Martha Jones comes out of the TARDIS, and is shocked to see the dead aliens. The Doctor examines the station and discovers that the wire which killed Kraarn had an electrical fault. He sees the Interferometre, and discovers that they are the only ones there — leaving him to wonder what caused it. He apologises to Martha, saying that if he had got there sooner, he would have saved them.

Characters

 * The Mentor
 * Valis
 * Bolog
 * Kraarn
 * Plink
 * Zargath
 * Questor
 * Tenth Doctor
 * Martha Jones
 * First Doctor
 * Dodo Chaplet
 * Steven Taylor
 * Third Doctor
 * Jo Grant
 * Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
 * Fourth Doctor
 * Romana I
 * K9 Mark II
 * Sixth Doctor
 * Frobisher
 * Eighth Doctor
 * Izzy Sinclair
 * Ninth Doctor
 * Rose Tyler

Worldbuilding

 * Bolog remarks that Questor looks "lo-fi".

Original print details

 * (Publication with page count and closing caption)


 * DWM 390 (9 pages) The End

Continuity

 * The Fourth Doctor says that "bananas are good". (TV: The Doctor Dances, The Girl in the Fireplace)