The Creative Spark (comic story)

Opening narration box
The Doctor unwittingly provides the inspiration for a classic Gothic horror …

Summary
Near a lodge beside Lake Geneva in Switzerland, 1816, the TARDIS is brought to land at night during a storm whose cause is no natural phenomenon. In the woods the Doctor finds a towering piece of alien apparatus that is agitating the storm. Beside it a giant humanoid creature is caught in the field of energy emitting from the apparatus.

A female writer from the lodge has come out into the night to see what is going on. She sees a giant creature trapped by the sparks of electricity, seemingly wrapped in bandages, in pain and unable to say his name properly (Frr..ntknst). A monster! The young woman faints.

The Doctor dodges the sparks to modify the apparatus with his sonic screwdriver, calming the machine down. The creature is apologetic about his behaviour. His name is Zzazik. Tired from his cross-dimensional journey, he was recharging himself using an elemental intensifier, but in his urgency he set it too high and overdosed. Now that all is calm again, the Doctor sees to the young lady. She will be fine, but she seems familiar. As she later returns to her writing, she titles her work ‘Frankenstein’ or ‘The Modern Prometheus’, signing it Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Characters

 * Tenth Doctor
 * Zzazik
 * cross-dimensional traveller who used an elemental intensifier to recharge his body between journeys.


 * Mary Shelley
 * Nineteenth century female author. Best known for her Gothic horror story Frankenstein.

Original print details

 * 1/1 DWBIT 42 (4 pages) THE END
 * No reprints to date.

Continuity

 * The Doctor mentions that Mary looks familiar. (BFA: Mary's Story)

Timeline

 * This story takes place after DWBIT: A Suitable Showdown
 * This story takes place before DW: Partners in Crime