Attack of the Space Leeches! (comic story)

Attack of the Space Leeches!
Doctor:	Eleventh Doctor
Companion(s):	Amy
Main enemy:	Space Leeches
Main setting:	London, April, 2010
Key crew
Publisher:	BBC Magazines
Editor:	Moray Laing
Writer:	Oli Smith
Artist:	John Ross
Colourist:	Alan Craddock
Release details
Printed in:	DWA 160-161
Release date:	1-8 April 2010
Format:	Comic - 2 parts (4 pages each)
DWA comic stories
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Next →	Madness on the M1!

Attack of the Space Leeches! was the first Doctor Who Adventures comic story to feature the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond.

Summary

Part one

Stephen, a young boy with a cold, is wandering the streets of London in April 2010 when he sees an alien spaceship fall out of the sky. As people look inside the wrecked craft, giant Space Leeches fly out and attach themselves to the investigators' heads. The leeches swarm, hundreds of them.

Remarkably, Stephen escapes as everyone around him is taken over. He runs to the top of Primrose Hill and decides he needs help. Then the TARDIS materialises around him...

Part two

The Eleventh Doctor and Amy are due to arrive at Primrose Hill for a view of London on a clear day when the TARDIS materialises around Stephen. As Stephen tells them of the space leeches getting everyone in London, the Doctor realises that there must be some terrible reason for Stephen to have arrived inside the ship.

Leaving the TARDIS to check out Stephen's story, the Doctor realises that there is something about the boy that makes him different. It is Amy who points out that Stephen has a cold and a runny nose. Remarkably, the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to make Stephen's touch super-infectious. This makes his virus strong enough to weaken the leeches, which detach themselves from their victims.

The space leeches are drawn to the Doctor, the "one person whose biology is strong enough to withstand any cold". Assuring Stephen he will take them somewhere safe, the Doctor and Amy lead the space leeches into the TARDIS and take off.

Characters

• Eleventh Doctor
• Amy Pond
• Stephen

References

to be added

Notes

• The DWA comic strip adventures were aimed at a younger audience and the artwork and colours were bold and bright, reflecting the tone of the magazine.
• Part One of this story was on sale only days before the arrival of the Eleventh Doctor and Amy on UK TV and notably only referenced the show with the arrival of the TARDIS in the final frame. By the time of Part Two, readers were likely to have seen the new Doctor and Amy on TV. The Eleventh Doctor and Amy's appearance in Part 2 marked their first comic strip appearance anywhere, predating Doctor Who Magazine's debut by several weeks.
• The Doctor's sonic screwdriver (loosely referred to as his "sonic") has the unlikely ability to tweak a virus and make it super infectious. The sonic depicted is of that used by the Tenth Doctor with the blue end.
• This story is similar to Robert Heinlein's The Puppet Masters, in which parasitic, mind-controlling slugs are defeated with a modified virus.

Original print details

Publication with page count and closing captions

1. DWA 160 (4 pages) NEXT WEEK – Find out what happens when Stephen meets the Doctor and Amy!
2. DWA 161 (4 pages) NEXT WEEK – Madness on the motorway

Continuity

• The idea of the Doctor concocting a highly infectious virus to cure lots of people quickly was similar to that in TV: New Earth.