Tardis

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Tardis
Tardis

Attack of the Space Leeches! was a 2010 Doctor Who Adventures comic story written by Oli Smith and drawn by John Ross. It was told across two parts released in DWA issues 160 and 161.

It was notably the first in the DWA series of comics to feature the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond, as well as the first comic to ever feature the characters. However, they do not appear until the second part of the story. The Eleventh Doctor's stint leading the DWA comics would last until Swarm released in July 2014 whereas Amy's last regular DWA comic appearance would be October 2012's Pondnium.

Summary[]

A young boy, Stephen, is menanced by space leeches on the streets of London.

Plot[]

Part one[]

Wandering the streets of London in April 2010 while suffering from a cold, Stephen witnesses an alien spaceship fall out of the sky and crash nearby. As a crowd gathers to look inside the wrecked craft, hundreds of giant space leeches swarm out and begin attaching themselves to the faces of the onlookers and taking over their bodies.

Managing to escape unharmed, Stephen flees to the top of nearby Primrose Hill where he looks down on the chaos unfolding on the streets below. Then the TARDIS materialises around him...

Part two[]

The Eleventh Doctor and Amy arrive at the top of Primrose Hill to have a nice view of London on a clear day. Suddenly, Stephen appears alongside them with the TARDIS having materialised around him. Stephen recounts the day's events to the pair about the crashed spaceship and the space leeches infecting everyone.

The Doctor heads out of the TARDIS to investigate and remarks that the situation is much worse than he first suspected. The infected locals advance on Primrose Hill to attack the trio. When Amy points out that she believes there is something unique about Stephen thus explaining how he escaped the leeches, the Doctor runs through some possibilities; that he has a psyhcic aura, he has already been possessed by the leeches or he is the leader of the leeches in disguise. Amy explains that she thinks the leeches left Stephen alone because he has a cold and a runny nose. The Doctor then realises that this is why the TARDIS homed in on Stephen as it knew he could help save London.

The Doctor tricks the leeches

The Doctor tricks the space leeches into his TARDIS

The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to tweak Stephen's virus making it super-infections, and Amy leads Stephen through the streets of London as far as Trafalgar Square to spread the virus by touch. The leeches can't handle the infection and begin detaching themselves from their human hosts. They are then drawn to the one person whose biology can withstand any cold, the Doctor. The leeches race up Primrose Hill toward the Doctor and he tricks them into the TARDIS before locking the door and vowing to take them somewhere safe. Stephen watches as the Doctor leaves in the TARDIS and remarks that he is the boy whose cold saved the world.

Characters[]

Worldbuilding[]

Locations[]

Food and beverages[]

Notes[]

  • 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.

Continuity[]

  • The Doctor mentions that he has never had someone appear in the TARDIS before without there being a terrible reason, referencing Donna Noble being teleported into the TARDIS. (TV: The Runaway Bride)
  • The Doctor previously concocted a highly infectious antidote to cure people by touch. (TV: New Earth)

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