Opening narration box
The TARDIS has alerted the Doctor to massive distortion in the time fields …
Summary
The Doctor steps out of the TARDIS into Croydon Garden Centre, where a young man named Horace offers his help. The Doctor tries to explain that it is not the geraniums that have caught his attention but a jaggrabell flower native to Hortisphere Delta in the Hej Nebula, brought here as a result of the time spillage. Further evidence of time spillage is the sudden arrival of a giant, green, man-like plant creature that runs amok in the Centre.
Filling a nearby pond with the strongest weed killer in the place, the Doctor boosts the pond pump. He aims the ornamental feature of a fish, squirts the creature with the mixture and kills it. Another appears and captures Horace, threatening to kill “the little fleshling” unless told why it looks so manlike.
The Doctor explains that time spillage must have accelerated the plant's evolution millions of years in only a few seconds. More time spillage evolves the creature further into air particles which disperse. The Doctor decides he needs to find the source of the time spillage and drag it back through the time slick.
Nearby the Doctor discovers a fraxis pod, a product of man's engineering from the 51st century, one of the dodgiest time capsules ever invented and subsequently outlawed for being a death-trap. The pilot of this one is a decaying corpse, his pod leaking temporal energy into this time zone. The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to loop the energy back into the zygma-drive and reverse the effect of the time spillage. The fraxis pod is aged into dust (apparently good for geraniums), while the tree-people-air-things are returned to their previous existences as plant life. Making like a tree, the Doctor gives a nearby tree a big hug.
Characters
- Tenth Doctor
- Horace – Customer assistant at the Croydon Garden Centre and proud of his ‘Here to Help’ name badge.
Original print details
- 1/1 DWBIT 37 (4 pages) THE END
- No reprints to date.
Notes
- Supporting the series of collectable Doctor Who trading cards, the magazine carried a regular four-page, individually titled comic strip of the Tenth Doctor’s adventures.
- The artwork and colours were bold and bright, reflecting the tone of the magazine and, as did Doctor Who Adventures, reflected the appeal to readers younger than those catered to by Doctor Who Magazine.
- The Doctor uses a number of phrases in this strip including “exactamundo”, “ ba-da-boom!” and “et voila!”
References
- The Battles in Time comic strip sought to reinforce the association of its Doctor with the one seen on screen with ‘props’ from the TV series: sonic screwdriver, psychic paper and his intelligent glasses.
- A Jaggrabell is a plant only found on the planet Hortisphere, which is located in the Hej Nebula.
Continuity
to be added
External links
