The Chromosome Connection was a 2009 Doctor Who Adventures comic story written by Christopher Cooper and drawn by John Ross.
This story featured the Tenth Doctor and introduced the original companion of Heather McCrimmon who had been created by ten-year-old Joanne Hall in a competition held by DWA. Later issues of the DWA magazine would continued this trend with Wolfgang Ryter, Decky Flamboon and Jata also joining the series as fan-created companions. Heather would appear continuously until 2010's Dead-line. This issue's villain Mozhtratta would also reappear in Dead-line.
Summary[]
Heather McCrimmon visits the Edinburgh Catacomb Experience with her friends only to come face-to-face with ghostly apparitions of her ancestors, an alien known as the Mozhtratta and a mystery time traveller known as The Doctor.
Plot[]
In 2009, Heather McCrimmon and her friends Rob and Suze visit the Edinburgh Catacomb Experience. Rob has his reservations about going inside, but the girls encourage him to enter. However, ghostly wailing from deep inside the catacombs scares Rob and Suze leading to them rushing out and leaving Heather to continue on her own. Heather is accosted and knocked unconscious by a ghostly apparition of a woman begging to be saved by an alien creature.
The Tenth Doctor finds Heather unconscious and wakes her up. He explains that both the woman and the alien creature were never truly there and were in fact echoes of the past. Heather challenges this by saying that the echoes felt real and knocked her off the feet, which the Doctor agrees is strange as they should have theoretically passed straight through her. The Doctor queried whether Heather can remember what the woman was wearing and she recalls that she was dressed in Regency day dress. Heather queried why the Doctor is more interested in the woman rather than the alien, but the Doctor reveals that the alien - the Mozhtratta - is a molecular parasite and that he can handle him.
The Doctor scans Heather and discovers traces of Mozhtratta DNA embedded in her chromosomes. He also learns that Heather is fuzzy with vortex radiation and considers the possibility that he had encountered one of her ancestors in the past. He determines that when the Mozhtratta attacked the woman, one of Heather's ancestors, in Regency era 1815, he became trapped in the residual vortex radiation stored in her family's chromosomes.
Heather McCrimmon is overpowered by the Mozhtratta who feeds off her molecules
The Doctor and Heather take the TARDIS to Cowgate in 1815 where they witness the Mozhtratta attacking Heather's Great-Great-Great Grandmother. Heather begins to grow weak as, having laid dormant in her family's DNA for hundreds of years, the Mozhtratta begins to gain strength and begins feeding on her molecules. The Doctor encourages Heather's ancestor to fight back against the Mozhtratta for the sake of her future grandchildren, and she is successful in overpowering the Mozhtratta and driving him out. The Doctor advises that it was a good job that the family had the stored up vortex radiation otherwise the Mozhtratta would have succeeded.
Invigorated by her experiences, Heather requests to join the Doctor on his adventures and he agrees suggesting that it could be an extended field trip for her history exams.
Characters[]
Worldbuilding[]
Locations[]
- Heather McCrimmon and her friends visit the Edinburgh Catacomb Experience in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Myths[]
- Rob suggests an earie wailing sound that they hear is the Headless Horseman and his henchmen.
Species[]
- The Tenth Doctor describes the Mozhtratta as a molecular parasite and a "horrible, spiny, six-limbed creature with suckers on the end of its fingers".
History[]
- Heather identifies the woman's clothing to be Regency day dress circa 1815.
- The Doctor and Heather land on High Street instead of Cowgate back in 1815.
Individuals[]
- Heather is studying for her history exams at University.
- Heather is "mildly fuzzy" with vortex radiation.
- The Mozhtratta was trapped inside Heather's family's DNA since 1815.
Notes[]
Competition winner Joanna Hall is revealed as the creator of new companion Heather McCrimmon
- The character of Heather McCrimmon was created as part of a create-your-own-companion competition held by Doctor Who Adventures. There were two winners chosen in total with Heather's creator - ten-year-old Joanna Hall - being revealed first in this issue. The second winner - twelve-year-old Hamish Gough - was revealed in DWA 122 with his companion Wolfgang Ryter appearing from Flight of the Giurgeax onwards.
- In order of the show's timeline, Heather became a companion following Donna Noble's departure.
Original print details[]
- Publication with page count and closing captions
- DWA 96 (5 pages)
Continuity[]
- Mozhtratta would be revealed to have survived his encounter with the Doctor and would return to exact vengeance, which would coincidentally lead to the Doctor and Heather's separation. (COMIC: Dead-line)
