The Swords of Kali was the second story of the Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor comic story series published in 2014-2015.
Publisher's summary
In the distant past, the land that would be India played host to a war between ancient aliens, whose cross-temporal battles contributed to the country's rich myths and legends. Kali, oldest and deadliest of these creatures, was thought defeated long, long ago; her body scattered throughout time to prevent her return. But her psychic essence could not be killed... nor her millennia-long quest for vengeance.
Now, in the 23rd Century, she is on the brink of resurrection. And with India at the forefront of human spaceflight, it's not only Earth that falls to her predations if she succeeds – but the whole cosmos!
In a race against time, and across it, the Doctor and Clara must gather secrets, intelligence and allies from across India's past, present and future — if they are to survive... THE SWORDS OF KALI!
Plot
Part one
Madhya Province, India. 1825
Late evening in the jungle, two young Indians, a husband and wife, share the warmth of their campfire and a modest meal with other fellow travelers, a middle-aged man and a bent female completely wrapped in a red cape. The couple are traveling to Madhya, where the husband will work for the British Sahib. The man pokes fun at the cloaked figure thinking she might be old enough to remember the time before the British became their rulers.
The man's two accomplices, acolytes of Thuggee like him, suddenly attack the couple from behind and start strangling them. Two bullets find the two attackers as the bent woman, who turns out to be quite young, throws down the cape and unloads her two guns. The remaining Thuggee recognises her as Rani Jhulka, who hunts and kills robbers and murderers like him. He draws his blade intending to devote her death to Kali, but Rani's blade finds him first. She advises the young couple not to continue on their journey as that way leads to death. She, however, plans to go exactly that way.
Fortress Scindia, Madhya Province
A formidable Fortress Scindia is lit by the fool moon. Unnoticed by the guards, Rani jumps from a nearby tall tree to the wall, stealthily makes her way along it, and climbs into a window. Once inside, she continues her trek, until she hears a roar from behind a closed door and a strange voice replying some nonsense about teeth and grandmas. Rani unholsters her guns and kicks open the door... to see the Twelfth Doctor held by a huge hideous monster with sharp teeth and claws. Seeing her confusion, the Doctor offers that the choice whom to shoot shouldn't be that hard in this particular case.
Florence, Italy. 1505
Leonardo da Vinci is painting Mona Lisa using Clara Oswald as a model and asks the Doctor for his critical opinion, when the TARDIS telephone rings. The call is from Tiger Maratha.
Mumbai, India. 2314
Tiger is calling from Mumbai from year 2314. He traveled with the Fourth Doctor and was given the phone number in case he needed help. And help he needs, against a timeless evil. He is afraid to say more lest somebody is listening. The Doctor immediately agrees to help, takes Clara, and departs Florence. As Tiger hangs up the phone, a dark shape descends from the ceiling of his apartment. Its touch drains all life from him leaving a desiccated husk standing in the middle of the room.
In the TARDIS en route to Tiger, the Doctor tells Clara that they had a couple of trips with Tiger but then his wife and daughter Priyanka took precedence and he stopped traveling in the TARDIS.
Priyanka remembers the Fourth Doctor offering her jelly babies.
The TARDIS materialises on Tiger's balcony. When the Doctor and Clara step into the room, they see the back of Tiger's body and do not immediately realise they are too late. Using his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor determines that the cause of death was similar to a vampiric attack, only working on a molecular level. Suddenly, a now adult Priyanka enters the room and thinks the Doctor and Clara are the killers. Priyanka does not recognise the Doctor with this new face and wants to call the police. But when he calls her by her name and offers her jelly babies, she remembers the Fourth Doctor doing the same when she was younger and starts hugging the Doctor, causing some awkwardness.
Two police officers break up the happy reunion intending to arrest the Doctor. The only question is: how did they know about the crime if Priyanka did not call them? Turns out they are not here because of Tiger's murder. They are investigating a complaint from Scindia-Corp who accuse Tiger of theft. While cuffing the Doctor, the police request access to his records and information about some artefact. The Doctor easily gets rid of the cuffs and, acting in unison with Clara, they hit the police officers hard enough to be able to run onto the balcony. By the time the officers reach it, the trio is safely away.
In the TARDIS, the Doctor asks Priyanka why Tiger would do business with the Scindia family. She does not know because they did not speak much lately. Her father did not approve of her training to become a space pilot. But Clara has a more basic question: who are the Scindias?
In the headquarters of Scindia-Corp, waiting for the report from the police officers, the patriarch of the Scindia family, Chandra Scindia is watching an infomercial praising the family and its space-age program. The main topic of the infomercial is Haven, a spatial city designed to house millions of people. The is planned for tomorrow. The orbital city is to become fully operational tomorrow and is supposed to free people from poverty, overpopulation and environmental chaos. The infomercial also introduces notable members of the Scindia family, including Sonam, the commander of Haven. Chandra, however, detests these "angelic avatars" of himself and his family members. He looks forward to revealing their true selves.
The police officers arrive. Chandra has seen the footage from their eye-cams and is not amused by the fact that they let the Doctor and Clara escape with Maratha's daughter. As he turns the conversation to the goddess controlling their fates, his words become gradually more threatening and other Scindias from the infomercial, Sonam, Aamir and Karisma, sneak up to them from behind. Suddenly, Chandra transforms into a monstrous shape (similar to the one Rani and the Twelfth Doctor encountered in 1825) and challenges the two officers to fight them. But they are no match for the monsters.
The Doctor pilots the TARDIS to Fortress Scindia, which the family keeps under much tighter guard than their business headquarters in Mumbai. Using his sonic screwdriver to shield them from security systems, the Doctor finds a room that exists in four dimensions, that is both here and somewhen else. As he presses a shift button on one of the statues, he theorises that the room or maybe even the entire fortress exists simultaneously in other time periods. But Clara and Priyanka are not behind him anymore: he has been shifted in time. The voice behind him belongs to another star of the infomercial, Vikas Scindia, who promptly transforms into the familiar monster form. It is then that the Doctor issues his teeth and grandma remark that caused Rani to break into the room.
She fires both pistols into the monstrous shape of Vikas. The Doctor sniffs the air and tries to guess the year. He's wrong by 14 years, and Rani calls him a madman for not knowing it is 1825. The Doctor, on the other hand, is more worried that ordinary bullets might not be enough for the kind of creature they encountered. Rani's solution is simple and effective: decapitate the body. The Doctor introduces himself, and the the temporary allies walk away from the room.
Fortress Scindia, 2314
Meanwhile, back in 2314 Priyanka is worried about the sudden disappearance of the Doctor. Clara is, of course, used to that. But Priyanka has a point. If the sonic screwdriver, which was preventing their detection, is gone... As if to answer her question, more than half a dozen four-armed creatures descend on them from the ceiling.
Part two
to be added
Part three
to be added
Characters
- Twelfth Doctor
- Clara Oswald
- Kali
- Rani Jhulka
- Tiger Maratha
- Priyanka Maratha
- Sonam Scindia
- Chandra Scindia
- Aamir Scindia
- Vikas Scindia
- Karisma Scindia
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Husband
- Wife
- Acolytes of Thuggee
- Mumbai police officers
Flashback
- Fourth Doctor
- Priyanka Maratha
References
- The Madhya Province is in India.
- The male traveler offers chapatis and dal to his fellow traveler.
- Indians call British sahibs.
- The roads in the Madhya Province are not safe because of dacoits and acolytes of Thuggee.
- The Twelfth Doctor repeats Little Red Riding Hood's words "what big teeth you have, grandma".
- Leonardo da Vinci reacts to the TARDIS telephone ringing by exclaiming "Dante's Inferno".
- The Doctor recalls disguising himself as a nun to escape the Church of Vindication's inquisitors.
- The Doctor is wondering if there are precogs police officers in Mumbai's.
- The police is investigating a complaint by Scindia-Corp.
- Seeing the vampiric-like cause of Tiger Maratha's death, a police officer calls the Doctor Nosferatu.
- Tiger Maratha's wife was killed in the Rama-16 space disaster.
- The Scindia family invested in the Mangalyaan Mars Orbiter Mission in 2014.
- Vikas Scindia is a popular Bollywood leading man.
- According to the Twelfth Doctor, India in 1839 should smell of lotus flowers, jasmine, ripe mangos, flame-of-the-forest trees, burning fires, spices, and a tinge of cow dung.
- Worried whether Vikas is dead, the Doctor asks Rani Jhulka if her bullets were tipped with anti-matter, or packed with nano-explosives, or dipped in the venom of a Myrax-Six viper-skorpion.
Notes
- Kali was renamed Okti, and the story therefore renamed "The Swords of Okti", in the UK trade paperback, despite Doctor Who Comic running the story unchanged.[1]
- An image of Danny Pink appears on one panel; to date, it is his only appearance in a Titan comic story.
- Priyanka's sexuality appears to be lesbian / bisexual as she is holding hands with Rani.
- Clara appears to be borrowing a shirt from Priyanka at the end of the story, as Kali's top was too big for her; immediately after Clara changes back, the Doctor lends her his coat to cover herself. Though it appears Clara kept Kali's trousers until she can get to the TARDIS wardrobe.
- Leonardo's words "For whom does that unearthly bell toll?" are a paraphrase of the title of the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway.
Original print details
to be added
Continuity
- The Twelfth Doctor calls himself "more Scottish" than his previous incarnations. (TV: Deep Breath)
- Clara Oswald references multi-tasking her life, while thinking of Danny Pink. (TV: The Caretaker)
- The Doctor offers Priyanka Maratha jelly babies from his cigarette case. (TV: Mummy on the Orient Express)
- It is revealed that Clara was the model for the Mona Lisa. The Fourth Doctor was involved in an affair revolving around the painting (TV: City of Death) and an alien presence at one point took over the painting and caused havoc for Sarah Jane Smith. (TV: Mona Lisa's Revenge)
- The Doctor says he taught Harry Houdini everything he knows. On other occasions, he gave credit to Houdini for his escapology know-hows. (PROSE: The Sorcerer's Apprentice et al.)
- The Doctor mentions the Jagaroth. (TV: City of Death)
- Clara tells Priyanka to tell the TARDIS where to fly (TV: Hide) and she subsequently is granted access to the TARDIS' telepathic circuits. (TV: Listen)
- Clara, who as Kali grows to gigantic proportions, remarks that she enjoyed being taller without having to wear huge heels. (TV: Time Heist)
- In 1825, a Thuggee suggests an elderly woman might remember the time before the British took control, which happened 69 years earlier, in 1756. Since then, India has been run by the British East India Company on behalf of the British government. (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire)
- Leonardo da Vinci compares the Doctor's opinions with the eruption of Vesuvius. The Tenth Doctor was partially responsible for the eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii and managed to save only one family, that of Lobus Caecilius. (TV: The Fires of Pompeii) Later the Twelfth Doctor will remember that he took Caecilius' face during his last regeneration (TV: The Time of the Doctor) to remind himself to always save people. (TV: The Girl Who Died)
- Leonardo refers to the TARDIS telephone ringing as bells tolling. A monk in Cumbria in 1207 had a similar reaction and called it "the bells of Saint John" because of the sign on the side of the TARDIS. (TV: The Bells of Saint John)
- The Eleventh Doctor interacted with the Indian Space Agency in the 24th century to save Earth from the Silurian Ark. (TV: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship)
Footnotes
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