Comic strips in blue
Short stories in black
Annual 2011
- Released: August 2010
ISBN: 978 1 40590 694 4
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Buzz!
Writer: Oli Smith Artwork: John Ross Colours: James Offredi |
11th Doctor, Amy and Rory |
Kenya, 2013. It is lunchtime on a farm Gero is serving soup to his son, Chipo. A fly lands on the rim of the bowl. Suddenly the fly expands to enormous proportions but before it can do any damage it is thwacked by a spade wielded by Rory. The Doctor and Amy follow Rory through the door, announcing themselves as Intergalactic Pest Control. Out in the fields, over-large insects are munching on the crops. Gero tells the Doctor that he is the first farmer in Kenya to test a new fertilizer. It was developed in the tropics and has worked wonders on the crops. The Doctor asks to see the fertilizer, which is stored in the barn. When the doors open a swarm of hornets, each larger than a man, sweep out. Everyone runs into the now empty barn. The Doctor wonders why the chemical company didn't realise what the hormones in their fertilizer would do but Amy, who has been reading the brochures that Gero showed her, notices that the fertilizers were developed for use in the tropics. The Doctor catches on: it rains all the time in the tropics, diluting the chemical. The Doctor, followed by Amy, runs out of the barn. Using a high pitched noise from his sonic screwdriver he drives off the hornets so that the two of them can get back to the TARDIS. The Doctor uses his weather control to create a rainstorm. Immediately, the insects reduce to normal size. Gero thanks him for saving their lives and the Doctor says that the chemical company will soon be getting a visit from the Health and Safety inspector. The TARDIS dematerializes but inside it the Doctor and his companions have been joined by a giant butterfly.
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Secret of Arkatron
by Justin Richards |
11th Doctor and Amy |
The TARDIS lands on a barren asteroid with a breathable atmosphere. Across a valley, at the top of a plateau, stands a house built of crumbling stone. Amy declares it 'spooky'. They climb up to the house which seems to have the faded word Arkatron carved over the door. The door creaks when they open it and the lights inside are flickering like candles. The stairs and floorboards are rotten. Suits of armour line the walls. As the Doctor steps past a picture frame it flickers to life, showing a black and white film of a uniformed man making a speech. The Doctor notices that the alarm system has been sabotaged recently and that there are footprints in the dust. A noise further in the house attracts the Doctor. Amy runs after him but loses him. She opens a door where a misshapen figure rises and reaches toward her. It is an old man in a space suit. As the Doctor arrives beside Amy the man calls for Miss Crisp. Immediately a young woman in a space suit arrives and the old man complains that 'two amateurs' have blundered in. miss Crisp explains that the man is Professor Landale and that this is his site. He claims first salvage rights. The Doctor replies that he is not a salvager. Amy continues to look at pictures and videos. Most show military men but in almost all a short, bald man in glasses appears. Suddenly a suit of armour in a nearby alcove lurches towards her.
The Doctor aims his sonic screwdriver at the armour and it crashes, lifeless, to the floor. Miss Crisp notices a door in the alcove. They pass through into a large bedroom hung with cobwebs. The bed has a hollow in the mattress as if someone has recently got up. A video screen scrolls a list of names headed 'Lest You Forget'. A painting on another wall shows a bald man in chains being led by soldiers through the hallway of the house. Suddenly a bald man steps from the shadows and asks what the intruders are doing in his room. He says he is the curator of the museum of the Ninth Dynasty of Arkatron and his name is Lester Forge. Landale and the Doctor comment that the Ninth Dynasty was a bloodthirsty time of the dictators. Amy opens a door and the body of an elderly woman topples to the floor. She has been shot at close range. The curator says it is Miss Dellman, his assistant. The Doctor announces that he knows who murdered her.
The Doctor says that the bald man in the pictures is the 'curator'. he was brought here as a prisoner for his crimes which are remembered in every picture. The Doctor says that the man isn't Lester Forge; he got the name from 'Lest you forget'. He is Maxim Klart. Miss Dellman was his jailer and the suits of armour his guards (but they were disabled along with the alarm when Miss Crisp deactivated the system). The Doctor says that Klart has been kept on a stasis bed, reading the names of those he murdered for years. Klart points a blaster at them but the Doctor uses his screwdriver to reconnect the alarm system. Suits of armour advance on Klart. They push him onto the bed where he lies, as if relaxed, with his eyes open. The four intruders leave, agreeing never to tell anyone about the house or its location.
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The Grey Hole
Writer: Trevor Baxendale Artwork: John Ross Colours: James Offredi |
11th Doctor and Amy |
The TARDIS lands on the Gemstone Moon of Regol Genaralon. The Doctor is impressed by the crystalline flowers but Amy is more interested in a prefabricated base nearby. They enter the base, which looks deserted, and hear a strange noise from inside. They check the data banks. These tell them that a human research team should be stationed there but there has been no log entry for two weeks. The Doctor finds out that the team was researching a grey hole - a space-time anomaly that should not exist - that has broken through from another dimension. The Doctor says that it is rare, dangerous and should be left well alone. They hurry back to the TARDIS and enter the grey hole. When they leave the ship in search of the missing scientist they can't see anything but they do hear the strange noise that they heard on the moon base. The Doctor takes Amy back to the TARDIS and they move closer to the centre of the hole. In a flaming chamber the TARDIS detects traces of the scientists' brainwaves. They leave the safety of the TARDIS and run up a road towards a gateway guarded by monstrous black Vorpon. These are the guardians of the Boundary Nexus. Beyond this point, the Vorpon say, all time lines will be immobilized. The Doctor says that this sounds a bit harsh and asks who put the Vorpon in charge. They say that they are Nexus Forms (they are made from and a part of the grey hole). Amy plunges past the Vorpon saying that she has to help the scientists. The Doctor follows and the pair of them drop into another universe where the scientists are stranded. The Doctor calls the Vorpon and tells them that he will leave them in peace if they return everyone to their home. The scientists and the Doctor (along with Amy and the TARDIS) materialise back at the base and the Doctor departs with the scientists saying that their investigations will be suspended for the time being.
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Source: Mark Senior |
