Attack of the Rats (comic story)

Attack of the Rats
Doctor:	Tenth Doctor
Companion(s):	Donna
Main enemy:	Zantraan
Main setting:	Paris
Key crew
Publisher:	GE Fabbri Ltd
Editor:	Claire Lister
Writer:	Jason Loborik
Artist:	Lee Sullivan
Colourist:	Alan Craddock
Release details
Printed in:	DWBIT 47
Release date:	25 June 2008
Format:	Comic - Part 3 of 4 (4 pages)
DWBIT comic stories
← Previous	Sting of the Serpent
Next →	The Zantraan Invasion

Opening narration box

The Doctor has tracked the latest alien pod to France ...

Summary

In Paris, the area around a third crashed alien craft has been evacuated and placed under UNIT control. The Tenth Doctor's psychic paper gives them entrance as providers from Noble Catering. This is a bigger craft, with more crew and more alien mutations, this time giant rats taking refuge in the alien craft.

The Doctor uses the communication system to contact the mothership. The Queen of the Zantraan is expecting her three scout ships to have found a safe landing site for the royal ship. She is not happy her scouts have all died. She uses a tractor beam to bring back the space craft, along with the Doctor and Donna Noble, who are in an isolation sphere to protect the Zantraans from germs. Following their exodus from a plague-ridden homeworld, the Zantraans are looking for a new world to colonise. As their ship was dying, they luckily came across the Earth, the Pure Planet, a fresh clean world.

The Doctor and Donna fail to convince the Zantraans that the Earth isn't suitable, as it's ridden with pollution, smells and disease. Instead The Zantraan Queen orders preparations to cleanse the planet through burning...

Characters

• Tenth Doctor
• Donna Noble
• Zantraan - Large, grey in colour, three-eyed, six tentacled limbed creatures, ruled over by a monarch Queen. The Zantraans were forced to leave their home planet when it was ravaged by a plague. The surviving population fled in a shape ship destined to find a new world.

Original print details

• 3/4 DWBIT 47 (4 pages) TO BE CONTINUED…
• No reprints to date.

Notes

• Supporting the series of collectable Doctor Who trading cards, the magazine carried a regular four page comic strip of the Tenth Doctor’s adventures.
• The limitation of only four pages meant that stories often lacked depth compared to other regular comic strips running at the same time.
• 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.

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: blue/brown suit, sonic screwdriver, psychic paper and his intelligent glasses.

Continuity

to be added