Junk-Yard Demon (comic story)

Junk-Yard Demon
Doctor:	Fourth Doctor
Main enemy:	Cybermen
Key crew
Publisher:	Marvel Comics
Writer:	Steve Parkhouse
Artist:	Mike McMahon / Adolfo Buylla
Release details
Printed in:	Doctor Who Monthly 58-59
Release date:	November - December 1981
Format:	Comic - 2 parts
DWM comic stories
← Previous	The Free-Fall Warriors
Next →	The Neutron Knights
Junk-Yard Demon duology
Next →	Junk-Yard Demon II

Junk-Yard Demon was a Fourth Doctor comic strip released in Doctor Who Magazine.

Summary

Interstellar scrap dealers have a lucrative business reprogramming dormant Cybermen into domestic servants, until one prematurely awakens and steals the Doctor's TARDIS.

Plot

Junk-Yard Demon

While the Fourth Doctor meditates, the free-floating TARDIS is scooped up by a junk-collecting spaceship, Drifter, piloted by scrap merchants Flotsam and Jetsam and their windmill-powered robot, Dutch, who tries unsuccessfully to break down the TARDIS for scrap. The Doctor is woken by the noise of a drill and emerges peeved at the disturbance, and annoyed to find a dormant Cyberman amongst their collection of galactic scrap.

Flotsam and Jetsam have a lucrative side business collecting inert Cybermen, reprogramming them and selling them as butlers to rich folk all over the galaxy. The Doctor accidentally re-activates the Cyberman, who steals the TARDIS with Jetsam inside. As the Doctor, Flotsam and Dutch track the TARDIS in the Drifter, the Cyberman pilots the TARDIS to remote planet AS4, at the site of the wrecked command ship of a long-lost Cyberfleet.

The Cyberman orders Jetsam to restore his long-inactive leader Zogron to function, with the ambition of rebuilding a Cyber-army that would rule time and space via the TARDIS. Jetsam does what he does best, reactivating Zogron, who then infuriates the Cyberman by offering him either a before-dinner sherry or a gin and tonic. The Drifter lands nearby, and Dutch destroys the Cyberman by coating it in quick-setting polymer paint. As Flotsam and Jetsam eagerly ponder the plunder available in the wrecked Cyberships, the Doctor leaves in the TARDIS, hoping they never find any Daleks...

Characters

• Fourth Doctor
• Flotsam and Jetsam
• Dutch
• A Cyberman
• Zogron

References

• The Cyberman has the ability to absorb blasts of energy weapons and re-direct them back at the attacker.

Notes

• The Cyberman is drawn with a combination of design elements from their first televised appearances, with the headpiece and flexible face from The Tenth Planet and the chest unit and sleeve hosing from The Moonbase and The Tomb of the Cybermen.
  • While a mostly unique design, Cybernaut Zogron likewise inherits the same elements.

 Original print details

(Publication with page count and closing captions)

1. DWM 58 (8 pages) To Be Continued!
2. DWM 59 (8 pages) The End.

Reprints

1. DW84 13 (Doctor Who (1984) colourised reprint)
2. Dragon's Claw
3. DWC S2 4 (IDW colourised reprint)
4. Doctor Who Classics Volume 4 (IDW colourised reprint)
5. Doctor Who Classics Omnibus Volume 2 (IDW colourised reprint)

Continuity

to be added

External links

• Junk-Yard Demon at the Doctor Who Reference Guide