Ground Control (comic story)

Ground Control
Doctor:	Tenth Doctor
Main enemy:	K
Main setting:	Unnamed planet, 6558
Key crew
Editor:	Denton J. Tipton
Writer:	Jonathan L. Davis
Artist:	Kelly Yates
Colourist:	Phil Elliott
Letterer:	Robbie Robbins and Neil Uyetake
Release details
Printed in:	Doctor Who Annual 2010
Release date:	14 July 2010
Format:	Comic
Doctor Who Annual 2010
Next →	The Big, Blue Box

Ground Control was the first story in the Doctor Who Annual 2010.

Summary

Somewhere in the time stream, a panda-like creature is floating.

Somewhere else, the Tenth Doctor is in the TARDIS, which is being taken somewhere. He hears a knock on the door, and walks out to see a man, who introduces himself as Mister K. He grounds the TARDIS on a space station. He tells the Doctor that it's the year 6558, and they are 40 "clicks" away from the Antarean third moon.

K asks the Doctor if the TARDIS is a weapon. Walking into an office, he displays footage on a screen of Donna and the Doctor being chased by Cobalites. A Cobalite grabs onto the TARDIS as it dematerialises, and is thrown into the time stream.

K shows footage of the Doctor regenerating, and tells him that his regeneration destroyed Section 4594A. He then shows some footage of green mist from Orion's Belt putting the Doctor to sleep, but leaving Martha Jones to pilot the TARDIS. It lands on a planet full of single-cell organisms, before crashing onto an Earth-like planet. K reveals that on this planet, humans grow from plants, and the TARDIS crashing destroyed some unborn plants. He asks again if the TARDIS is a weapon.

He threatens to confiscate it, but the Doctor activates his sonic screwdriver, revealing the space station to be an illusion - they're actually on an empty planet. The Doctor says he knew all along that K was distracting him to steal energy from the TARDIS, and that all the footage aside from the Cobalite encounter was fabricated. The Doctor escapes in the TARDIS, leaving K on the planet.

Characters

• Tenth Doctor
• K
• Donna Noble
• Martha Jones (fabricated)
• Single-cell organism
• Cobalite

References

• When questioned as to why he's in a rush, the Doctor thinks of several of his enemies: Judoon, Weeping Angels, Clockwork Droids, Vashta Nerada, Slitheen, Sontarans and animated scarecrows.
• K once met a single-cell organism who claimed he could fly a galactic cruise ship. A planet full of the same species was shown.
• K mentions Section 4594A and a planet where humans grow from plants.

Notes

• Similarly to Journey's End, this story explores the Doctor's misdeeds throughout the cosmos.
• In a sense he is also on trial, as his sixth incarnation was. As with The Trial of a Time Lord, footage of the Doctor's prior adventures are viewed and analysed. The trial tries to answer the question "is the TARDIS a weapon?"
• Further references are made to the Doctor's link with the TARDIS as he uncovers that he is being ticked. Again like Trial, the majority of the evidence is revealed as fabrication.

Continuity

• When a Cobalite grabbed the TARDIS, it dematerialised with him. (TV: Utopia, The Time of the Doctor)