Profits of Doom! (comic story)

Profits of Doom!
Doctor:	Sixth Doctor
Companion(s):	Peri, Frobisher
Main enemy:	Seth
Main setting:	Mayflower, 7 January 2321
Key crew
Publisher:	Marvel Comics
Editor:	Sheila Cranna
Writer:	Mike Collins
Penciller:	John Ridgway
Inker:	Tim Perkins
Letterer:	Annie Halfacree
Release details
Number of parts:	3
Printed in:	DWM 120-122
Release date:	11 December 1986 - 12 February 1987
Reprinted in:	The World Shapers
Format:	Comic
DWM comic stories
← Previous	Changes
Next →	The Gift

Profits of Doom! was a Sixth Doctor comic published in Doctor Who Magazine.

Summary

Arriving on the Mayflower, the Sixth Doctor, Peri and Frobisher find themselves under attack.

Plot

to be added

Characters

• Sixth Doctor
• Frobisher
• Peri Brown
• Kara McAllista
• Monitor
• Seth

Worldbuilding

The Doctor

• The Doctor has described the TARDIS as "the primary social artefact upon which Gallifreyan culture made its quantum evolutionary bound from time-locked to time-spanned."
• Among potential candidates for a holiday retreat include the planet Argolis, Quiexly Major, Placet and Trantor. The Doctor dismisses each, respectively, for past faux pas, being "too touristy", having "crazy geography" and being "far too cosmopolitan." Eventually, he decides on a holiday to Arcadia, a paradise planet.
• Indulging in his penchant for recitation, the Doctor quotes William Wordsworth's Resolution and Independence.

The TARDIS

• The TARDIS chambers include the Falloean Gardens and the Bagdejalucian phosphorescent anti-gravity shrubs. The Diamond Avenue features the brightest gems from a dozen star systems.
• Frobisher plays chess with the TARDIS console and loses, though he claims that it cheated.

Planets

• Arcadia is described as a planet of "verdant rolling fields, glittering still lakes, vast cloudless skies."
• The Profiteers of Ephte come from Ephte Major, their tax haven on the spur of Friedman's Curve, and are an ancient race who have ravaged the galaxy under the philosophy of "profit or die". They communicate in a number-orientated language. When Peri and Frobisher are captured, they intend to sell them off to other races for enormous profit. Peri will go to the Grodomorphs of Cebalias Alpha as a handmaiden and Frobisher to the Tralfamadorians of Vonnegut as a zoo animal.

Individuals

• Seth, a Methuselah-like figure, also adopted the titles of a 14th-century grand schemer in Rome and Vincent Grant, who unified the Western Alliance in the 22nd-century.
• Kara McAllista is a third-class maintenance technician responsible for the cryo-sleep chambers aboard the Mayflower. One of ten awoken every six months and assisted by a mobile robot designated as Monitor. She curses with the epithets of "skaj", "seg-jak" and "what the jaxx".

Notes

• This story was reprinted in the Panini Comics graphic novel The World Shapers.
• The planet Trantor featured as a prominent location in Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. It was the location of the First Galactic Empire and a single planet-wide city with a heavy dependence on external trade to maintain its stability.
• The Tralfamadorians of Vonnegut feature in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. A story with a singularly unusual approach to time travel. Their potential interest in Frobisher as a zoo animal echoes the protagonist, Billy, and his own experiences in the novel.

Continuity

• Frustrated with the quiet, Peri asks to visit somewhere where she won't see "furry alien princesses", (COMIC: Nature of the Beast! ^[+]Loading...["Nature of the Beast! (comic story)"]) "alien chefs", (TV: The Two Doctors ^[+]Loading...["The Two Doctors (TV story)"]) Cybermen, (TV: Attack of the Cybermen ^[+]Loading...["Attack of the Cybermen (TV story)"]) or the Master. (TV: Planet of Fire ^[+]Loading...["Planet of Fire (TV story)"], The Mark of the Rani ^[+]Loading...["The Mark of the Rani (TV story)"])
• The Doctor wishes to avoid Argolis after what happened during his last visit. (TV: The Leisure Hive ^[+]Loading...["The Leisure Hive (TV story)"])
• The Doctor laments the loss of his sonic screwdriver. (TV: The Visitation ^[+]Loading...["The Visitation (TV story)"])

External links

• Profits of Doom! at the Doctor Who Reference Guide