The Monster Makers (comic story): Difference between revisions

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(Added part four summary)
 
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=== Part Four: ''Ghoul Reunion!''===
=== Part Four: ''Ghoul Reunion!''===
As he is wrestled to the floor, the Doctor questions why he is not affected by the genetic change like everyone else and asks Felice what her favourite music is. He sonics the [[TARDIS jukebox]] and begins to play some [[Venusian folk]] music to which she is instinctively attracted. When he starts singing along, Felice is drawn inside the TARDIS.
Xirxis is hugely impressed by the nanoagents in the jets affecting all the townsfolk, despite Ranceen warning him that it is only temporary and with a high failure rate. Regardless, he considers the potential for planetary invaders so high that he immediately offers to buy the entire company, including their products, monsters, and test planet, for half a quintillion [[galactic groat]]s. Ranceen agrees to create a contract as Ruby silently notices the TARDIS dematerialise on the screens around her and smiles.
In the TARDIS, Felice has calmed down but without her body changing back to normal. The Doctor explains how the TARDIS' state of [[temporal grace]] has acted as a "chillout field" to calm her down and a scan from the sonic screwdriver confirms traces of [[human]], [[Ixionid]], [[Mysian Gegenee]], [[goblin]], and something else in her DNA. Concerned, he wonders what the other part is, as back on the test planet, the transformed focus group grow [[fairy]] wings and fly towards the CoHurtCo™ saucers.
In the company's HQ, Ranceen finalises the deal with Xirxis, and he immediately orders all ex-employees, including assessors and focus groupies, into the stock pens so they can be transformed into monsters. He summons a trio of new staff: faceless X-marked androids called [[X-tinguisher]]s, but is quickly interrupted by the arrival of the TARDIS. The Doctor and Ruby joyfully reunite while Felice uses her new form to trash the robots, and Xirxis meets the Doctor in fury, describing him as an "arch meddler in private business affairs". The Doctor, however, does not recognise him, and Xirxis' insistence that he once killed his grandfather and ruined his enterprise purely out of spite does not jog his memory either. As the Doctor continues to fail to remember any details, Xirxis snaps and declares that he must die, summoning an army dozens of X-tinguishers who quickly surround him and Ruby.
=== Part Five: ''Liquidation!''===
''to be added''
''to be added''


Line 91: Line 100:
* [[Ranceen]] claims to have a sustainability certificate for her peeling jets.
* [[Ranceen]] claims to have a sustainability certificate for her peeling jets.
* The terms and conditions of working with CoHurtCo™ are 7007 pages long.
* The terms and conditions of working with CoHurtCo™ are 7007 pages long.
* The [[TARDIS jukebox]] has tracks of the [[blues]], [[Country (genre)|country]], [[trip-hop]], [[Grime (genre)|grime]], [[bebop]], [[cowpunk]], and [[Venusian folk]] genres.
* Xirxis' grandfather is described as an entrepreneur also known as "the great X-tortioner himself", who owned a volcano base with warheads aimed at every city in [[Galaxy Five]] and an excavation machine which the Doctor killed him in. The Doctor admits that that could describe dozens of people.


== Notes ==
== Notes ==
* In part three, the dotted line that [[Ruby Sunday|Ruby]] signs on incorrectly overlaps with the stylus she uses to sign.
* In part three, the dotted line that [[Ruby Sunday|Ruby]] signs on incorrectly overlaps with the stylus she uses to sign.
* In part four, [[Fifteenth Doctor|the Doctor]] breaks the [[fourth wall]]: he states that his [[Venusian folk]] song "sounds like a [[Christmas carol|carol]]" and adds that "it isn't even [[Christmas]]!" while winking at the reader. This is in reference to how this chapter was published in [[December (releases)|December]] [[2024 (releases)|2024]].


=== Original print details ===
=== Original print details ===
Line 100: Line 112:
* [[DWM 609]]: (6 pages): Next Issue: ''The Apprentice!''
* [[DWM 609]]: (6 pages): Next Issue: ''The Apprentice!''
* [[DWM 610]]: (6 pages): Next Issue: ''Ghoul Reunion!''
* [[DWM 610]]: (6 pages): Next Issue: ''Ghoul Reunion!''
* [[DWM 609|DWM 611]]: (6 pages): Next Issue: ''Liquidation!''
* [[DWM 611]]: (6 pages): Next Issue: ''Liquidation!''


== Continuity ==
== Continuity ==
Line 108: Line 120:
* When Ruby is mind probed, various monsters she has encountered on her travels can be seen, including the [[Goblin King]] and his [[Goblins (The Church on Ruby Road)|minions]] from [[TV]]: {{cs|The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)}}, the [[Bogeyman (Space Babies)|Bogeyman]] from [[TV]]: {{cs|Space Babies (TV story)}}, a [[Man-trap]] from [[TV]]: {{cs|Dot and Bubble (TV story)}}, the [[Chuldur leader (Rogue)|Chuldur leader]] from [[TV]]: {{cs|Rogue (TV story)}}, [[moth people]] from [[COMIC]]: {{cs|Mancopolis (comic story)}}, and [[Snedronningen]] from [[COMIC]]: {{cs|The Hans of Fear (comic story)}}, among others.
* When Ruby is mind probed, various monsters she has encountered on her travels can be seen, including the [[Goblin King]] and his [[Goblins (The Church on Ruby Road)|minions]] from [[TV]]: {{cs|The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)}}, the [[Bogeyman (Space Babies)|Bogeyman]] from [[TV]]: {{cs|Space Babies (TV story)}}, a [[Man-trap]] from [[TV]]: {{cs|Dot and Bubble (TV story)}}, the [[Chuldur leader (Rogue)|Chuldur leader]] from [[TV]]: {{cs|Rogue (TV story)}}, [[moth people]] from [[COMIC]]: {{cs|Mancopolis (comic story)}}, and [[Snedronningen]] from [[COMIC]]: {{cs|The Hans of Fear (comic story)}}, among others.
* The Doctor again shows the ability to feel the turn of a planet's rotation, as in [[TV]]: {{cs|Rose (TV story)}}.
* The Doctor again shows the ability to feel the turn of a planet's rotation, as in [[TV]]: {{cs|Rose (TV story)}}.
* The focus group townsfolk's DNA gains traces of goblins after Ruby's encounter with them in [[TV]]: {{cs|The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)}} and fairies after Ruby was partly transformed into one in [[COMIC]]: {{cs|The Hans of Fear (comic story)}}.
* The TARDIS flies into the [[CoHurtCo™]] saucer rather than fully dematerialising, as it had done several times since [[TV]]: {{cs|Destination: Skaro (TV story)}} and {{cs|Wild Blue Yonder (TV story)}} and would go on to do so again in [[TV]]: {{cs|The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)}}.


{{Fifteenth Doctor DWM comics}}
{{Fifteenth Doctor DWM comics}}

Latest revision as of 20:50, 11 December 2024

This story has not yet been fully published. Please exercise caution in asserting any more than is actually present in the narrative so far. Be aware that certain facts which appear to be true may not be true once the story is completely published.
The Monster Makers
RealWorld.png

The Monster Makers was the two hundred and tenth comic strip published in Doctor Who Magazine by Panini Magazines and was written by Alan Barnes. It starred the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Part One: The Monster Makers[[edit] | [edit source]]

Inside the Doctor's TARDIS following their encounter with Hans Christian Andersen, Ruby Sunday asks the Fifteenth Doctor if he is sure they will land in Reykjavik for their party this time — he assures that they will. However, they instead land in a strange city square with two moons in the sky, face-to-face with a smiling crowd all shouting "We surrender!" with their hands in the air. Sharing a baffled look, the Doctor and Ruby dematerialise, but almost instantly wonder what was going on.

The Doctor wishes to discover why the people were surrendering and who to, so he hits the fast return switch to go back. He quickly gets his answers when, upon returning, the square has turned into the scene of an invasion: hulking green-armoured monsters with laser guns and heads consisting of giant red eyes are attacking the terrified locals.

Ruby, pointing to a city hall clock with sixteen hours on its face, notes that almost no time has passed since they were last there, so the Doctor faces up to a monster and demands answers. However, it cannot respond, and he and Ruby are forced to escape a group of them by running in opposite directions. On West Street, the Doctor runs into a bakery where he meets a local woman named Felice, while on East Street, Ruby runs into a fashion house and meets a man named Ferdy. Both of them agree that they have to do more than just run away. The Doctor plans to distract a monster while Felice hits it in the eye with a cake so he can use his sonic screwdriver on their weapon; Felice asks if he can change their stun guns to kill instead. Deeply concerned, the Doctor wonders why she would want that.

The Doctor and Felice continue with their plan, as do Ruby and Ferdy with covering up a monster's eye with a coat, but they are all caught off-guard when the monsters' eyes rotate 360 degrees, bewildering the Doctor. However, all stop dead when a tannoy tells the "invaders and invadees" that the invasion is over.

The shadow of a huge spaceship fills the sky and several smartly dressed assessors with clipboards and propellers descend to the ground. One woman speaks to Ruby, asking her to rate the invasion on a scale of one to five, and as the monster holds Ruby in place, the woman orders her to respond or else she is returned to head office for "reconstitution".

Part Two: Inside the Factory![[edit] | [edit source]]

A TV advertisement plays in which a cheesy presenter describes CoHurtCo™, a company that can create an army of completely bespoke soldiers for planetary invaders across the Five Galaxies. He says they can make whatever their clients need, showing a testimonial from the elephant-like Grand Trunk Ultima Nel-I IV of Pachydermus Prime and his army of Scytheghouls as proof. Additionally, he explains that the soldiers are guaranteed to comply with all orders with a tactical error refund guarantee, saying that that is why they are called "the Monster Makers".

On one of several linked-together saucers in orbit that make up CoHurtCo™, a businesswoman named Ranceen shows the advert to an extravagantly dressed man obsessed with the letter X named Xirxis. He wishes to see the company's process in action, so Ranceen shows him the fallout of their trial invasion, where they witness Ruby telling the assessor that she is highly dissatisfied with the invasion. She is released from the monster's grip, and Ferdy tells the assessor how Ruby and her friend have great experience with monsters. Xirxis' interest is piqued, and Ranceen tells the assessors to collate the information on the two strangers from the monsters, which she names i-Balls. Ruby and Ferdy's assessor tells them they are wanted at Head Office, which Ferdy is convinced can only be a good thing.

The Doctor watches Ruby, Ferdy, the assessor, and all but one of the i-Balls heading into the saucer, but he cannot reach her because the i-Ball is threatening him and Felice. Knowing how much their stun guns hurt, Felice demands to know what the Doctor will do to help. He realises that the i-Balls' brains cannot be in their heads, and is immediately proven right when Felice's twin Felipe appears and knocks its head off with a hockey stick. She tells her sister to escape before Head Office finds them interacting with an outsider, but Felice picks up the i-Ball's gun and forces the Doctor back into the bakery, telling him to explain how the monsters work. He reasons that their brains must be in their torsos and that they control their eyes with telepathy, then tries to convince her to put down the gun and explain what is going on so he can find Ruby.

At CoHurtCo™ Head Office, Ferdy explains that he is tired of being a focus groupie who is chased by monsters every day and wants to be promoted to assessor. The assessor tells Ferdy to follow the i-Balls into a green-lit room so he can talk to their CEO, Ranceen, and Ruby demands to see her too. She arrives and shows Ruby the green room, noting how only 21% of respondents were satisfied with the invasion and 36% described the monsters as "silly". As such, she activates peeling jets, immediately dissolving the army of i-Balls and Ferdy so they can be reused as different monsters. Despite Ruby's shock, Ranceen turns to her and offers her a job.

Part Three: The Apprentice![[edit] | [edit source]]

Ruby finds herself sitting in a chair in a sparse room in the CoHurtCo™ fleet with a device pointing at her head. Holding a tablet, Ranceen tells her to sign her contract of employment. Although Ruby protests that she has not read the terms and conditions, Ranceen tells her to hurry up and sign before her monsters are sent to kill the Doctor for trespassing into the focus group and causing them to rebel - the same reason that Ferdy was killed. After being forced to sign, Ruby is told that she has given away the rights to everything in her head for the rest of her life, and Ranceen's mind probe displays images of the many monsters Ruby has encountered on the walls of the room.

In the city, the Doctor has also caught up on the truth about the false invasions from Felice and Felipe. They explain that nobody knows how long it has been going on as a sleep saucer knocks everybody out at 28:00 every night and repairs all the damage for the next morning. Thinking it unnatural, the Doctor realises they are on an artificial satellite connected to CoHurtCo™ and uses the sonic to speed up local time. Felipe tries to stop him, but he explains that he is trying to help.

As Ruby's mind is probed, Xirxis arrives and gathers from Ranceen that she is trying to create a chimera monster taken from the strongest attributes of Ruby's memories. He is particularly surprised that there is no AI involved. Ranceen's assistant enters and tells her about the Doctor meddling with the sleep saucer, and Xirxis suddenly declares that he recognises the TARDIS.

The Doctor gathers the focus group in the town square and tells them that when the sleep saucer arrives in five minutes, he will emit a sound barrier from the TARDIS that prevents them from being knocked out, allowing them to take over the saucer by force and him to rescue Ruby. Felice asks him what they should do afterwards, but he says it is up to them. The saucer arrives, and Ranceen, watching on, shows Ruby how she will deal with the dissenters: jets are launched from the saucer across the city. Instead of melting everyone like with Ferdy and the iBalls, however, these jets contain nanoagents to remake the townspeople's biology in the pattern of the creatures that Ruby has encountered. Felice hammers on the TARDIS's door to tell the Doctor that their plan has gone wrong, but as he exits, she has already transformed into a powerful six-armed beast and attacks him on sight.

Part Four: Ghoul Reunion![[edit] | [edit source]]

As he is wrestled to the floor, the Doctor questions why he is not affected by the genetic change like everyone else and asks Felice what her favourite music is. He sonics the TARDIS jukebox and begins to play some Venusian folk music to which she is instinctively attracted. When he starts singing along, Felice is drawn inside the TARDIS.

Xirxis is hugely impressed by the nanoagents in the jets affecting all the townsfolk, despite Ranceen warning him that it is only temporary and with a high failure rate. Regardless, he considers the potential for planetary invaders so high that he immediately offers to buy the entire company, including their products, monsters, and test planet, for half a quintillion galactic groats. Ranceen agrees to create a contract as Ruby silently notices the TARDIS dematerialise on the screens around her and smiles.

In the TARDIS, Felice has calmed down but without her body changing back to normal. The Doctor explains how the TARDIS' state of temporal grace has acted as a "chillout field" to calm her down and a scan from the sonic screwdriver confirms traces of human, Ixionid, Mysian Gegenee, goblin, and something else in her DNA. Concerned, he wonders what the other part is, as back on the test planet, the transformed focus group grow fairy wings and fly towards the CoHurtCo™ saucers.

In the company's HQ, Ranceen finalises the deal with Xirxis, and he immediately orders all ex-employees, including assessors and focus groupies, into the stock pens so they can be transformed into monsters. He summons a trio of new staff: faceless X-marked androids called X-tinguishers, but is quickly interrupted by the arrival of the TARDIS. The Doctor and Ruby joyfully reunite while Felice uses her new form to trash the robots, and Xirxis meets the Doctor in fury, describing him as an "arch meddler in private business affairs". The Doctor, however, does not recognise him, and Xirxis' insistence that he once killed his grandfather and ruined his enterprise purely out of spite does not jog his memory either. As the Doctor continues to fail to remember any details, Xirxis snaps and declares that he must die, summoning an army dozens of X-tinguishers who quickly surround him and Ruby.

Part Five: Liquidation![[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The city includes a main square, city hall, and petrol station.
    • West Street features a library, bakery, shoe shop, barbers, soda shop, and newsstand.
    • East Street features a fashion house, fishmongers, cheese shop, and bookshop.
  • The Doctor nicknames one of the i-Balls "Eye Claudius", in reference to the novel I, Claudius.
  • i-Balls have no mouths, ears, or noses. Despite being completely organic, their eye-heads can fully rotate, which the Doctor initially attributes to them potentially being on gimbals before realising they use telepathy.
  • Pachydermus Prime is part of the Tuskus constellation. It is ruled by a Grand Trunk Ultima.
  • Nel-I IV claims that his species was held back from domination by low birth rates and gestation periods lasting centuries.
  • Titles that Xirxis proclaims for himself include "the X-acting", "the X-punger", "the X-communicator", and "the Great X-cisor". He is also referred to as "His Excellency" by others.
  • The Doctor states that he has been hit by stun weapons "once or twice".
  • Felice claims that being stunned in real life badly hurts, unlike what is shown in vid-shows.
  • Ranceen claims to have a sustainability certificate for her peeling jets.
  • The terms and conditions of working with CoHurtCo™ are 7007 pages long.
  • The TARDIS jukebox has tracks of the blues, country, trip-hop, grime, bebop, cowpunk, and Venusian folk genres.
  • Xirxis' grandfather is described as an entrepreneur also known as "the great X-tortioner himself", who owned a volcano base with warheads aimed at every city in Galaxy Five and an excavation machine which the Doctor killed him in. The Doctor admits that that could describe dozens of people.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • In part three, the dotted line that Ruby signs on incorrectly overlaps with the stylus she uses to sign.
  • In part four, the Doctor breaks the fourth wall: he states that his Venusian folk song "sounds like a carol" and adds that "it isn't even Christmas!" while winking at the reader. This is in reference to how this chapter was published in December 2024.

Original print details[[edit] | [edit source]]

(Publication with page count and closing captions)

  • DWM 608: (6 pages): Next Issue: Inside the Factory!
  • DWM 609: (6 pages): Next Issue: The Apprentice!
  • DWM 610: (6 pages): Next Issue: Ghoul Reunion!
  • DWM 611: (6 pages): Next Issue: Liquidation!

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

v • e
DWM Fifteenth Doctor comic stories
Ruby
Mancopolis • The Hans of Fear • The Monster Makers
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