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{{Infobox Comic|
{{Infobox Story SMW
name= City of the Damned |
|range = DWM comic stories{{!}}DWM Comics
image= cityofthedamned.jpg |
|number in range = 2
series=[[DWM comic stories|''DWM'' comic stories]]|
|image = Dr Who City of the Damned 1.jpg
doctor= [[Fourth Doctor]]|
|series=[[DWM comic stories|''DWM'' comic stories]]
companions= |
|doctor = Fourth Doctor
enemy= [[Moderator General]]|
|reprint =The Iron Legion (graphic novel)
year= [[Zombus]], [[planet]] [[Zom]]|
|companions =  
writer= [[Pat Mills]]<br />[[John Wagner]]|
|enemy = The [[Moderator General]]
artist= [[Dave Gibbons]]|
|setting = [[Zombos]], [[Zom]]
editor= [[Dez Skinn]]|
|writer = John Wagner, Pat Mills
colourist=|
|artist = [[Dave Gibbons]]
letterer=|
|editor = [[Dez Skinn]]
publication= [[Doctor Who Weekly]] [[DWM 9|9]]-[[DWM 16|16]]|
|colourist =  
release date= [[12 December|12]] [[December]] [[1979]] - [[30 January|30]] [[January]] [[1980]]|
|letterer =  
publisher= [[Marvel Comics]]|
|publication= [[DWM 9]]-[[DWM 16|16]]
format= Comic - 8 parts (34 pages)|
|release date= 6 December 1979 - 24 January 1980
prev= Doctor Who and the Iron Legion (comic story)|
|publisher = Marvel Comics
next= Timeslip (comic story)|
|format = Comic
|epcount = 8
|prev = Doctor Who and the Iron Legion (comic story)
|next = Timeslip (comic story)
|series2 = ''DWM{{'}}''s "[[Stripped for action?|Stripped for action? order]]"
|prev2 = Doctor Who and the Iron Legion (comic story)
|next2 = K-9's Finest Hour (comic story)
}}
}}
'''''City of the Damned''''' was a ''[[Doctor Who Magazine|Doctor Who Weekly]]'' comic story featuring the [[Fourth Doctor]].
'''''City of the Damned''''' was a ''[[Doctor Who Magazine|Doctor Who Weekly]]'' comic story featuring the [[Fourth Doctor]].


== Summary ==
== Summary ==
[[Fourth Doctor|The Doctor]] arrives in the city of [[Zombus]] on the [[planet]] [[Zom]]. A ruling council, the [[Brains Trust]], whose members wear eyeless masks which look like [[brain]]s, have identified emotions as the cause of all crime and outlawed them. With the [[Moderator General]] and the Moderators, the people are controlled and forbidden emotional experiences. They use [[Harmoniser]]s to remove emotions from the citizens. There is resistance from the [[Zom Emotional People's Organisation]], each of whom carries out and lives by one emotion alone to preserve it until the arrival of the [[Great Emoter]].  
The [[Fourth Doctor]] arrives in the city of [[Zombos]] on the [[planet]] [[Zom]]. A ruling council, the [[Brains Trust]], whose members have expanded [[brain]]s instead of heads, have identified emotions as the cause of all crime and outlawed them. With the [[Moderator General]] and the Moderators, the people are controlled and forbidden emotional experiences. They use [[Harmoniser]]s to remove emotions from the citizens. There is resistance from the [[Zom Emotional People's Organisation]], each of whom carries out and lives by one emotion alone to preserve it until the arrival of the [[Great Emoter]].
 
The Doctor is seen as the Great Emoter and is helped to escape the city. However, ZEPO's [[Big Hate]] has a plan to destroy the Moderators using his savage [[Barabara]] (giant blood bugs). The Barabara are released into the city but start to eat everyone, not just the Moderators. The Barabara, however, are defenceless against [[adrenalin]]. The Doctor appeals to the Brains Trust who agree to reinstall emotions to save what they have, but the Moderator General is opposed to the plan and kills the others.
 
The Doctor overpowers the Moderator General and orders the people into the Harmonisers, where they regain their emotions. The Barabara quickly die. The city begins a new life with all its inhabitants having a full set of emotions. The people feel so grateful to the Doctor that they end up dressing like him and adopting his mannerisms — such as offering [[jelly baby|jelly babies]], for example. The Doctor appears to have observed this as the TARDIS heads through space towards its next unknown destination, saying "Oh well, I suppose they'll grow out of it!"
 
== Plot ==
=== City of the Damned ===
Announcements warn those visiting the [[Zombos|City of the Damned]] on [[planet]] [[Zom]] that [[emotion]]s are outlawed, and even [[hope]] and [[alarm]] are strictly forbidden. While heading to [[Benidorm]] the [[Fourth Doctor]] visits the city in order to search for some repairs after the [[The Doctor's TARDIS|TARDIS]]'s [[Time-space stabiliser]] cuts out on him.


The Doctor is seen as the Great Emoter and is helped to escape the city. However, ZEPO’s [[Big Hate]] has a plan to destroy the Moderators using his savage [[Barabara]] (giant blood bugs). The Barabara are released into the city but start to eat everyone, not just the Moderators. The Barabara, however, are defenceless against [[adrenalin]]. The Doctor appeals to the Brains Trust who agree to reinstall emotions to save what they have, but the Moderator General is opposed to the plan and kills the others.  
Meanwhile, the [[Zomban]] people are addressed by the [[Moderator General]] who reminds them that the laws prohibiting emotion were created in their best interests, and that he will actively persecute the rebels who refuse to seek treatment for their primitive emotional urges. To prove his point the Moderator reveals that the rebel leader has been captured and proceeds to execute him - before instructing his subjects to visit a [[harmony booth]] immediately if they feel an emotion coming on.


The Doctor overpowers the Moderator General and orders the people into the Harmonisers, where they regain their emotions. The Barabara quickly die. The city begins a new life with a full set of emotions. The people feel so grateful to the Doctor that they try to dress like him and adopt his mannerisms.
Having landed in some living quarters, the Doctor is bemused to discover a married couple - [[431/277A]] and [[431/277B]] - who are seemingly devoid of all emotion. When the Doctor tastes some of their [[Foodstuff Y|food]] he is disgusted by the tastelessness and, upon offering the pair a [[jelly baby]], is informed by 'B' that foodstuff with taste is banned due to the fact that it could bring about unwanted emotions. At this moment the couple are contacted by the Moderator who informs 'A' that his recent [[Medexam]] had revealed a "hereditary malfunction of the [[heart]]", therefore he is withdrawn from the [[breeding stock]] and ordered to report to [[Chemfert]]. The Doctor witnesses 'A' and 'B' saying an emotionless goodbye, during which 'A' speculates that he is to be made into [[fertiliser]] - and that one day 'B' and her new 'A' would eat foodstuff grown from him.
 
After being questioned about her emotionless by the Doctor, 'B' feels [[tear]]s welling up in her [[eye]]s and reports straight to the Harmony booth. The Moderator commemorates 'B' for coming straight to the booth, and she is hooked up to the machine in order to begin the [[Harmonisation process]]. Upon being informed about the Doctor's presence, the Moderator sends out a [[Moderation squad]] who immediately locate the Doctor. The Moderators scan the [[Time Lord]] and they are shocked by the rage of emotions they discover he possesses, and blast him with a [[transmat]].
 
=== Mind-Wipe ===
The transmat takes them to [[The Watchtower]], where the Moderators are appalled by the Doctor's clothes, hair, and the fact that he has a name. They force him to empty his pockets, and are not impressed when he produces [[coffee]] and [[donut]]s. The [[Moderator General]] explains that emotion was banned to remove crime, and that cranial implants are implanted at birth so that [[Harmony booth]]s could be installed in the civilians' homes, but that there is a [[Z.E.P.O|rebel group]], the Zom Emotional People's Organization (Z.E.P.O.), who still fight. The Doctor witnesses [[Freddy Feel-Good]] go through the [[Harmonisation process]], knowing that he is next. Meanwhile, the Z.E.P.O. fliers use gliders to break into the watchtower, smashing the glass of the room containing the [[Harmoniser|Ultra-Harmoniser]], claiming that they've come for "the prisoner".
 
=== Gauntlet of Death ===
The Z.E.P.O defeat the guards, but are surprised to find the Doctor under the machine instead of Freddy Feel-Good. They decide that as he was being treated for emotion, he is one of them, and the Doctor proves this by disabling the Ultra-Harmoniser, then escaping with the group on one of their [[Z.E.P.O wing|wings]]. The guns on the [[watchtower]] and the moderators shoot at them, but they escape by flying out of the city, where the weapons don't work. A citizen remarks that the fliers are exciting, and is instantly arrested by a transmatting moderator who informs him "Excitement is an illegal emotion! Come with me, criminal!"
 
To save wing power, Z.E.P.O and the Doctor ride to [[Z.E.P.O base|their base]] on an outbound converter, as [[Will-to-Live]] explains that it was the [[Brains Trust]] who banned emotions. Meanwhile in the city, the Brains Trust tell the [[Moderator General]] to destroy the Doctor.
 
=== The Big Hate ===
''to be added''
 
=== Night of the Barabara ===
''to be added''
 
=== Bitter Harvest ===
''to be added''
 
=== Streets of Blood ===
''to be added''
 
=== The Last Hours ===
''to be added''


== Characters ==
== Characters ==
* [[Fourth Doctor]]
* [[Fourth Doctor]]
* [[Moderator General]]
* [[Will-to-Live]]
* [[Brains Trust]]
* [[Very Angry]]
* [[Barabara]]
* [[Half Daft]]
* [[Daft (City of the Damned)|Daft]]
* [[Mournful (City of the Damned)|Mournful]]
* [[Humble (City of the Damned)|Humble]]
* [[Humble (City of the Damned)|Humble]]
* [[Mournful (City of the Damned)|Mornful]]
* The [[Moderator General]]
* [[Need-to-Know (City of the Damned)|Need-to-Know]]
* The [[Brains Trust]]
* [[Big Hate]]
* [[Fairly Angry]]
* [[Slightly Angry]]
* [[Nervous (City of the Damned)|Nervous]]
* [[Nervous (City of the Damned)|Nervous]]
* [[431/277A]]
* [[431/277B]]
* [[Silly (City of the Damned)|Silly]]
* [[Silly (City of the Damned)|Silly]]
* [[Slightly Angry (City of the Damned)|Slightly Angry]]
* [[Need-to-Know]]
* [[Very Angry (City of the Damned)|Very Angry]]
* [[Deceitful]]
* [[Will-to-Live (City of the Damned)|Will-to-Live]]
* [[Freddy Feel-Good]]
* [[Hope (City of the Damned)|Hope]]
* [[821/900B]]
* [[107/012A]]


== References ==
== Worldbuilding ==
* [[Jelly baby|Jelly babies]] apparently  stop ears popping during transmat travel.
=== Food ===
* The Doctor claims that [[Jelly baby|Jelly babies]] stop ears popping during transmat travel.
* The Doctor has pills in his pockets for "Spanish tummy".


== Notes ==
=== Places ===
* Pat Mills and John Wagner, although jointly credited, took turns in writing the scripts (the first person credited was the actual writer of the script, the second merely typed it). ''The Iron Legion'' was written by Pat Mills.
* The Doctor received a parking ticket on [[Jundian]], although he swears that he wasn't doing a [[Grumma (unit of measure)|Grumma]] over forty.
* ''City of the Damned'' was submitted as a television story, but rejected.
* For the USA reprints, the title of this story was renamed '''City of the Cursed''' due to censorship laws in the United States.


== Publication and reprints ==
== Story notes ==
=== Original print details ===
* Pat Mills and John Wagner, although jointly credited, took turns in writing the scripts (the first person credited was the actual writer of the script, the second merely typed it). ''The Iron Legion'' was written by Pat Mills. ([[The Iron Legion (graphic novel)|The Iron Legion]]'s [[Dave Gibbons]] Interview)
: (Publication with page count and closing captions)
* ''City of the Damned'' was submitted as a television story, but rejected. ([[The Iron Legion (graphic novel)|The Iron Legion]]'s [[Dave Gibbons]] Interview)
# [[DWM 9]] (5 pages)  Next Week: Mind-Wipe!
* For the American reprints, the story was retitled ''City of the Cursed'', due to censorship laws in the United States.
# [[DWM 10]] (4 pages)  Next Week: Gauntlet of Death!
# [[DWM 11]] (4 pages) Next Week: The Big Hate!
# [[DWM 12]] (4 pages)  Next Issue:  Night of the Barabara!
# [[DWM 13]] (5 pages) Next Week: Bitter Harvest!
# [[DWM 14]] (4 pages)  Next Week: Streets of Blood!
# [[DWM 15]] (4 pages) Next Week: The Last Hours!
# [[DWM 16]] (4 pages)  Next Issue: Join the Doctor and K9 in Time-Trap!
 
=== Reprints ===
# ''[[Marvel Premiere]]'' Issues 59-60 Reprinted in colour.
# ''[[The Iron Legion (graphic novel)|The Iron Legion]]'' the launch title of a new series of graphic novels (published in 2004), reprinting cleaned up comic strips  covering strips from Doctor Who Weekly issue 1 through to 38. Reprinted as original, in black and white, with closing captions.
# [[DWC Issue 1]] and [[DWC Issue 2|Issue 2]] recoloured


== Continuity ==
== Continuity ==
''to be added''
* The Doctor was originally heading to [[Benidorm]]. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Doctor Who and the Iron Legion (comic story)|Doctor Who and the Iron Legion]]'')


== Timeline ==
== Print Details ==
* ''City of the Damned'' occurs after [[DWM]]: ''[[The Iron Legion]].''
'''Original print details'''
* ''City of the Damned'' occurs before [[DWM]]: ''[[K9's Finest Hour]].''
# [[DWM 9]] (5 pages) '''City of the Damned'''
# [[DWM 10]] (4 pages) '''Mind Wipe'''
# [[DWM 11]] (4 pages) '''Gauntlet of Death'''
# [[DWM 12]] (4 pages) '''The Big Hate'''
# [[DWM 13]] (5 pages) '''Night of the Barabara'''
# [[DWM 14]] (4 pages) '''Bitter Harvest'''
# [[DWM 15]] (4 pages) '''Streets of Blood'''
# [[DWM 16]] (4 pages) '''The Last Hours'''


'''Reprints'''
# [[MP 59]]-[[MP 60|60]] (Marvel Premeire colourised reprint)
# ''[[The Iron Legion (graphic novel)|The Iron Legion]]''
# [[DWC 2]]-[[DWC 4|4]] (IDW colourised reprint)
# [[Doctor Who Classics Volume 1]] (IDW colourised reprint)
# [[Doctor Who Classics Omnibus Volume 1]] (IDW colourised reprint)
# [[The Fourth Doctor Anthology]]


{{Fourth Doctor DWM comics}}
{{Fourth Doctor DWM comics}}
{{comic stub}}
{{TitleSort}}
{{TitleSort}}
{{ImageLinkComics}}


[[Category:Fourth Doctor DWM comic stories]]
[[Category:Fourth Doctor DWM comic stories]]
[[Category:Stories released in 1979]]
[[Category:1979 comic stories]]
[[Category:Stories released in 1980]]
[[Category:1980 comic stories]]
[[Category:Comic adaptations of unproduced television stories]]
[[Category:Eight part comics]]

Latest revision as of 17:43, 4 June 2024

RealWorld.png

City of the Damned was a Doctor Who Weekly comic story featuring the Fourth Doctor.

Summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Fourth Doctor arrives in the city of Zombos on the planet Zom. A ruling council, the Brains Trust, whose members have expanded brains instead of heads, have identified emotions as the cause of all crime and outlawed them. With the Moderator General and the Moderators, the people are controlled and forbidden emotional experiences. They use Harmonisers to remove emotions from the citizens. There is resistance from the Zom Emotional People's Organisation, each of whom carries out and lives by one emotion alone to preserve it until the arrival of the Great Emoter.

The Doctor is seen as the Great Emoter and is helped to escape the city. However, ZEPO's Big Hate has a plan to destroy the Moderators using his savage Barabara (giant blood bugs). The Barabara are released into the city but start to eat everyone, not just the Moderators. The Barabara, however, are defenceless against adrenalin. The Doctor appeals to the Brains Trust who agree to reinstall emotions to save what they have, but the Moderator General is opposed to the plan and kills the others.

The Doctor overpowers the Moderator General and orders the people into the Harmonisers, where they regain their emotions. The Barabara quickly die. The city begins a new life with all its inhabitants having a full set of emotions. The people feel so grateful to the Doctor that they end up dressing like him and adopting his mannerisms — such as offering jelly babies, for example. The Doctor appears to have observed this as the TARDIS heads through space towards its next unknown destination, saying "Oh well, I suppose they'll grow out of it!"

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

City of the Damned[[edit] | [edit source]]

Announcements warn those visiting the City of the Damned on planet Zom that emotions are outlawed, and even hope and alarm are strictly forbidden. While heading to Benidorm the Fourth Doctor visits the city in order to search for some repairs after the TARDIS's Time-space stabiliser cuts out on him.

Meanwhile, the Zomban people are addressed by the Moderator General who reminds them that the laws prohibiting emotion were created in their best interests, and that he will actively persecute the rebels who refuse to seek treatment for their primitive emotional urges. To prove his point the Moderator reveals that the rebel leader has been captured and proceeds to execute him - before instructing his subjects to visit a harmony booth immediately if they feel an emotion coming on.

Having landed in some living quarters, the Doctor is bemused to discover a married couple - 431/277A and 431/277B - who are seemingly devoid of all emotion. When the Doctor tastes some of their food he is disgusted by the tastelessness and, upon offering the pair a jelly baby, is informed by 'B' that foodstuff with taste is banned due to the fact that it could bring about unwanted emotions. At this moment the couple are contacted by the Moderator who informs 'A' that his recent Medexam had revealed a "hereditary malfunction of the heart", therefore he is withdrawn from the breeding stock and ordered to report to Chemfert. The Doctor witnesses 'A' and 'B' saying an emotionless goodbye, during which 'A' speculates that he is to be made into fertiliser - and that one day 'B' and her new 'A' would eat foodstuff grown from him.

After being questioned about her emotionless by the Doctor, 'B' feels tears welling up in her eyes and reports straight to the Harmony booth. The Moderator commemorates 'B' for coming straight to the booth, and she is hooked up to the machine in order to begin the Harmonisation process. Upon being informed about the Doctor's presence, the Moderator sends out a Moderation squad who immediately locate the Doctor. The Moderators scan the Time Lord and they are shocked by the rage of emotions they discover he possesses, and blast him with a transmat.

Mind-Wipe[[edit] | [edit source]]

The transmat takes them to The Watchtower, where the Moderators are appalled by the Doctor's clothes, hair, and the fact that he has a name. They force him to empty his pockets, and are not impressed when he produces coffee and donuts. The Moderator General explains that emotion was banned to remove crime, and that cranial implants are implanted at birth so that Harmony booths could be installed in the civilians' homes, but that there is a rebel group, the Zom Emotional People's Organization (Z.E.P.O.), who still fight. The Doctor witnesses Freddy Feel-Good go through the Harmonisation process, knowing that he is next. Meanwhile, the Z.E.P.O. fliers use gliders to break into the watchtower, smashing the glass of the room containing the Ultra-Harmoniser, claiming that they've come for "the prisoner".

Gauntlet of Death[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Z.E.P.O defeat the guards, but are surprised to find the Doctor under the machine instead of Freddy Feel-Good. They decide that as he was being treated for emotion, he is one of them, and the Doctor proves this by disabling the Ultra-Harmoniser, then escaping with the group on one of their wings. The guns on the watchtower and the moderators shoot at them, but they escape by flying out of the city, where the weapons don't work. A citizen remarks that the fliers are exciting, and is instantly arrested by a transmatting moderator who informs him "Excitement is an illegal emotion! Come with me, criminal!"

To save wing power, Z.E.P.O and the Doctor ride to their base on an outbound converter, as Will-to-Live explains that it was the Brains Trust who banned emotions. Meanwhile in the city, the Brains Trust tell the Moderator General to destroy the Doctor.

The Big Hate[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Night of the Barabara[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Bitter Harvest[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Streets of Blood[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

The Last Hours[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Food[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Doctor claims that Jelly babies stop ears popping during transmat travel.
  • The Doctor has pills in his pockets for "Spanish tummy".

Places[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Doctor received a parking ticket on Jundian, although he swears that he wasn't doing a Grumma over forty.

Story notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Pat Mills and John Wagner, although jointly credited, took turns in writing the scripts (the first person credited was the actual writer of the script, the second merely typed it). The Iron Legion was written by Pat Mills. (The Iron Legion's Dave Gibbons Interview)
  • City of the Damned was submitted as a television story, but rejected. (The Iron Legion's Dave Gibbons Interview)
  • For the American reprints, the story was retitled City of the Cursed, due to censorship laws in the United States.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

Print Details[[edit] | [edit source]]

Original print details

  1. DWM 9 (5 pages) City of the Damned
  2. DWM 10 (4 pages) Mind Wipe
  3. DWM 11 (4 pages) Gauntlet of Death
  4. DWM 12 (4 pages) The Big Hate
  5. DWM 13 (5 pages) Night of the Barabara
  6. DWM 14 (4 pages) Bitter Harvest
  7. DWM 15 (4 pages) Streets of Blood
  8. DWM 16 (4 pages) The Last Hours

Reprints

  1. MP 59-60 (Marvel Premeire colourised reprint)
  2. The Iron Legion
  3. DWC 2-4 (IDW colourised reprint)
  4. Doctor Who Classics Volume 1 (IDW colourised reprint)
  5. Doctor Who Classics Omnibus Volume 1 (IDW colourised reprint)
  6. The Fourth Doctor Anthology
v • e
DWM Fourth Doctor comic stories
Original run
Solo
K9
Sharon & K9
K9
Solo
Later stories
Romana II
Romana I & K9
Sarah & Harry
Sean
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