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{{Infobox Comic
{{Infobox Story SMW
|name= ''Don't Step on the Grass''
|series       = [[Doctor Who (2009)|''Doctor Who'' (2009)]]
|series= [[IDW Publishing|IDW]]: [[Doctor Who (2009)|''Doctor Who'' (2009)]]|undefined
|image       = Don't Step On The Grass.jpg
|image =  
|number       =  
|number= undefined
|doctor       = Tenth Doctor
|doctor= [[Tenth Doctor]]
|companions   = [[Matthew Finnegan|Matthew]], [[Emily Winter|Emily]]
|companions= [[Matthew Finnegan]], [[Emily Winter]], [[Martha Jones]]
|featuring    = Martha Jones
|enemy= [[The Advocate]], [[Lau'Tan]]
|featuring2  = Erisa Magambo{{!}}Magambo
|year= [[Greenwich]], [[2009]]
|enemy       = [[The Advocate]], [[Lau'Tan]], [[Enochai]]
|writer= [[Tony Lee]]
|setting      = [[Greenwich]], [[2009]]
|artist= [[Blair D. Shedd]]
|writer       = Tony Lee
|publication= [[Doctor Who (2009)|''Doctor Who'' (2009)]] #9-12
|artist       = [[Blair D. Shedd]]
|release date= [[March]] to [[June]] [[2010]]
|publication = [[DW09 9]] - [[DW09 12|12]]
|publisher= [[IDW Publishing]]
|release date = 17 March - 29 June 2010
|format= [[wikipedia:American comic book|American comic book]] - four issues
|publisher   = IDW Publishing
|prev= Tesseract (comic story)
|format       = [[American comic book]] - four issues
|next= Final Sacrifice (comic story)}}
|prev         = Tesseract (comic story)
|next         = Final Sacrifice (comic story)
}}
'''''Don't Step on the Grass''''' was the four part story arc begun in [[Doctor Who (2009)|''Doctor Who'' (2009)]] #9. It was the first story in the series to be set on modern [[Earth]], and featured the return of newly-married [[Martha Jones]], [[Erisa Magambo|Captain Magambo]] and [[UNIT]].
'''''Don't Step on the Grass''''' was the four part story arc begun in [[Doctor Who (2009)|''Doctor Who'' (2009)]] #9. It was the first story in the series to be set on modern [[Earth]], and featured the return of newly-married [[Martha Jones]], [[Erisa Magambo|Captain Magambo]] and [[UNIT]].


== Summary ==
== Summary ==
'''Solicitation summary for part one:'''
When the [[Tenth Doctor|Doctor]] is called back to modern-day [[London]] by [[Martha Jones]] and [[UNIT]], the last thing he expects are the [[Enochai|Enochian Angels]] of [[Elizabethan era|Elizabethan]] magician [[John Dee]], the secret underground library of Greenwich Park, and an army of angry living trees!
:"When The [[Tenth Doctor|Doctor]] is called back to modern-day [[London]] by [[Martha Jones]] and [[UNIT]], the last thing he expects are the [[Enochai|Enochian Angels]] of [[Elizabethan era|Elizabethan]] magician [[John Dee]], the secret underground library of Greenwich Park, and an army of angry living trees!"
 
== Plot ==
The Doctor is summoned to Greenwich Park by Martha and [[Erisa Magambo|Captain Magambo]] who claimed that the trees were moving, three people were ingested by them and the trunks were marked with Enochian symbols, a language invented by mathematician and magician [[John Dee]] to converse with angels. The Doctor realises the "angels" were trapped beneath the [[observatory]] for four hundred years, but emerged through the trees in the park. While he sends Martha and Matthew to investigate Crane's house, the Doctor, Emily and [[gardener]] Mr [[Crane (Don't Step on the Grass)|Crane]] head into the passages beneath the park to communicate with the "angels", in actual fact aliens waiting in suspended animation for the Doctor to come and take them home. With a UNIT soldier, Martha and Matthew search Mr Crane's house. Matthew discovers a sketch of the Advocate, but the soldier takes it from him, urging caution in his dealings with the Doctor. The soldier is really the Gizou in disguise. Martha, meanwhile, discovers an alien dossier on the Doctor and realises he has been set up. Believing the [[Enochai]]'s story, the Doctor sets them free, but it was a trick. John Dee had trapped them, but they are now free to take over all of the trees and claim the Earth.
 
The Enochia realise the Doctor didn't remove the forcefield trapping it and order Crane to shoot Emily. The Doctor and Emily escape but plunge down a hidden shaft into an ancient cavern where they discover a stripped down colony ship containing thousands of Enochians in stasis. A holographic projection of John Dee informs them that the Enochians were energy beings who planned conquest. Emily escapes to the surface but Crane catches the Doctor and the Enochian orders his imprisonment. The Advocate arrives and opens the stasis pods, releasing the Enochia. The trees drive UNIT back, but the situation becomes even worse as the Enochia flood out of the ground.
 
The angels trapp Central London in a forcefield. A battle with UNIT begins, leaving UNIT seriously outgunned. The Doctor speaks to one of the angels and realises it is the Gizou in disguise. The Gizou reveals that the whole scheme is a set-up. The Advocate appears to Martha and the trapped humans and proposes a way of ending the crisis, by striking at the Enochian ship. Crane, who overhears the Gizou, rescues the Doctor. Martha, meanwhile, escapes the bunker, finds Emily and, with the help of the [[Knights Arboretum]], a select group of gardeners of which Crane was once a member, is reunited with the Doctor. Returning to the bunker, the Doctor confronts the Advocate, but Magambo refuses to allow him time to develop an alternative solution to the Enochia threat and insists on following the Advocate's plan. She arrests the Doctor.
 
With the help of the Knights Arboretum, Martha and Emily rescue the Doctor. Mr Crane, meanwhile, has returned to the ship on a suicide mission to destroy it. The Doctor arrives and launches the ship into space, which draws all the energy creatures up with it. The Advocate's bomb is no longer needed, but the countdown is accidentally started. Mr Crane spots it in the nick of time, but if he raises his finger from the button, the ship will explode. The Doctor cannot do anything to save him so escapes using a pair of angel wings. The Advocate uses Crane's death to finally destroy Matthew's faith in the Doctor and Matthew elects to instead travel with the Advocate.


== Characters ==
== Characters ==
* [[Tenth Doctor|The Doctor]]
* [[Tenth Doctor]]
* [[Matthew Finnegan]]
* [[Matthew Finnegan]]
* [[Emily Winter]]
* [[Emily Winter]]
Line 33: Line 44:
* [[Crane (Don't Step on the Grass)|Crane]]
* [[Crane (Don't Step on the Grass)|Crane]]


== References ==
== Worldbuilding ==
* When the Doctor explains why he answered Martha's [[superphone]] call, he says he'd never ignore the phone call of a woman in trouble — or man, or [[penguin]]. This likely refers to [[Frobisher]].
* [[Brian Green]] is [[British Prime Minister]]. He was preceded by [[Aubrey Fairchild (Beautiful Chaos)|Aubrey Fairchild]].
* The Doctor says he "played [[Hamlet]] a little while back". This is a fourth-wall-breaking in-joke for fans of [[David Tennant]], who played Hamlet in a 2008 Royal Shakespeare Company production, due to there being no regular series of ''Doctor Who'' in 2009.
* Martha and a UNIT officer find some documents from the in-universe website, whoisdoctorwho.com.
* A UNIT soldier calls for "five rounds rapid" to be fired into the Enochai Angel. This recalls [[the Brigadier]]'s famous line from ''[[The Dæmons]]''.
* [[Brian Green]] is [[British Prime Minister]]. He was preceded by [[Harriet Jones]].
* The Doctor suspects the tree creatures to be [[Krynoid]]s, but is proven wrong when the Krynoid rockets fail to kill them.
* The Doctor suspects the tree creatures to be [[Krynoid]]s, but is proven wrong when the Krynoid rockets fail to kill them.
* When the Doctor finds a spaceship trapped deep under Greenwich Park, he says it must have slipped through [[Cardiff Space-Time Rift|the Rift]].
* When the Doctor finds a spaceship trapped deep under [[Greenwich Park]], he says it must have slipped through [[Cardiff Space-Time Rift|the Rift]].


== Notes ==
== Notes ==
* This story was originally solicited as a two-parter in December 2009.<ref>[http://www.newsarama.com/comics/091223-IDW-March-2010.html IDW's March 2010 solicitations]</ref> By January 2010, the story was described to retailers as a four-parter.<ref>[http://www.newsarama.com/comics/IDW-April-2010-Solicitations-100119.html IDW's April 2010 solicitations]</ref>
* This story was originally solicited as a two-parter in December 2009.<ref>[http://www.newsarama.com/comics/091223-IDW-March-2010.html IDW's March 2010 solicitations]</ref> By January 2010, the story was described to retailers as a four-parter.<ref>[http://www.newsarama.com/comics/IDW-April-2010-Solicitations-100119.html IDW's April 2010 solicitations]</ref>
* According to the website of artist [[Blair D. Shedd]], distribution problems plagued the first part of this story, and it was unusually not released across the [[United States]] on the same day. Readers on the east coast were not able to purchase ''Doctor Who'' (2009) until [[24 March]] [[2010]]. Readers in the midwest and west got it on its intended release date, [[17 March]] [[2010]].<ref>[http://onegemini.deviantart.com/journal/30950030/ Shedd, Blair D. "Doctor Who - WEST COAST ONLY". Personal web site. 17 March 2010.]</ref>
* Distribution problems plagued the first part of this story, and it was unusually not released across the [[United States]] on the same day. Readers on the east coast were not able to purchase ''Doctor Who'' (2009) until [[24 March (releases)|24 March]] [[2010 (releases)|2010]]. Readers in the midwest and west got it on its intended release date, [[17 March (releases)|17 March]] 2010.<ref>[http://onegemini.deviantart.com/journal/30950030/ Shedd, Blair D. "Doctor Who - WEST COAST ONLY". Personal web site. 17 March 2010.]</ref>
* The Doctor says he "played Hamlet a little while back". David Tennant played Hamlet in a 2008 Royal Shakespeare Company production.
* This story was reprinted in the IDW graphic novel ''[[Tesseract (graphic novel)|Tesseract]]''.


== Continuity ==
== Continuity ==
* The Doctor says he gets bored with repeats. He later echoes these sentiments in [[TV]]: ''[[The Big Bang]]'', saying that he hates them.
* The Doctor inquires as to whether his phone will work deep underground, and a UNIT soldier assures him it will, as it's on "the [[Neon network]]," created by [[Joshua Naismith]]. The soldier goes on to mention how [[Fighting the Future|Naismith's book]] was "life-altering." ([[TV]]: ''[[The End of Time (TV story)|The End of Time]]'')
* The Doctor inquires as to whether his phone will work deep underground, and a UNIT soldier assures him it will, as it's on "the Neon network," created by [[Joshua Naismith]]. The soldier goes on to mention how Naismith's book (shown in ''[[The End of Time (TV story)|The End of Time]]'' as being called "Fighting the Future") was "life-altering."
* The Doctor says he had a hand in the establishment of the [[Black Archive facility (Enemy of the Bane)|Black Archive]], and sends Martha there. ([[TV]]: ''[[Enemy of the Bane (TV story)|Enemy of the Bane]]'', ''[[The Day of the Doctor (TV story)|The Day of the Doctor]]'')
* The Doctor says he had a hand in the establishment of the [[Black Archive]], and sends Martha there. ([[TV]]: ''[[Enemy of the Bane]]'')
* The Doctor initially works under the suspicion that the trees are [[Krynoid]]s. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Seeds of Doom (TV story)|The Seeds of Doom]]'')
* The Doctor reveals he's still angry with Martha for nearly engaging the [[Osterhagen Project]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[Journey's End]]'')
* The Doctor reveals he's still angry with Martha for nearly engaging the [[Osterhagen Project]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[Journey's End (TV story)|Journey's End]]'')
* The Doctor again employs the phrase "spit-spot" as a means of encouraging people to spring into action. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith]]'')
* The Doctor again employs the phrase "spit-spot" as a means of encouraging people to spring into action. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (TV story)|The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith]]'')
* Martha says Matthew, who is feeling like the least valuable [[companion]], is suffering from "tin dog syndrome". Since she wasn't present during the events of [[TV]]: ''[[School Reunion]]'', this may be further indication that she is married to [[Mickey Smith]] — the original sufferer of "tin dog syndrome" — at the time of this story. Furthermore, Captain Erisa Magambo often refers to Martha as "Mrs Smith", which must be her married name by now.
* The Doctor references his and Martha's trip to visit [[William Shakespeare]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Shakespeare Code (TV story)|The Shakespeare Code]]'')
* The Doctor references his and Martha's trip to visit [[William Shakespeare]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Shakespeare Code]]'')
* [[Martha Jones|Martha]] says she expected the Doctor to avoid modern Earth because of [[Donna Noble|Noble]]'s recent memory wipe. ([[TV]]: ''[[Journey's End (TV story)|Journey's End]]'')
* [[Martha Jones|Martha]] says she expected the Doctor to avoid modern Earth because of [[Donna Noble]]'s recent memory wipe. ([[TV]]: ''[[Journey's End]]'') How, exactly, Martha knows of Donna's fate is not made clear.
* Magambo obeys the Doctor's express wishes and doesn't salute him. ([[TV]]: ''[[Planet of the Dead (TV story)|Planet of the Dead]]'')
* This story establishes that the incident with the [[Osterhagen key]] made Martha leave [[UNIT]]. She appears in this story as a an explicit "freelancer" who is back with UNIT only on a temporary basis — and only as a favour to her friend, [[Malcolm Taylor (Planet of the Dead)|Malcolm Taylor]]. Thus the story appears to have been written with knowledge of Martha's fate in ''[[The End of Time (TV story)|The End of Time]]''.
* [[The Advocate]] escaped the [[Time War]] when [[Davros]] was saved by [[Dalek Caan]], appearing as [[stardust]] in the [[Medusa Cascade]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Stolen Earth (TV story)|The Stolen Earth]]'')
* Magambo obeys the Doctor's express wishes in ''[[Planet of the Dead (TV story)|Planet of the Dead]]'' and fails to salute him when they first meet.
* The Advocate says that when the Doctor activated [[the Moment]] using [[the Great Key]], the Doctor [[time-lock]]ed the [[Last Great Time War]]. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Forgotten (comic story)|The Forgotten]]'')
* The Doctor seems unaware of the events of [[TV]]: ''[[Children of Earth]]'', but Martha makes an oblique reference to them, both with her dialogue and her body language. ''Children'' would in fact be quite a recent event, as [[Children of Earth: Day One|''Day One'']] makes reference to the fact that Martha was on her honeymoon, and ''[[Tesseract]]'' establishes she's recently returned from it.
* A UNIT soldier calls for "five rounds rapid" to be fired into the Enochai Angel, as [[the Brigadier]] once did. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Dæmons (TV story)|The Dæmons]]'')
* [[The Advocate]] escaped the [[Time War]] by following [[Davros]] when he was saved by [[Dalek Caan]] ([[TV]]: ''[[The Stolen Earth]]'').
* Several characters ask Martha if it's "Martha Jones" or "Martha Smith" now, and the Doctor says she should go back to [[Mickey Smith|Mickey]], after which she calls him and asks if he needs help with the [[Sontaran]] problem. ([[TV]]: ''[[The End of Time (TV story)|The End of Time]]'')
* The Advocate says that when the Doctor activated [[the Moment]] using [[the Great Key]], the Doctor [[time-lock]]ed the [[Last Great Time War]]. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Forgotten]]'')
* Martha notes that Matthew is suffering from "[[tin dog syndrome]]". ([[TV]]: ''[[School Reunion (TV story)|School Reunion]]'')


== Errors ==
== Cover gallery ==
* The Doctor asks Matthew why he never read "The Lord of the Rings". Matthew then explains that he already worked at the age of fourteen and was not very interested in a book about talking trees. However, since the first part was published on July 24 in 1954 and because Matthew came from the 1920s, it would be impossible for him to read a book, 30 years before it had ever been published.
<gallery position="center" captionalign="center" hideaddbutton="true">
 
File:Drwho09-cvra.jpg|[[Doctor Who (2009)|''Doctor Who'' (2009)]]<br />Issue 9 (Cover A)
== Cover Gallery ==
File:Drwho09-cvrb.jpg|Issue 9 (Cover B)
<gallery hideaddbutton="true" >
File:Drwho10-cvr.jpg|Issue 10 (Cover A)
file:Drwho09-cvra.jpg|[[Doctor Who (2009)|''Doctor Who'' (2009)]]<br />Issue 9 (Cover A)
File:Drwho11-cvra.jpg|Issue 11 (Cover A)
file:Drwho09-cvrb.jpg|Issue 9 (Cover B)
File:Drwho12-cvr.jpg|Issue 12 (Cover A)
file:Drwho10-cvr.jpg|Issue 10 (Cover A)
file:Drwho11-cvra.jpg|Issue 11 (Cover A)
file:Drwho12-cvr.jpg|Issue 12 (Cover A)
</gallery>
</gallery>
== Reprint ==
Reprinted in the IDW graphic novel ''[[Tesseract (graphic novel)|Tesseract]]''.


== References ==
== Footnotes ==
{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}
{{comic stub}}
{{Tenth Doctor IDW comics}}
{{TitleSort}}
{{TitleSort}}
{{ImageLinkComics}}
 
[[Category:IDW comic stories]]
[[Category:DW09 comic stories]]
[[Category:Tenth Doctor comic stories]]
[[Category:Stories set in Greenwich]]
[[Category:Stories set in Greenwich]]
[[Category:UNIT comic stories]]
[[Category:UNIT comic stories]]
[[Category:2010 comic stories]]
[[Category:Four part comics]]

Latest revision as of 17:01, 9 June 2024

RealWorld.png

Don't Step on the Grass was the four part story arc begun in Doctor Who (2009) #9. It was the first story in the series to be set on modern Earth, and featured the return of newly-married Martha Jones, Captain Magambo and UNIT.

Summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

When the Doctor is called back to modern-day London by Martha Jones and UNIT, the last thing he expects are the Enochian Angels of Elizabethan magician John Dee, the secret underground library of Greenwich Park, and an army of angry living trees!

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor is summoned to Greenwich Park by Martha and Captain Magambo who claimed that the trees were moving, three people were ingested by them and the trunks were marked with Enochian symbols, a language invented by mathematician and magician John Dee to converse with angels. The Doctor realises the "angels" were trapped beneath the observatory for four hundred years, but emerged through the trees in the park. While he sends Martha and Matthew to investigate Crane's house, the Doctor, Emily and gardener Mr Crane head into the passages beneath the park to communicate with the "angels", in actual fact aliens waiting in suspended animation for the Doctor to come and take them home. With a UNIT soldier, Martha and Matthew search Mr Crane's house. Matthew discovers a sketch of the Advocate, but the soldier takes it from him, urging caution in his dealings with the Doctor. The soldier is really the Gizou in disguise. Martha, meanwhile, discovers an alien dossier on the Doctor and realises he has been set up. Believing the Enochai's story, the Doctor sets them free, but it was a trick. John Dee had trapped them, but they are now free to take over all of the trees and claim the Earth.

The Enochia realise the Doctor didn't remove the forcefield trapping it and order Crane to shoot Emily. The Doctor and Emily escape but plunge down a hidden shaft into an ancient cavern where they discover a stripped down colony ship containing thousands of Enochians in stasis. A holographic projection of John Dee informs them that the Enochians were energy beings who planned conquest. Emily escapes to the surface but Crane catches the Doctor and the Enochian orders his imprisonment. The Advocate arrives and opens the stasis pods, releasing the Enochia. The trees drive UNIT back, but the situation becomes even worse as the Enochia flood out of the ground.

The angels trapp Central London in a forcefield. A battle with UNIT begins, leaving UNIT seriously outgunned. The Doctor speaks to one of the angels and realises it is the Gizou in disguise. The Gizou reveals that the whole scheme is a set-up. The Advocate appears to Martha and the trapped humans and proposes a way of ending the crisis, by striking at the Enochian ship. Crane, who overhears the Gizou, rescues the Doctor. Martha, meanwhile, escapes the bunker, finds Emily and, with the help of the Knights Arboretum, a select group of gardeners of which Crane was once a member, is reunited with the Doctor. Returning to the bunker, the Doctor confronts the Advocate, but Magambo refuses to allow him time to develop an alternative solution to the Enochia threat and insists on following the Advocate's plan. She arrests the Doctor.

With the help of the Knights Arboretum, Martha and Emily rescue the Doctor. Mr Crane, meanwhile, has returned to the ship on a suicide mission to destroy it. The Doctor arrives and launches the ship into space, which draws all the energy creatures up with it. The Advocate's bomb is no longer needed, but the countdown is accidentally started. Mr Crane spots it in the nick of time, but if he raises his finger from the button, the ship will explode. The Doctor cannot do anything to save him so escapes using a pair of angel wings. The Advocate uses Crane's death to finally destroy Matthew's faith in the Doctor and Matthew elects to instead travel with the Advocate.

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • This story was originally solicited as a two-parter in December 2009.[1] By January 2010, the story was described to retailers as a four-parter.[2]
  • Distribution problems plagued the first part of this story, and it was unusually not released across the United States on the same day. Readers on the east coast were not able to purchase Doctor Who (2009) until 24 March 2010. Readers in the midwest and west got it on its intended release date, 17 March 2010.[3]
  • The Doctor says he "played Hamlet a little while back". David Tennant played Hamlet in a 2008 Royal Shakespeare Company production.
  • This story was reprinted in the IDW graphic novel Tesseract.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

Cover gallery[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Doctor Who (2009) Issue 9 (Cover A)

    Doctor Who (2009)
    Issue 9 (Cover A)

  • Issue 9 (Cover B)

    Issue 9 (Cover B)

  • Issue 10 (Cover A)

    Issue 10 (Cover A)

  • Issue 11 (Cover A)

    Issue 11 (Cover A)

  • Issue 12 (Cover A)

    Issue 12 (Cover A)

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. ↑ IDW's March 2010 solicitations
  2. ↑ IDW's April 2010 solicitations
  3. ↑ Shedd, Blair D. "Doctor Who - WEST COAST ONLY". Personal web site. 17 March 2010.
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Doctor Who (2009)
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