The Hyperion Empire (comic story)

The Hyperion Empire
Doctor:	Twelfth Doctor
Companion(s):	Clara
Featuring:	Kate
Main enemy:	Hyperions, the Scorched
Main setting:	London, Summer 2015
Key crew
Publisher:	Titan Comics
Editor:	Andrew James
Writer:	Robbie Morrison
Designer:	Rob Farmer
Artist:	Daniel Indro, Ronilson Friere
Colourist:	Slamet Mujiono
Letterer:	Richard Starkings, Jimmy Betancourt
Release details
Printed in:	12D 12-15
Release date:	30 September - 24 December 2015
Cover date:	September - December 2015
Reprinted in:	DWCT 2.4, DWCT 2.5, DWCT 2.6
Traded in:	Hyperion
Format:	Comic - 4 parts
Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor
← Previous	Unearthly Things
Next →	Relative Dimensions

The Hyperion Empire was the sixth story of the Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor comic story series published in 2015.

Summary

It took everything the Doctor had to defeat a SINGLE Hyperion – a mad and ancient living star that had been sealed away for millennia by the Time Lords. Now Hyperion tombs are opening all across the cosmos, with one awakening on the very edge of the solar system – with vengeance in its heart... How can the Doctor and Clara hope to stop the fury of the Hyperions from consuming Earth?!

Plot

Part one

On the International Space Station, Cory complains to Jay in Houston about his fellow astronauts singing. An alarm goes off. Quinn tells Major Weir there are two suns in the sky, and one is coming towards them. She tries evasive manoeuvres, but the object follows and collides with the station, destroying it and killing the crew.

In the Lake District, the object lands atop a fisherman's boat in Windermere. Kate Stewart briefs the cabinet, and informs them helicopters have been sent to the area. They find the nearby towns destroyed and the lake completely evaporated, leaving an alien ship. The ship shoots down the helicopters. Ground troops are similarly destroyed. In the briefing room, a signal comes in on all channels: "Hyperios Rises".

The Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald land in London, but the streets are empty and everything is scorched. Clara doesn't believe they're in 2015 until the Doctor points out the Gherkin and the Shard. At Westminster Abbey, the pair accidentally separate. Clara goes inside, and runs into a fireman with an axe.

Outside, the Doctor sonics the dust and finds it has human DNA. A medical student points a gun at him, but the Doctor quickly disarms him. All of a sudden, the dust begins to stir, and grabs the student.

Clara sneaks up on the man with the axe and kicks him in the groin. She is attacked by a dust creature, but the man smashes it with the axe. He introduces himself as Sam and tells her about the Scorched, those who were burned first but didn't die.

Back outside the Abbey, the Doctor faces an army of the Scorched, chanting "Burn!"

Part two

Clara and Sam flee the abbey and run over to the Doctor. The horde of Scorched following Clara and Sam converges with the horde facing the Doctor, trapping the three of them in a circle of the zombies. As the Scorched close in Sam swings at them with his axe. The Doctor climbs onto a black cab and aims his sonic into the air. He intercepts the regeneration field which is raising the Scorched, causing the creatures to disintegrate. The Doctor then explains that the Scorched's regenerative process was triggered by the presence of nearby lifeforms, himself, Sam and Clara. He then asks Sam what evil is walking the Earth. Sam tells the Doctor to turn around, and when the Doctor and Clara do so they see a Hyperion coming towards them. It bellows "Hyperios rises, and the universe falls".

The Hyperion offers to kill the Doctor quickly if he can explain how he killed the Scorched. The Doctor declines, opting instead to attack the Hyperion with his sonic. While the creature is down the three run, and shelter behind a car when it throws a fireball at them. The car explodes, and when the Hyperion approaches and sees no trace of the Doctor, Clara or Sam it tells Hyperios Command that the humans have been immolated. Unbeknownst to the Hyperion, the Doctor, Clara and Sam have clambered into the sewer below.

As they walk through the sewers, Sam recalls the day of the Hyperion invasion. He remembers being sent to tackle a blaze in London's East End, which he believed was caused by a plane crash, only to find himself facing an army of Hyperions. Over the following days, the Hyperions defeated the police and army, and their charred remains became the Scorched. Sam, Clara and the Doctor then arrive in an Underground station which is packed with people in sleeping bags. This station is then revealed to be King's Cross and St. Pancras.

Kate Stewart arrives with some UNIT soldiers and tells the sheltering people that they've made contact with other survivors around the globe, and are developing weapons which should be effective against the Hyperions. A man in the crowd then heckles Kate, criticising UNIT's response to the invasion and saying that their hostility is what caused the Hyperions to attack. The Doctor shuts this man down, calling him arrogant and deducing that he must be a politician. The man introduces himself as Martyn Grove, Minister for Public Hygiene, and insists that he should take charge as the most senior official present. Kate then corrects him, introducing the Doctor as the President of Earth. The Doctor, now in charge, tells Sam to behead Martyn. After a pause, the Doctor says this was a joke. When Clara asks the Doctor to say something comforting to the people he is now in charge of he declines, and then appoints Clara Minister of Hugs.

Kate asks the Doctor to tell them everything he knows about the Hyperions. He explains that they are a race of living suns who once travelled the universe enlightening less-advanced civilisations, but have since evolved into supernovas. Their new burning heat drove the Hyperions insane, and set them on a path of devastation across the universe. He explains that the Hyperions drain the energy of non-sentient stars using fusion-webs, using this energy to prolong their own lives, and leaving frozen planets in their wake. Finally he explains how the Hyperions were defeated in the Great Inferno, but that a few survivors were scattered around the universe, before telling everyone that their only options are to fight the Hyperions or to die.

Sam and Kate tell the Doctor about a firewall in Sussex, which the Hyperions have created to prevent people travelling to or from the area. Sam mentions the sounds of strange machinery can be heard from the other side, even from a large distance. The Doctor then says that that's where they need to go.

Part three

to be added

Part four

to be added

Characters

• Twelfth Doctor
• Clara Oswald
• Kate Stewart
• Cory
• Jay
• Dimitri Yemtov
• Lee Jae-Yong
• Weir
• Quinn
• Sam
• Student
• Martyn Grove
• Zraa-Korr
• Dra-Khan

Worldbuilding

• Chris Hadfield was an astronaut on the ISS.
• Dimitri Yemtov sings "I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper" and Lee Jae-Yong sings "Gangnam Style".
• Cory refers to The X Factor, Captain Kirk, Han Solo, and Justin Bieber.
• Kate mentions the Tunguska Event in 1908.
• The helicopters are from RAF Spadeadam.
• The Doctor observes that the Gherkin and the Shard are buildings shaped like "vegetables" and "giant toothpicks".
• Clara teaches her first-year class tae kwon do.
• Sam refers to the TARDIS's interior dimensions as being like Narnia, Monty Python and Roald Dahl.
• Sam mentions Fireman Sam.
• The Daleks destroyed the Atreides system.

Notes

• The release information places this story after the Four Doctors crossover event and between Last Christmas and The Magician's Apprentice.
• Due to a delay, Relative Dimensions, the following story in the series, was published in-between Parts Three and Four.

Original print details

to be added

Continuity

• The Doctor and Clara previously encountered and defeated a lone Hyperion. (COMIC: Terrorformer)
• Questioning the time they landed in London, Clara references the Great Fire of London and The Blitz. (TV: The Visitation, The Empty Child)
• The Doctor points out The Shard as evidence they've landed in 2015. (TV: The Bells of Saint John)
• The Doctor uses Venusian karate. (TV: Inferno, Robot of Sherwood, COMIC: Terrorformer)
• Clara uses Tae kwon do, (TV: Robot of Sherwood) and mentions having taught it to her first year students. (TV: The Woman Who Lived)
• Clara recalls the Doctor's "standy-up cat-naps". (TV: Deep Breath)
• Sam wonders if the Doctor would use his sonic screwdriver to build a cabinet. (TV; The Doctor Dances, Day of the Moon)
• Clara claims to be the Doctor's "carer". (TV: Into the Dalek)
• The Doctor is once again elected President of Earth. (TV: Death in Heaven)
• The Doctor expresses a desire to add more roundels to his control room. He eventually would. (TV: The Magician's Apprentice)
• Clara reflects on having lost someone recently. (TV: Dark Water / Death in Heaven)
• The Doctor refers to himself as a "dandy". (TV: The Three Doctors)
• The Doctor compares the horror of the Hyperion invasion to the Siege of Trenzalore. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)