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{{Infobox Comic
{{title dab away}}
|comic name= ''Don't Step on the Grass''
{{real world}}
|image=
{{ImageLinkComics}}
|series= [[IDW Publishing|IDW]]: [[Doctor Who (2009)|''Doctor Who'' (2009)]]
{{Infobox Story SMW
|number= 4
|series       = [[Doctor Who (2009)|''Doctor Who'' (2009)]]
|doctor= [[Tenth Doctor]]
|image        = Don't Step On The Grass.jpg
|companions= [[Matthew Finnegan]]<br>[[Emily Winter]]<br>[[Martha Jones]]
|number       =  
|enemy= TBA
|doctor       = Tenth Doctor
|year= [[Earth]], [[Greenwich]], [[London]] [[2009]]
|companions   = [[Matthew Finnegan|Matthew]], [[Emily Winter|Emily]]
|writer= [[Tony Lee]]
|featuring    = Martha Jones
|editor=
|featuring2  = Erisa Magambo{{!}}Magambo
|artist= [[Blair D. Shedd]]
|enemy        = [[The Advocate]], [[Lau'Tan]], [[Enochai]]
|colourist=
|setting      = [[Greenwich]], [[2009]]
|lettering=  
|writer       = Tony Lee
|publication title= [[Doctor Who (2009)|''Doctor Who'' (2009)]] #9-12
|artist       = [[Blair D. Shedd]]
|publication dates= [[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
|previous story= ''[[Tesseract]]''
|format       = [[American comic book]] - four issues
|next story= an [[Doctor Who Ongoing#Annual|as-yet unannounced story from the annual]], then [[IDW]]: ''[[Final Sacrifice]]''
|prev        = Tesseract (comic story)
}}{{current}}'''''Don't Step on the Grass''''' was the fourth part of the 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]].
|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]].


==Summary==
== Summary ==
'''Solicitation summary for part one:'''<br />
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 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!"


==Characters==
== Plot ==
* [[Tenth Doctor|The Doctor]]
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 ==
* [[Tenth Doctor]]
* [[Matthew Finnegan]]
* [[Matthew Finnegan]]
* [[Emily Winter]]
* [[Emily Winter]]
Line 32: Line 42:
* [[Erisa Magambo]]
* [[Erisa Magambo]]
* [[The Advocate]]
* [[The Advocate]]
* [[Crane (Don't Step on the Grass)|Crane]]


==References==
== Worldbuilding ==
* [[Martha Jones|Martha]] says she expected the Doctor to avoid modern Earth because of [[Donna Noble]]'s recent memory wipe. ([[DW]]: ''[[Journey's End]]'') How, exactly, Martha knows of Donna's fate is not made clear, although it's probable that the Doctor warned all of his former companions in order to prevent them from interacting with Donna.
* [[Brian Green]] is [[British Prime Minister]]. He was preceded by [[Aubrey Fairchild (Beautiful Chaos)|Aubrey Fairchild]].
* 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 favor 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 Doctor suspects the tree creatures to be [[Krynoid]]s, but is proven wrong when the Krynoid rockets fail to kill them.
* 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.
* When the Doctor finds a spaceship trapped deep under [[Greenwich Park]], he says it must have slipped through [[Cardiff Space-Time Rift|the Rift]].
* The Doctor seems unaware of the events of [[TW]]: ''[[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.
*When the Doctor explains why he answered Martha's [[superphone]] call, he says he'd never ignore the phone cal of a woman in trouble — or man, or [[penguin]]. This likely refers to [[Frobisher]].
*The Doctor references his and Martha's trip to visit [[William Shakespeare]]. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Shakespeare Code]]'')
*The Doctor sends Martha to the [[Black Archive]]. ([[SJA]]: ''[[Enemy of the Bane]]'')
*The Doctor reveals he's still angry with Martha for nearly engaging the [[Osterhagen Project]]. ([[DW]]: ''[[Journey's End]]'')
*The Doctor again employs the phrase "spit-spot" as a means of encouraging people to spring into action. ([[SJA]]: ''[[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 [[DW]]: ''[[School Reunion]]'', this may be further proof that she is married to [[Mickey Smith]] — the original sufferer of "tin dog syndrome" — at the time of this story.
*The Doctor says he "played [[Hamlet]] a little while back". This is a fourth-wall-breaking in-joke for fans of [[David Tennant]], who will know he played Hamlet in a 2008 Royal Shakespeare Company production — one of the proximate causes for 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]]''.
*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."


==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 [[24th March]] [[2010]]. Readers in the midwest and west got it on its intended release date, [[17th 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]]''.


==Cover Gallery==
== Continuity ==
<gallery>
* 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]]'')
File:Drwho09-cvra.jpg|[[Doctor Who Ongoing]]<br>Issue 9 (Cover A)
* 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]]'')
File:Drwho09-cvrb.jpg|[[Doctor Who Ongoing]]<br>Issue 9 (Cover B)
* 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 (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 (TV story)|The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith]]'')
* The Doctor references his and Martha's trip to visit [[William Shakespeare]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Shakespeare Code (TV story)|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]]'')
* Magambo obeys the Doctor's express wishes and doesn't salute him. ([[TV]]: ''[[Planet of the Dead (TV story)|Planet of the Dead]]'')
* [[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]]'')
* 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]]'')
* 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]]'')
* 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]]'')
* Martha notes that Matthew is suffering from "[[tin dog syndrome]]". ([[TV]]: ''[[School Reunion (TV story)|School Reunion]]'')
 
== Cover gallery ==
<gallery position="center" captionalign="center" hideaddbutton="true">
File:Drwho09-cvra.jpg|[[Doctor Who (2009)|''Doctor Who'' (2009)]]<br />Issue 9 (Cover A)
File:Drwho09-cvrb.jpg|Issue 9 (Cover B)
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>


==Timeline==
== Footnotes ==
* ''Don't Step on the Grass'' occurs immediately after [[IDW]]: ''[[Tesseract]]'', which itself is set after [[DW]]: ''[[Planet of the Dead (TV story)|Planet of the Dead]]''
{{reflist}}
*''Dont Step on the Grass'' occurs before an [[Doctor Who Ongoing#Annual|as-yet unannounced story from the annual]] and [[IDW]]: ''[[Final Sacrifice]]'', both of which are set shortly before [[DW]]: ''[[The End of Time (TV story)|The End of Time]]''.
{{Tenth Doctor IDW comics}}
{{TitleSort}}


==External Links==
[[Category:DW09 comic stories]]
''to be added''
[[Category:Stories set in Greenwich]]
==References==
[[Category:UNIT comic stories]]
{{reflist}}
[[Category:2010 comic stories]]
{{comic stub}}
[[Category:Four part comics]]
[[Category:Doctor Who (IDW) comic stories]]
[[Category:Tenth Doctor comic stories]]
[[Category:UNIT stories]]

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 (2008)
One-shots (2009)
Doctor Who (2009)
Doctor Who Annual 2010
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