The Flood (comic story)

The Flood
Doctor:	Eighth Doctor
Companion(s):	Destrii
Featuring:	Woodrow, Izzy
Main enemy:	Cyber-Controller
Main setting:	London, 2005
Key crew
Publisher:	Panini Comics
Writer:	Scott Gray
Artist:	Martin Geraghty
Inker:	David A. Roach
Release details
Number of parts:	8
Printed in:	DWM 346-353
Release date:	22 July 2004 - 3 February 2005
Cover date:	18 August 2004 - 2 March 2005
Reprinted in:	The Flood, Cybermen: The Ultimate Comic Strip Collection
Format:	Comic
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You may wish to consult Flood (disambiguation) for other, similarly-named pages.

The Flood was the last regular Eighth Doctor comic strip to be published in Doctor Who Magazine.

Summary

The Eighth Doctor and Destrii arrive on Earth to find rain falling on a market place, rain that radically alters emotions. It is a test being conducted by the Future Cybermen...

Plot

Part one

The Doctor and Destrii arrive in Camden Market in London on Earth in 2005, and are noticed by two MI6 agents. The Doctor and Destrii separate, and while the Doctor sets about browsing and examining the stores, Destrii, with her lack of common interaction with humans, sets about offending everyone, including Tony, the owner of a Chinese food stall, who soon decides to chase after Destrii when she offends him as well, intent on revenge. The Doctor and Desrtii soon re-unite, just in time for the Doctor to see the vengeful stall owner being rendered unconscious by Destrii. The Doctor, checking to see if he is still in a stable condition, notices his pulse is spiralling out of control, commenting that he's never seen anything like it. The two MI6 agents find the TARDIS, and proceed to tell their superior that all is well, just as a pair of Cybermen emerge from thin air behind them.

Part two

The Doctor and Destrii set up amending the problems they've caused, taking both Tony and his wife, Linda, to the pub The World's End for a drink. However, they are being eavesdropped on by North, another MI6 agent. While the Doctor is distracted by more erratic behaviour, North plants a listening device on him and proceeds to walk outside and listen to his conversation. The Doctor notices the plant and distracts with a non-sequitur, while Destrii apprehends him and forces him to sit at the table alongside the Doctor. While the Doctor examines North's devices, two Cybermen walk amongst citizens in the pub, but they go unnoticed due to light refraction shields, though as Destrii can see a wider spectrum of light than humans, she spots them. She questions who they are, and upon receiving blank faces, she notices they're walking towards her. She picks up North's taser and fires it at the Cybermen, rendering them visible. The Doctor recognises them, and, as everyone flees, Tony distracts them. The Doctor and his friends run into an alley to get to North's transport, but the Cybermen enter from both exits, cornering them. Destrii orders the Doctor to quickly think of a plan.

Part three

The Doctor tinkers with his sonic screwdriver as the Cybermen close in and emits a signal that confuses the Cybermen's ability to recognise each other, causing them to fight amongst themselves as the group escapes to North's van. North contacts the MI6 agents who found the TARDIS, but the Doctor quickly recognises that they are being puppeteered by the Cybermen. After then contacting Leighton Woodrow, the head of MI6, they race to an aerial pick-up at Primrose Hill, chased by more Cybermen. The Cybermen fire on the van, flipping it, and knocking the Doctor, Tony and Linda unconscious. North carries the Doctor to the helicopter and orders the pilot to take off, leaving Destrii behind with Tony and Linda. Destrii attempts to fend off the Cybermen.

Part four

Destrii is overpowered by the Cybermen. They attempt to Cyber-convert her, but as she is not human, they sedate her and take her for further study. The Doctor wakes to find himself in an MI6 medical bay. As he and Woodrow discuss the situation, the Doctor admonishes Woodrow and North for the others' abandonment. The Doctor posits that the Cybermen must be time travellers, as their technology is much too advanced for the time. The Minister of Defence calls in a panic; the Cybermen have wiped the ministry's arsenal of nuclear activation codes. As the Cybermen launch an attack on MI6, they reveal themselves to the rest of London and begin a full-scale invasion.

Part five

Working on a device to amplify the confusing signal he used earlier, The Doctor surmises the Cybermen's tactics are different than usual, spreading panic, and wonders why. The Cybermen eventually break into the MI6 control room, and the Doctor activates his device, but it doesn't work. The Cyberleader, makes a grand entrance with Destrii as a prisoner, destroying the roof. After destroying the Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver, it orders the Cyber control ship to "induce neuro stream, maximum dosage". A highly localised storm cloud appears over MI6, and as the rain pours down, every human in the area becomes hysterical. The Cyberleader then offers them cyber-conversion to take their amplified emotions away.

Part six

The Cyber invasion force is seen recalled to the main control ship. The Doctor and Destrii are taken to the ship, along with the TARDIS, where the Doctor senses a strange presence. They meet the Cybercontroller, who reveals their plan; they will flood the Earth using the neuro stream rain to amplify humans' fear to such an extent that they will welcome conversion. The Cybercontroller claims to be motivated to save the world from itself, and christens it "New Mondas". The Doctor and Destrii are shown a massive Cyber-conversion facility, where the dead MI6 agents, Linda, Tony, Woodrow, and many more humans are undergoing the process. Destrii flies into a rage, attempting to free Linda, but the Doctor tells her it's too late. Destrii pleads with the Doctor to find some way to stop the Cybermen, and the Doctor turns to the Cybercontroller and offers a deal; The Cybermen leave Humanity alone, in exchange for the Doctor's death.

Part seven

Dark storm clouds spread across the planet. A squadron of fighter jets attempts to bomb the Cyber control ship, but their weapons have no effect, and retaliatory fire quickly disintegrates them. The Doctor offers for the Cybermen to take readings during his regeneration, to give them a template to convert aliens into Mondasians for conversion, in exchange for Humanity being left alone. The Cybercontroller accepts the offer, and the Doctor suggests they use a particle reactor to poison him and trigger his regeneration. The Cybercontroller replies that they no longer use that kind of energy source, and brings the Doctor to the heart of the ship, where they use a fragment of the Space/Time Vortex as power. The Doctor, even having sensed it earlier, is surprised at this, but instructs the Cybermen to expose him to the time winds, as it should trigger his regeneration. The Cybermen secure him above the reactor and then reveal they had no intention of honouring the deal. Unsurprised, both the Doctor and Destrii break free of their restraints. While Destrii gets to work fighting the Cybermen, the Doctor tries to remove the failsafes on the reactor. As the Cybercontroller attempts to apprehend him, stomping on his hand, it is revealed that the Doctor succeeded. Time Vortex energy streams into the chamber, and the Doctor leaps into it.

Part eight

Believing the Doctor to be dead, Destrii cuts a swath through the Cybermen in anger but is eventually overpowered. Before they can kill her, however, the Doctor appears in the energy of the Time Vortex, angered. He channels the power of the Vortex into the Cybermen, destroying them. He broadcasts a psychic message worldwide to let everyone know they are safe. Destrii calls out to the doctor that the Cybermen are defeated and that it's time to go, but the Doctor claims to be called by the Vortex, about to become one with Time. As Destrii pleads with the Doctor not to leave, the floor collapses out from under her, and she grabs onto a loose pipe to prevent her fall. As she hangs, the Doctor sees her and leaps out of the Vortex energy to save her. They run to the TARDIS and dematerialise just before the ship explodes. They land in a field and celebrate their victory. The Doctor exclaims that he needs a new jacket, and Destrii suggests something in leather.

Characters

• Eighth Doctor
• Destrii
• Izzy Sinclair
• North
• Leighton Woodrow
• Dr. Emily Rice
• Tony
• Linda
• Cyber-Controller
• Cyber-Leader
• Carter
• Morris
• Chaplin
• Ashby
• Julie
• Minister of Defence
• Maxwell Edison
• Grace Holloway

Worldbuilding

• The Doctor mentions "last orders".
• The Doctor mentions the achievements of Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Claude Monet, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Oscar Wilde, Frida Kahlo, Isaac Newton, and Billie Holiday.

Notes

Jamie Lenman's poster in DWM 501.

• This marks the final appearance of the Eighth Doctor in regular comic strip format. His final lines in his comic book tenure are: "No idea. Absolutely no idea! Isn't that fantastic? Anything could be over that hill, Destrii. Anything! C'mon — Let's go and find out..."
• When the Doctor comments that he needs a new jacket, Destrii suggests a leather jacket, a sly meta-joke on the outfit worn by Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor in the then-upcoming revival series.
• The Flood was originally going to end with the Eighth Doctor's regeneration, with the BBC approving the plan. However, a condition imposed by the BBC and Russell T Davies that the Ninth Doctor could not be seen to travel with any companion other than Rose Tyler rendered this unworkable, and the idea was abandoned.
  • Thought was given to a storyline that would have seen Destrii travel with a Doctor who was trapped mid-regeneration, with a flaming head and hidden features that the writers and artists compared to Dormammu of Marvel Comics, but this idea was considered too much effort for too little reward, considering the main purpose of a regeneration storyline was to see how the companions reacted to the new Doctor.
• The comic story Hunters of the Burning Stone places The Flood as occurring in 2005.
• Among the images shown by the Cyber-Controller as part of their "holistic profile of humanity's emotional state" are several recreations of real world images, including a John Kerry speech, images of the Iraq War, and Abu Ghraib war criminal Lynndie England. These images are unidentified in the story.
• A poster for this story by Jamie Lenman was included as a free gift with DWM 501.

Continuity

• The Doctor recalls his recent adventure with Native Americans in 1875. (COMIC: Bad Blood)
• North mentions the Donald Stark affair, which the Doctor remembers Woodrow from. (COMIC: The Fallen)
• Dr. Rice has studied the Zygon gambit. (TV: Terror of the Zygons)
• The Cybermen again travel through time. (TV: Earthshock, Attack of the Cybermen)
• The Doctor mentions that radiation exposure is a good way to trigger a regeneration. (TV: Planet of the Spiders)

External links

• The Flood at the Doctor Who Reference Guide