4-Dimensional Vistas (comic story)

4-Dimensional Vistas
Doctor:	Fifth Doctor
Companion(s):	Gus
Main enemy:	Autek, the First Monk
Key crew
Publisher:	Marvel Comics
Editor:	Alan McKenzie
Writer:	Steve Parkhouse
Artist:	Mick Austin
Letterer:	Steve Craddock, Jerry Paris
Release details
Number of parts:	6
Release number:	1
Printed in:	DWM 78-83
Release date:	9 June - 10 November 1983
Reprinted in:	The Tides of Time
Format:	Comic
DWM comic stories
← Previous	Lunar Lagoon
Next →	The Moderator

4-Dimensional Vistas was a comic story featuring the Fifth Doctor. It was the first story to feature the Monk since The Daleks' Master Plan in 1966, though the character is referred to only as "the Time-Meddler", which had been the title of his debut serial.

Summary

The Fifth Doctor still feels saddened shock over the death of Fuji. He is about to enter his TARDIS when Gus Goodman, the American Air Force pilot who shot Fuji, pulls a gun on him and informs him that, although World War II is still on-going, the date is July 25th 1963.

Fearing he is lost in a parallel world, the Doctor and Gus take off in the TARDIS. Orbiting Earth, the Doctor sees a magnetic anomaly emanating from near the North Pole has created many parallel worlds. The Doctor and Gus land near the anomaly to find its source is a spaceship. Sneaking into it, they find the First Monk and a party of Ice Warriors led by Autek, who are building a giant sonic cannon.

An advanced, secret and surprisingly well informed military group, SAG 3, is also investigating the anomaly. As the Ice Warriors prepare to drop the Doctor into a pit, SAG 3 attacks the ship, frees the Doctor and forces the Ice Warriors to leave Earth. In his TARDIS, the Doctor pursues the Monk's TARDIS through space and time. After a chase through the Time Vortex, the Doctor appears before the Monk, who attempts to materialise in the same spot. Having two TARDISes in the same place and time causes an explosion which destroys the Ice Warrior ship and sends the Monk to another dimension.

Having solved the mystery of the parallel worlds, the Doctor and Gus part ways with SAG 3 and go on to their next adventure. After the TARDIS dematerialises, SAG 3 are left to wonder if they should have told the Doctor that Gus was going to die...

Characters

• Fifth Doctor
• Angus Goodman
• First Monk
• Autek
• Khandak
• Ice Warriors

Worldbuilding

• The Monk theorises that the sonic cannon will be able to even destroy a TARDIS. The equipment functions by use of a special focussing crystal, which is implied to be true of all Ice Warrior sonic cannons, if not handheld weaponry. The gem intended for the superweapon is created in a crucible of compressed molten silica, seeded into the Earth's crust and retrieved millions of years later.
• SAG 3 are a psionically-active paramilitary unit dispatched from a hidden base in Scotland. Their members are capable of such feats as telepathic conference, telekinesis and precognition.
• The Monk and his TARDIS are so "perfectly annihilated" that they're transported to another dimension.
• The Doctor considers Earth a second home, and is disturbed at the prospect of being lost in time on a parallel Earth different from the one he's known.
• The Time Lords issued the Doctor with a grenade-sized device capable of cancelling out a time warp.
• The Doctor comments that he's "sent sideways in time" every time he activates the TARDIS.

Notes

• This is the first appearance of the Monk in a comic story. This rendition of the character is visually based on Peter Butterworth's TV version, and his TARDIS remains in the shape of a police box, which had been the result of the First Doctor's interference in Egypt during his escape from the Daleks in TV: The Daleks' Master Plan. Without ready explanation in 4-Dimensional Vistas itself, it exists as an unusual nod to televised continuity in the Fifth Doctor era of the Doctor Who Magazine comics.
• The Monk is depicted as going by the name of "the Time-Meddler", with the assumption that the nickname of "the Monk" was simply a nickname from his specific disguise in medieval Northumberland. Later usage of the character, however, would elevate "the Monk" into the character's default alias, equivalent to "the Master" or "the Rani", although occasionally with the man himself complaining about others having begun to call him that without his consent.

Continuity

• The Doctor is ashamed over his part in the death of Fuji. (COMIC: Lunar Lagoon)
• The Monk's TARDIS is still in the shape of a police box. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)
• The Doctor volunteered to stay on Earth on the behalf of the Time Lords to investigate the disturbances created by the Monk, but admits he faced interruptions and made some mistakes until he pieced everything together. (COMIC: The Tides of Time, Stars Fell on Stockbridge, The Stockbridge Horror, Lunar Lagoon)
• SAG 3 ask the Doctor how his TARDIS became imprinted in a quarry wall, which was one of their investigations. (COMIC: The Stockbridge Horror)
• The Doctor defeats the Monk by materialising a micro-second before him, in a process similar to the time ram the Third Doctor tried on the Master. (TV: The Time Monster)
• The SAG 3 member with clairvoyance knows Gus will die soon. (COMIC: The Moderator)

External links

• 4-Dimensional Vistas at the Doctor Who Reference Guide