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{{Infobox Comic
{{title dab away}}
|comic name= The First
{{real world}}
|image=  
{{ImageLinkComics}}
|series= [[Doctor Who Magazine comic strips|Doctor Who]] -<BR> [[Tenth Doctor Comic Strip Stories]]
{{Infobox Story SMW
|number=  
|range = DWM comic stories{{!}}DWM Comics
|doctor= [[Tenth Doctor]]
|number in range = 136
|companions= [[Martha Jones]]
|image             = The First.jpg
|enemy=  
|series           = [[DWM comic stories|''DWM'' comic stories]]
|year= 2007
|number           =  
|writer= [[Daniel McDaid]]
|doctor           = Tenth Doctor
|editor=
|companions       = [[Martha Jones|Martha]]
|Inks= David A. Roach
|enemy             = The [[Mindcore]]
|artist=  
|setting          = [[Antarctica]], [[12 September]] - [[14 September]] [[1915]]
|colourist= James Offredi
|writer           = Daniel McDaid
|lettering= Roger Langridge
|editor           = [[Clayton Hickman]] & [[Scott Gray]]
|publication_title= [[Doctor Who Magazine]]
|inker            = [[David A. Roach]]
|publication_dates=  
|penciller        = [[Martin Geraghty]]
|publisher=  
|colourist         = [[James Offredi]]
|format= Comic - 4 parts.
|letterer          = [[Roger Langridge]]
|previous story= [[Bus Stop]]
|publication      = [[DWM 386]]-[[DWM 389|389]]
|next story= [[Death To The Doctor]]
|release date      = 23 August - 15 November 2007
}}
|cover date        = 19 September - 12 December 2007
|traded= ''[[The Widow's Curse (graphic novel)|The Widow's Curse]]''
|publisher         = Panini Comics
|format           = Comic
|epcount = 4
|prev              = Bus Stop! (comic story)
|next             = Death to the Doctor! (comic story)
}}{{comic stub}}
'''''The First''''' was a comic story published in ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]''. It was written by [[Dan McDaid]].


==Summary==
== Summary ==
A trip to the Antarctic Circle proves eventful for the [[Tenth Doctor]] and [[Martha Jones|Martha]] as they find themselves battling to save the human race from the [[Skith]].


September 12, 1915: adventurers in snow banter with each other: a biologist named Dr. Clark, James Wordie, and apparent leader Mr. Frank Wild. There is also a photographer named Jimmy—who thinks he sees something in the snow. Tentacles come out of the snow and grab Clark, who believes it is trying to communicate with him. Martha, outside TARDIS, admits to the Doctor she was wrong: the Antarctic is beautiful and she wants to leave. The atmospheric density jacket he’s given her should keep her warm. He has a soft drink and popcorn as they wait for the start of and eventually watch the aurora australis, light emitted by particles excited by energetic charged particles travelling along magnetic field lines into the earth’s upper atmosphere. He puts on his glasses and sees a hole in it as if something’s broken through. He uses the psychic paper to pretend to be Dr. John Smith from the Society. The Doctor sees the downed Clark’s hand to be translucent. Jimmy uses his box brownie camera to take a picture of Martha. It is a Kodak Brownie number 0. Jimmy introduces himself as James (Francis) Hurley. When they are questioned, Martha tells them the name of their ship is HMS Fantastic. They go to the ship, the Endurance, ship of Ernest Shackleton’s ship. Shackleton failed to get to the South Pole twice. This was the Imperial Trans Antarctic attempt, an attempt to cross via the South Pole. He fails at this too but the Doctor does not want to reveal that due to the web of time. Shackleton thinks the Doctor is a spy from someone else such as Amundsen or Mawson. The psychic paper does not work on Shackleton. Rosie once took Shackleton to the Palladium to see a mentalist and those illusions didn’t work on him either. Locked up in the hold with Jimmy as company, the Doctor finds a jar with something egg like in it and glowing. Mr Wild has a bit of blood covered alien tentacle in his hand. Jimmy tells Martha they are here to know they’ve been somewhere that no one else has been. Martha compares that to her and the Doctor, they are the same but they do not take prisoners or photographs. Shackleton’s driven, determined, that is why the paper won’t work on him. A possessed Clark attacks Shackleton and Wild in a dark room. Clark has seen them and their minds. The ice, he says, wants them. Clark gets outside and climbs the rigging as something attacks the ship. Jimmy lets the Doctor and Martha out. As a huge alien thing, octopus-T-Rex-like rises up out of the ice with tentacles grabbing Jimmy, on the rigging, Clark wants to get a good view of their deaths…
== Plot ==
It opens with an entry from the diary of James Francis Hurley, Sept 19th, 1915. The Doctor tells Shackleton that bullets won’t hurt the thing. Shackleton orders Wordie and Wild to man the harpoons. Martha notices the thing is made of ice while the Doctor tells her inside is a beating heart beneath the crystalline life form and there are veins. Shackleton orders McEllroy and Macklin with him as the harpoons hardly bother the thing. Shackleton points a revolver at it. He scares the monster away. The Doctor explains his sonic screwdriver to Macklin, “suitable for medical readings, blowing up mad computers and well, putting screws into things.” Clark is being changing into something inhuman. His blood stream is carrying something malign that is rewriting his DNA. The Doctor tells Shackleton he is a practical man and won’t put the Doctor and Martha back into the hold because the Doctor is good in a fight and can make a mean omelette. Jimmy tells Martha that Shackleton always wanted to be the first to reach the South Pole, the first to reach the other side of the Antarctic. When the Doctor talks about the fact that he is here to improve the food, Jimmy tells him that in a week they may have to eat the dogs! Wordie tells Shackleton that Clark is going to die. Morning brings no light. An expedition goes out to hunt the monster. The Doctor whispers to Martha he is very worried: everyone in the Endurance Expedition is supposed to survive. That fact made Shackleton a hero. Everyone lived. Martha asks him if that is the reason he is going along with the hunt: to get history back on track. They view penguins running from something. The monster comes up under the group, knocking one sled cart over. Martha finds a strange glowing shard and the Doctor touches it and glows and seems translucent to an alien ice creature that is humanoid shaped. It thinks they must study the Doctor further and orders the Mind Core to terminate the experiment. The beast blows up and samples are taken. With the storm worsening, they have to set up camp on an ice ridge, waiting for the snow to clear. The Doctor felt the minds of the aliens. They killed the creature. The Doctor opens a shard of the creature and finds a rubbery, blubbery bit inside. It was once a whale. In a nutshell, they changed it to something more ice-like. Clark is trying to fight off something the aliens want him to do and tries to leave. Frank Wild finds Clark trying to leave. When Wild points a gun at him, Clark spits an icy breath as him and gives him a bit of frostbite. Robert Clark leads the pursuing group, including the Doctor and Martha to a cave. In front of it, three of the aliens emerge from the ground. The middle one says, “The Skith receive you all with pleasssure!”
=== Part 1 ===
It is [[1915]] and a group of men are on a trip to cross [[Antarctica]]. As they joke, [[James Francis Hurley]] is taking photos. He thinks he has seen something on the screen. All of a sudden some ice tentacles lash out and attack [[Robert Clark]]. They grasp him and it swims away. Elsewhere [[The Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]] lands and the [[Tenth Doctor]] has taken [[Martha Jones|Martha]] to see the [[aurora australis]]. Martha says it looks amazing but the Doctor notices a hole in them, saying that something has come through. All of a sudden they find the are surrounded by the men on the trip. Martha notices Clark's hand has been frozen. They agree to take Martha and the Doctor to their ship, the ''[[Endurance (ship)|Endurance]]''. On their way there the Doctor tells Martha that Hurley is a world famous photographer.


The Skith fire ice knives into the hands of the men with guns. The Doctor tells Shackleton to stand down to save his men’s lives and Shackleton listens to him. On a flying upside-down top, the aliens bring them into an ice cave called Oppressor One. The Doctor jokes that their new home will need some nice curtains and get the central heating fixed…gets spruced up a bit. Martha mentions their spaceship looks grown like crystals in a dish. The Doctor explains it is rift technology, old science and that the ship made a hole. The possessed Clark explains the Mindcore which is the home of the aliens’ greatest minds, collects, advises, and monitors. The Doctor mentions “we” had something like this back home but then the aliens ask about his home he lies. He tells them Cheltenham. The aliens take Martha and the others for study and the Doctor threatens the aliens if the others and Martha are ever hurt. One alien puts a hand over the Doctor’s mouth for him to be quiet. Shackleton is quiet; James admits to Martha he’s scared as the humans are in a large cavern. Here, there is a giant octopus in a stone, ice tank, a squid in another, and a giant dinosaur like sea monster in a third. In the center is a giant sized half human, half pig trapped in ice. The Doctor wakes up upside-down with an ice cream headache from hell. In with him, is a fire being. It explain they are explorers, scientists, pursuers of truth. They experiment, cultivate specimens. When asked about himself, the Doctor lies again: son of a butcher and a baker, gluten intolerant, and a vegetarian. He says mealtimes were a nightmare. The fire like being starts to torture the Doctor to get the truth. In the larger cavern, the aliens explain to Martha how they were experimenting with a whale and introducing Skith DNA to it, when it escaped and made contact with Clark and the field morphing, started to change him as well. The alien tells Martha he likes her and her inquisitive mind. He explains they are of the four galaxies and collectors prime of the crystal sea. They are the first to see Earth. The giant pig monster man is a Byndalk and it breaks free. Skith One destroys it at the suggestion of the Mind Core. It was the last of its species and the aliens claim to feel bad about it. The Doctor’s mind shows the alien torturing him images: a Gelth (possibly something else) or a shadowy creature like a witch or ghost; a Daemon, three Daleks, Sutek, a robot mummy, and a Sontaran. Some of these are known to the alien torturing him and these some have been encountered by the Skith. The Doctor claims he’s a writer of fiction and a quiet, stay at home lad. As Martha is taken to a stone table to be studied, Shackleton reminds Clark of how he gave him hell in front of the whole crew and irritates Clark so Clark can fight back. As Clark moves to the control console before the aliens he punched down can regroup, the MindCore calls to him to finish changing. He uses a switch to terminate the aliens and they ice blast apart. The fire creature with the Doctor has the TARDIS, found and retrieved by the MindCore. They figure the Doctor is alien. The alien explains they prize knowledge above all else. That alone had value in an uncertain universe. Their race credo: if you are not the first, you are nothing. Their Ownworld can see Oppressor One and know the Doctor has beaten them to the “prize”. This means they have failed and the alien says, “And the Skith do not like to fail!” From its hands, it zaps the Doctor in an ice ray, firing at his head…
When they get to the ship they are interrogated by [[Ernest Shackleton]], who does not believe they're a liability and orders [[James Wordie]] to lock them in the hold. [[Frank Wild]] shows Ernest a piece of tentacle with a bit of blood on it. The Doctor explores the hold and finds a jar with a green oval-shaped egg inside. The Doctor says that he does not know what will happen to Clark. He says it is nothing good. Meanwhile Ernest and Frank go looking for Clark. Clark, now having two ice hands and glowing eyes, leaps at Ernest but is blocked off. The Doctor, Martha and James escape to find Clark climbing up to the mast. All of a sudden the monster comes back in full form and grabs James by the tentacle.


=== Part 2 ===
The crew open fire but the bullets won't stop the monster. Martha discovers that the creature is made of ice and the Doctor observes that there is a heart beating inside. The crew then proceed to go on and harpoon the monster hitting it in the eye. Ernest orders it it to leave and it does so.


Later, the Doctor and Dr Macklin are in one of the ''Endurance''{{'}}s bedrooms. The Doctor suspects that Mr Clark is carrying something in his bloodstream that is rewriting his DNA at a terrifying speed. This will make him inhuman. Ernest walks in and tells the Doctor that he does not want any rubbish poured into his men's heads. He threatens the Doctor that anymore funny business from him and Martha will "feed them to the dogs".


==Characters==
The crew as well as the Doctor and Martha head out, Clark with them but strapped up so that he can not get away. All of a sudden the ice sea monster jumps out on them and a tiny part of its tentacle falls off. The Doctor touches it and ends up communicating with the aliens behind this. He detects that the sea monster is about to explode and it does so, knocking everyone back. The crew pitch their tents. The Doctor and Martha discover that the monster that attacked them was once a whale but the aliens altered its DNA and turned it into ice. Clark is escaping but Frank follows him but gets frostbite when he exhales him with his breath. He runs into a tunnel and he gets Ernest to fetch the others. They enter the cave and find Clark running down. Suddenly three alien heads pop up from out the ground and rise to full form.
 
=== Part 3 ===
The crew open fire but the Skith shoot ice shards into their hands. They are brought down to their lair, including Martha and the Doctor. They witness the [[Mindcore]], a device which lets the Skith communicate. It is also the sum of all Skith knowledge. The Skith take the Doctor away to observe his mind. Martha and the crew are tied up. The Skith tell him he will come in a moment. The Doctor wakes up in a room hanging upside down with a red Skith. He soon finds out that is their [[Skith Leader|leader]]. He tells the Doctor that the Skith are scientists. All of a sudden in the chamber in which Martha and the crew are held a boar creature, called a [[Byndalk]], escapes. The Skith terminate him and say that he was the last of his kind. The Skith then decide to take Martha away for experimentation. Meanwhile the Doctor has his mind scanned and the Skith leader wonders what is going on.
 
Meanwhile Clark has had his body taken over by the Skith. He heads for the control panel and terminates some of the Skith. They begin to shatter. He gets Ernest, James and Martha free.
 
The Skith leader plans to take the TARDIS. He beams the Doctor with ice.
 
=== Part 4 ===
''to be added''
''to be added''


==References==
== Characters ==
''to be added''
* [[Tenth Doctor]]
* [[Martha Jones]]
* [[Ernest Shackleton]]
* [[James Francis Hurley]]
* [[Robert Clark]]
* [[James Wordie]]
* [[Frank Wild]]
* [[Skith Leader]]
* [[Alexander Macklin]]
* [[Skith One]]


==Notes==
== Worldbuilding ==
''to be added''
* When the Doctor is showing the Skith his memories, various monsters that he has fought appears to them. Included are [[Sontaran]]s, [[Osiran]]s, [[Servitor (Pyramids of Mars)|Robot Mummies]], [[Dalek]]s, [[Carrionite]] and a [[Dæmon]].
* Ernest Shackleton is immune to the [[psychic paper]].
* The Skith are responsible for the destruction of the [[Viskili]], the [[Byndalk]], and the [[Mammox]].
* When the Doctor joins the Skith-self, the Leader asks if he is a [[Daxamite]] or a [[Dominator]].
* Shackleton and his crew leave Antarctica for [[Paulet Island]].
* To hide his identity from the Skith, the Doctor claims to be from [[Cheltenham]], and then lies that his parents were a [[butcher]] and a [[baker]].


==Continuity==
== Notes ==
''to be added''
=== Original print details ===
: (Publication with page count and closing captions)
# [[DWM 386]] (10 pages) Next: "The Skith Receive You with Pleasure!"
# [[DWM 387]] (9 pages) Next: The Experiment Begins!
# [[DWM 388]] (9 pages) Next: The Dead of Winter!
# [[DWM 389]] (10 pages) The End.


==External Links==
== Continuity ==
''to be added''
* Martha wears an [[atmospheric density jacket]] to protect herself from the cold. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Web Planet (TV story)|The Web Planet]]'')
* The Doctors says he "makes a mean [[omelette]]". ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Lodger (comic story)|The Lodger]]'')
* The Doctor to only be "a bit alien", alluding to his [[eighth incarnation]]'s claim of being half-human. ([[TV]]: ''[[Doctor Who (TV story)|Doctor Who]]'')
* Martha reacts with worry to seeing the Doctor frozen, having previously had to freeze him to prevent the [[Torajii]] [[star]] burning him up internally. ([[TV]]: ''[[42 (TV story)|42]]'')


{{stub}}
{{Tenth Doctor DWM comics}}
{{cleanup}}
{{TitleSort}}


[[Category:Tenth Doctor stories]]
[[Category:Tenth Doctor DWM comic stories]]
[[Category:Tenth Doctor comic stories]]
[[Category:Stories set in Antarctica]]
[[Category:Stories set in 1915]]
[[Category:2007 comic stories]]
[[Category:Four part comics]]

Latest revision as of 20:37, 20 January 2024

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The First was a comic story published in Doctor Who Magazine. It was written by Dan McDaid.

Summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

A trip to the Antarctic Circle proves eventful for the Tenth Doctor and Martha as they find themselves battling to save the human race from the Skith.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Part 1[[edit] | [edit source]]

It is 1915 and a group of men are on a trip to cross Antarctica. As they joke, James Francis Hurley is taking photos. He thinks he has seen something on the screen. All of a sudden some ice tentacles lash out and attack Robert Clark. They grasp him and it swims away. Elsewhere the TARDIS lands and the Tenth Doctor has taken Martha to see the aurora australis. Martha says it looks amazing but the Doctor notices a hole in them, saying that something has come through. All of a sudden they find the are surrounded by the men on the trip. Martha notices Clark's hand has been frozen. They agree to take Martha and the Doctor to their ship, the Endurance. On their way there the Doctor tells Martha that Hurley is a world famous photographer.

When they get to the ship they are interrogated by Ernest Shackleton, who does not believe they're a liability and orders James Wordie to lock them in the hold. Frank Wild shows Ernest a piece of tentacle with a bit of blood on it. The Doctor explores the hold and finds a jar with a green oval-shaped egg inside. The Doctor says that he does not know what will happen to Clark. He says it is nothing good. Meanwhile Ernest and Frank go looking for Clark. Clark, now having two ice hands and glowing eyes, leaps at Ernest but is blocked off. The Doctor, Martha and James escape to find Clark climbing up to the mast. All of a sudden the monster comes back in full form and grabs James by the tentacle.

Part 2[[edit] | [edit source]]

The crew open fire but the bullets won't stop the monster. Martha discovers that the creature is made of ice and the Doctor observes that there is a heart beating inside. The crew then proceed to go on and harpoon the monster hitting it in the eye. Ernest orders it it to leave and it does so.

Later, the Doctor and Dr Macklin are in one of the Endurance's bedrooms. The Doctor suspects that Mr Clark is carrying something in his bloodstream that is rewriting his DNA at a terrifying speed. This will make him inhuman. Ernest walks in and tells the Doctor that he does not want any rubbish poured into his men's heads. He threatens the Doctor that anymore funny business from him and Martha will "feed them to the dogs".

The crew as well as the Doctor and Martha head out, Clark with them but strapped up so that he can not get away. All of a sudden the ice sea monster jumps out on them and a tiny part of its tentacle falls off. The Doctor touches it and ends up communicating with the aliens behind this. He detects that the sea monster is about to explode and it does so, knocking everyone back. The crew pitch their tents. The Doctor and Martha discover that the monster that attacked them was once a whale but the aliens altered its DNA and turned it into ice. Clark is escaping but Frank follows him but gets frostbite when he exhales him with his breath. He runs into a tunnel and he gets Ernest to fetch the others. They enter the cave and find Clark running down. Suddenly three alien heads pop up from out the ground and rise to full form.

Part 3[[edit] | [edit source]]

The crew open fire but the Skith shoot ice shards into their hands. They are brought down to their lair, including Martha and the Doctor. They witness the Mindcore, a device which lets the Skith communicate. It is also the sum of all Skith knowledge. The Skith take the Doctor away to observe his mind. Martha and the crew are tied up. The Skith tell him he will come in a moment. The Doctor wakes up in a room hanging upside down with a red Skith. He soon finds out that is their leader. He tells the Doctor that the Skith are scientists. All of a sudden in the chamber in which Martha and the crew are held a boar creature, called a Byndalk, escapes. The Skith terminate him and say that he was the last of his kind. The Skith then decide to take Martha away for experimentation. Meanwhile the Doctor has his mind scanned and the Skith leader wonders what is going on.

Meanwhile Clark has had his body taken over by the Skith. He heads for the control panel and terminates some of the Skith. They begin to shatter. He gets Ernest, James and Martha free.

The Skith leader plans to take the TARDIS. He beams the Doctor with ice.

Part 4[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

Original print details[[edit] | [edit source]]

(Publication with page count and closing captions)
  1. DWM 386 (10 pages) Next: "The Skith Receive You with Pleasure!"
  2. DWM 387 (9 pages) Next: The Experiment Begins!
  3. DWM 388 (9 pages) Next: The Dead of Winter!
  4. DWM 389 (10 pages) The End.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]