A Suitable Showdown (comic story)

{{Infobox Story name=A Suitable Showdown | |image= Dd2.jpg |series=DWBIT comic stories |number=41 |doctor= Tenth Doctor |companions= |enemy= Skalesh |year=Delossa | |writer= Steve Cole |artist= Lee Sullivan | |colourist= Alan Craddock |letterer= |editor= Claire Lister |publication= Doctor Who: Battles in Time (magazine) |release date= 2 April 2008 |publisher= GE Fabbri Ltd |format= Comic - Part 4 of 4 (4 pages) |prev= Designs of the Dust (comic story) |next= The Creative Spark (comic story) |}}

Opening narration box

An exiled alien menace has taken over the Doctor’s suit …

Summary

Having armed himself with a battleship, a fleet and an army of robo-assassins, Skalesh is preparing his revenge on the people of Delossa who turned him to dust and imprisoned him alone for ten centuries. The Doctor lands the TARDIS aboard Skalesh’s ship and uses his sonic screwdriver to set off a frequency, a resonating chain reaction that shatters the robo-assassins. He mocks Skalesh, telling him that he can not take revenge on his people on Delossa.

Skalesh is defiant and with the Doctor, heads down to the planet in a shuttle to lead his advance party of robo-assassins in their conquest. Skalesh refuses the Doctor’s last chance to make peace and show he can be a force for good. On arrival, Skalesh finds his army has been disabled and the planet is now home to the Madrojar.

The Doctor explains that without Skalesh’s control his people accelerated their evolution. They have become happy gas-creatures and floated away, leaving the planet behind some four hundred years ago. Skalesh is distraught but the Madrojar are ready and waiting (having been warned by the Doctor of Skalesh's arrival). They trap Skalesh and punish him with eternal imprisonment for the crime of an attempted invasion of their planet.

Skalesh is sucked from the Doctor’s suit to resume his imprisonment while the Doctor leaves with the blue suit that he loves in the shuttle car en route to his tailor on Kolpasha!

Characters

• Tenth Doctor
• Skalesh – Former dictator of the planet Delossa. He was deposed and disassembled by his own people into a raw energy that was imprisoned for eternity. Having been disturbed by the Doctor and unwittingly freed, Skalesh hitched a ride on the Doctor. Feeding off of kinetic energy Skalesh adopted the Doctor’s clothing creating a new body for himself. His people had long left his home world when he returned to exact his revenge. He was found guilty of a planned invasion of Delossa (now the Madrojar’s home planet) and sentenced to eternal imprisonment.
• Delossans – Freed from the dictatorship imposed by Skalesh, following his capture and imprisonment, they found a way to accelerate their evolution to become happy gas-creatures who left their planet to travel.
• Madrojar – Squat yellow blob-like creatures with red eye. They arrived on Delossa after the Delossans had left.

Original print details

• 4/4 DWBIT 41 (4 pages) THE END
• No reprints to date.

Notes

• Supporting the series of collectable Doctor Who trading cards, the magazine carried a regular four page, individually titled comic strip of the Tenth Doctor’s adventures.
• The artwork and colours were bold and bright, reflecting the tone of the magazine and, as did Doctor Who Adventures, reflected the appeal to readers younger than those catered to by Doctor Who Magazine.
• The Tenth Doctor’s regular costume featured designs in both blue and brown. This story uses this point to advantage.

References

• The Battles in Time comic strip sought to reinforce the association of its Doctor with the one seen on screen with ‘props’ from the TV series:blue/brown suit, sonic screwdriver, psychic paper and intelligent glasses.

Continuity

to be added

External links