The Spoilers (comic story)

Doctor Which?

This story debuted with either the Second or Third Doctor, then was reprinted with the Fourth Doctor. It may have had different companions in the reprint, as well. From an in-universe point of view, it's unclear which Doctor lived through these events.

The Spoilers
Doctor:	Third Doctor
Main setting:	Farraf
Key crew
Publisher:	Polystyle
Writer:	Dick O'Neill
Artist:	Gerry Haylock
Release details
Printed in:	TV Action 123
Release date:	23 June 1973
Reprinted in:	DWCC 27
Format:	Comic - 1 part (7 pages)
Printed in:	Doctor Who Winter Special 1977
Release date:	1977
TVA comic stories
← Previous	The Labyrinth
Next →	The Vortex

The Spoilers was a Third Doctor TV Action comic strip story. Consistent with themes seen in the television series at the time, it had an ecological theme. The titular "spoilers" were those people who had ruined a planetary environment — not, as commonly understood in the 21st century, advanced knowledge of a future story.

It was reprinted as a Fourth Doctor comic strip story in the 1977 Doctor Who Winter Special.

Summary

The Doctor finds himself caught in the middle of a conflict between the warlike Fars and the peaceful Rafs. Will he stop this war?

Characters

• Third Doctor
• Soton
• Venin

References

to be added

Notes

• This was the last story in a run of Doctor Who. In the next issue, #124, the Doctor Who strip took a rest. However, that next issue is of vital interest to Doctor Who fans, because its letters column is the first public appearance of the name "Gallifrey". Barry Letts fielded a question there about the home planet of the Master which led him to let slip a spoiler — some six months before television viewers would first hear the name in The Time Warrior. Thus, this story ironically preceded a spoiler given away for free by the show's producer.
• The peaceful Rafs live a lifestyle akin to that of ancient Greece.

Continuity

to be added

External links

• The Spoilers at the Doctor Who Reference Guide