The Crossroads of Time (comic story)

The Crossroads of Time
Doctor:	Seventh Doctor
Main enemy:	Death's Head
Key crew
Publisher:	Marvel Comics
Editor:	Richard Starkings
Writer:	Simon Furman
Artist:	Geoff Senior
Letterer:	Zed
Release details
Printed in:	Doctor Who Magazine 135
Release date:	10 March 1988
Cover date:	April 1988
Reprinted in:	TIDH 1, A Cold Day in Hell!
Format:	Comic - 1 part (8 pages)
DWM comic stories
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Next →	Claws of the Klathi!
Stories reprinted in The Incomplete Death's Head
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Next →	Watch Out – Dragon's Claws Here's Death's Head!

The Crossroads of Time was a Seventh Doctor comic published in Doctor Who Magazine.

Summary

Death's Head, who was sent flying through the Vortex, collides with the TARDIS. The TARDIS and Death's Head both land on an uninhabited moon. The Doctor gets out of the TARDIS and notes that, since he collided with something (Death's Head) in the Vortex, a Time Warden should appear. Sure enough, one does appear, and begins questioning the Doctor. Death's Head recovers, now standing at his full 30 feet height. The Time Warden gets skittish and leaves, telling the Doctor to deal with it on his own. Death's Head picks up the Doctor in his hand. After some quick negotiating, the Doctor is able to escape Death's Head's grasp and retrieves The Master's Tissue Compression Eliminator, which the Doctor confiscated inside his TARDIS. He boasts Death's Head with it. Death's Head does not shrink down to microscopic size like the Doctor planned, but rather shrinks down to the same size as the Doctor. He then attempts to kill the Doctor, who ducks under a swing from Death's Head's mace, and begins running just as the Time Warden reappeared. The Time Warden is again scared off by Death's Head, who is now pursuing the Doctor deeper into the moon. The Doctor realises that he cannot combat Death's Head, and offers the TARDIS to Death's Head in exchange for keeping his life. Death's Head agrees, and enters the TARDIS with the Doctor. The Doctor distracts Death's Head long enough to get to the controls and operate the teleporter. He succeeds, and Death's Head is teleported to the 81st century, just as the Time Warden reappears.

Plot

to be added

Characters

• Seventh Doctor
• Death's Head
• A time warden

Advertisement of the story in Transformers UK #154.

References

• The Doctor uses the Master's Tissue Compression Eliminator on Death's Head, reducing him to human size.

Notes

• Among the items the Doctor uses to bargain with Death's Head are jelly babies, a common feature during the Fourth Doctor's era.
• This story was written to enable Death's Head to be removed from Transformers UK continuity, shrunk and dropped into Marvel UK's own Dragon's Claws title at human size.
• The crossover nature of the story prompted advertisements in other Marvel UK titles, including the "TransFormation" segment in Transformers UK #154

Reprints

• The Marvel Bumper Comic Holiday Special 1988
• The Incomplete Death's Head 1, colourised
• A Cold Day in Hell

Continuity

to be added