Tesseract (comic story)

Tesseract
Doctor:	[[doctor::Tenth Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Matthew Finnegan Emily Winter
Main enemy:	Acari, Tef'Aree, unnamed woman
Main setting:	the Doctor's TARDIS, unnamed Acari vessel, Fifth Dimensional Space
Key crew
Publisher:	[[publisher::IDW Publishing]]
Writer:	Tony Lee
Artist:	Al Davison
Colourist:	Lovern Kindzierski
Release details
Release number:	3
Format:	Comic book - two issues

Tesseract is the third story arc in the Doctor Who Ongoing series. It is divided into two chapters: Time Smash and a second chapter (title yet to be revealed).

Summary

While the Doctor gives his new companions, Emily Winter and Matthew Finnegan, a tour of the TARDIS, the vessel is invaded by a number of dimension-hopping aliens.

Characters

• The Doctor
• Matthew Finnegan
• Emily Winter
• Acari soldiers
• Unnamed (as yet) female leader
• Tef'Aree
• Martha Jones (cameo)

References

• The Shadow Proclamation is mentioned.
• The Doctor is shown wearing (at the same time) elements of the Sixth and Fifth Doctor's outfits, as well as the Fourth Doctor's scarf (which is used to save his life later), the Seventh Doctor's hat and the Eighth Doctor's cravat.
• Adric is mentioned several times, including a reference to his death, which is recalled in detail. (DW: Earthshock)
• Donna Noble is mentioned.
• The events of IDW: Silver Scream are referenced.
• The Doctor refuses to allow Emily to take possession of Jack Harkness' sonic blaster as he says it is reserved for "someone else" (River Song; DW: Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead).
• The Cloister Bell sounds.
• The Doctor refers to an alarm clock as "Mickey" - a reference to Mickey Mouse.
• Emily arms herself with the Fifth Doctor's cricket bat.
• The Doctor's wind-up mouse (DW: The Doctor's Daughter) is used and is mistaken for K-9 by the Acari.
• Vislor Turlough is mentioned.
• Martha Jones and UNIT appear at the end of Part 2.
• When the Doctor answers his superphone he initially wonders if Lady Christina might be phoning him.
• The Doctor finds himself in the TARDIS bathroom/pool area seen in DW: The Invasion of Time; he remarks that he thought the area had been jettisoned (as per DW: The Keeper of Traken, et al).

Notes

• The story takes place almost entirely within the bowels of the TARDIS. Only a handful of stories have explored the interior of the TARDIS, including DW: The Invasion of Time, DW: Castrovalva, and DWM: Changes. Invasion of Time is referenced in Part 2 when the Doctor revisits the swimming pool area last seen in that story.

Cover Gallery

• 

  Doctor Who Ongoing
  Issue 7 (Cover A)

• 

  Doctor Who Ongoing
  Issue 7 (Cover B)

• 

  Doctor Who Ongoing
  Issue 8 (Cover A)

• 

  Doctor Who Ongoing
  Issue 8 (Cover B)

Continuity

The TARDIS

• The Doctor describes the TARDIS as "a box of cubes" with each cube shuffling around if the box is shaken.
• There are apparently many console rooms in the TARDIS. (Possibly contradicting the "desktop theme" comment in DW: Time Crash, or perhaps a simple reference to there being auxiliary control rooms such as the one introduced in DW: The Masque of Mandragora.)
• Some aspects of the interior remain as it looked in the classic series, including white rooms with roundels, a garden (DW: Logopolis), industrial-looking corridors (DW: The Invasion of Time), and a cathedral-like room (DW: Doctor Who TV movie). Of this last, the Doctor acknowledges that he hasn't been in that room for awhile.
• In addition, Adric's room still exists within the TARDIS.

Other

• Martha has recently married and is still with UNIT. Whether this marriage is to Tom Milligan or to Mickey Smith is left unstated (though as the comic was written before the broadcast of DW: The End of Time, Part Two it likely refers to the marriage with Milligan as her marriage to Mickey hadn't yet been revealed. Marta never did get married to Tom Milligan she got married to Mickey

Timeline

• Tesseract occurs soon after: IDW: Fugitive (possibly immediately after as Emily changes out of her 1920s dress in part 1), and at some point after the events of DW: Planet of the Dead as the Doctor references Lady Christina.
• The reference to Jack's sonic blaster and the veiled reference to River Song indicates that the Doctor hasn't yet met her (at the time this story was published it was unknown when the Doctor first met River (from River's perspective).

External Links

to be added