Four Doctors (comic story)

Four Doctors
Doctor:	Twelfth Doctor
Companion(s):	Clara
Featuring:	War Doctor, Ninth Doctor, Tenth Doctor, Eleventh Doctor, Gabby, Alice, Rose
Main enemy:	Reapers, Voord Collective, and Alternate Twelfth Doctor
Main setting:	Paris, 1923 Marinus, A10%?
Key crew
Publisher:	Titan Comics
Editor:	Andrew James
Writer:	Paul Cornell
Designer:	Rob Farmer
Artist:	Neil Edwards
Colourist:	Ivan Nunes
Letterer:	Richard Starkings, Jimmy Betancourt
Release details
Printed in:	FD 1 - FD 5
Release date:	19 August - 23 September 2015
Cover date:	September 2015
Reprinted in:	[[reprint::Doctor Who Comic #2.1-2.3|'Doctor Who Comic #2.1-2.3]]
Traded in:	Four Doctors
Format:	Comic
Official trailer
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You may be looking for The Four Doctors (audio story).

Four Doctors was a miniseries published by Titan Comics. It served as a three-way crossover between Titan's ongoing series Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor and Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor, uniting the three Doctors and their companions, as well as marking the Titan Comics début of the War Doctor. It also featured a cameo by the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler. It's also the first time that an incarnation from the Doctor's second regeneration cycle met two incarnations from his original cycle.

Plot summary

Part one

The War Doctor on Marinus.

On the planet, Marinus, in the year A10%?, of the Last Great Time War, the War Doctor, along with a group of Voord watch as a Dalek saucer crashes into the ground. The Doctor had forced the Daleks to go through advanced evolution, reducing them all to dust. The Voord leader collapses to the ground, as his paradox shield fails. Before he dies, his armor transforms into a liquid that engulfs one of the human servants, Moktek, joining him to the Voord group mind and making him the new leader. The leader remarks on how that aspect of their species has remained the same, while so much else has changed. The Doctor agrees, noting how Marinus is now an acid desert world, very different from the lush world it had once been.

The Doctor and the Voord leader head into the remains of the Dalek saucer, with the Doctor telling the leader about the weapon that the Daleks intended to use against the Voord. The weapon would've erased the Voord from existence, meaning the Daleks take the Voord's resistance seriously. The leader asks him if the Time Lords also do so. He mentions how the Time War has changed the Voord for the better, and wants to know if the Time Lords will revert everything back to how it was, when they win the Time War. The Doctor avoids answering, bringing up how tense relations are between him and the High Council. He also mentions that he doesn't make grand promises about anything, unlike his former selves. But, he does agree to act as an intermediary and to try to convince the High Council, but that's all he can do. Even with that, the Voord leader is still worried about the future.

Years later, in the TARDIS, Clara Oswald asks the Twelfth Doctor about the planet Marinus, to which he claims to have never heard of. He asks her why she asked him about it, but she lies and claims she heard the word in a dream. Later, when the Doctor is asleep, Clara enters the control room and uses the telepathic circuits to direct the TARDIS to land in Paris, 1923. As she steps outside, she thanks the TARDIS for bringing her here. She pulls out a photograph and looks at it, the picture showing the Twelfth, Eleventh, and Tenth Doctors on it. Clara remarks on how she must prevent this event from happening, for the sake of everything.

Across town, the Tenth Doctor and Gabby Gonzalez have just dealt with some Cybermen, who were trying to raid the French Gold Reserves. The two arrive at a cafe and the Doctor decides that they should have some crepes from there. He tells Gabby to go inside and order the crepes, while he disposes of the Cyberman head he is carrying. Gabby walks into the cafe and is seated at a table. She doesn't notice Clara sitting at the table next to hers.

At this time, the Eleventh Doctor and Alice Obiefune walk up to the cafe, having just stopped some radiation monsters who were coming out of the Seine. The Doctor notices that these streets look familiar and he remembers the cafe being great. So, he tells Alice to go in and order a coffee, while he goes and gets some comics.

Before Alice can be shown to her table, Clara gets up and introduces herself to Alice and Gabby. She tells them that while none of them know each other, they all know the Doctor, and she has five minutes to convince them of something, or the universe will be destroyed. The three sit at Gabby's table. Alice is a bit skeptical, so she asks Gabby what the name of the box is, to which she replies with the TARDIS. Alice then starts to ask Clara a question, but Clara cuts her off with the correct answer of sonic screwdriver.

Gabby and Alice are now fully convinced, so Clara shows them the photo of the three Doctors. Gabby and Alice start remarking on the appearances of the three Doctors, but Clara stops them. She tells them that the Tenth Doctor will return to the cafe in five minutes. He will decide that he doesn't want a crepe and the two will go elsewhere. Alice won't witness this as she'll be in the bathroom. After that, the Eleventh Doctor will return, just missing his former self. He and Alice will remain in the cafe and have the coffee. Clara tells them that these events are meant to happen because this is a fixed point in time. Thanks to the timespace info on the photo, plus her knowledge of the Doctor's past, Clara knows that Gabby and Alice were the companions of the other two Doctors at the time the photo was taken. Clara chose to come to the cafe at this time, because she knows it was the only time she could meet up with both Gabby and Alice without any repercussions. The two understand that the situation must be serious and tell her to tell her story.

The Twelfth Doctor and Clara had been visiting a nameless jungle planet. The Doctor was complaining about how the planet was nothing but jungle and ruins and proclaimed he would stand where he was, until that changed. Clara merely walked off, ignoring the Doctor's attitude. She stumbled upon the Museum of Terrible Fates, located inside a time shelter, which protected the contents from decay. The museum's computer tells her that the race that built it spent centuries scanning the timelines for turning points that would cause the end of the universe. Clara decided to look up the Doctor, knowing how he tends to be involved in situations that stop events that would cause the end. To her horror, she discovered an event with the Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Doctors together on the planet Marinus. The computer told her that this event was a fatal turning point that must never happen, as all subsequent timelines of this event lead to the end of all things.

Gabby asks Clara if she told her Doctor about this, but Clara simply asks both her and Alice what their Doctors would do if told. All three know their Doctors would go to Marinus. Clara then reveals that the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors will eventually meet, as she was there for that event. She recalls that the Tenth Doctor didn't initially recognise the Eleventh Doctor, meaning the two never met prior to that incident. She also points out that neither of them could imagine the Twelfth Doctor existing, which is how she knows the picture shouldn't exist. She tells the other two, that when they all leave the cafe, all three of them must make sure their Doctors never go to Marinus.

To Clara's horror, both the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors come storming in, proclaiming that what Clara has told them is impossible. The Eleventh Doctor notices his former self, and as he doesn't remember this meeting, realises that this is bad for the universe. The Tenth Doctor is skeptical of the Eleventh Doctor's identity, having recently met an imposter. Using his sonic screwdriver, he confirms that the Eleventh Doctor is his next incarnation. Both then remark that the person they met outside is another story.

That person walks in, revealing himself to be the Twelfth Doctor. He tells his former selves to shut up and then turns his attention to Clara, revealing to her that he figured out what she was up to. He tried to talk sense into the other two Doctors, but they wouldn't listen. So, they're going to have a Multi-Doctor Event, whether they like it or not.

The Tenth Doctor has accepted that the Eleventh Doctor is his next and final incarnation, but doesn't accept that the Twelfth Doctor is a future incarnation, as it's not possible for him to exist. The Eleventh Doctor points out that they don't know what's going on here. Clara intervenes, telling the three Doctors to stop this and walk away. She knows this meeting didn't happen. Even though time can be rewritten, this moment is a fixed point in time. The Tenth and Twelfth Doctors keep arguing, with Gabby trying to convince the Tenth Doctor to leave, as she believes Clara is telling the truth. The Tenth Doctor refuses, proclaiming the Twelfth Doctor to be an abomination, a word the Daleks tend to use, as the Twelfth Doctor points out.

The Blinovitch Limitation Effect occurs.

The Twelfth Doctor turns his attention to Gabby and Alice, asking the two to tell their Doctors to listen to him. Clara has given up by this point, knowing she can't stop this now. The Eleventh Doctor tries to be the peacemaker between his other two selves, but the Twelfth Doctor provokes the Tenth Doctor again. In the ensuing argument, the two Doctors touch, causing a spark to shoot between them. The Eleventh Doctor confirms this to be the Blinovitch Limitation Effect, which proves the Twelfth Doctor's identity. A look of dread is on his face at this revelation. As he and the other two Doctors point out, they have just caused a paradox at a fixed point in time, which means only one thing. The six look up to see Reapers appear above them.

Characters

• Twelfth Doctor
• Eleventh Doctor
• Tenth Doctor
• War Doctor
• Clara Oswald
• Alice Obiefune
• Gabby Gonzalez
• Moktek
• Siatak
• Reapers

References

• By the year A10%?, the conflicts of the Last Great Time War had affected Marinus.
• The War Doctor protects Marinus' airspace from a Dalek flying saucer using a chronic tripwire.
• The Voord are pleased that the Time War happened, as they believe it has turned them into a better species. Their armour contains Paradox Shields.
• The Tenth Doctor claims to have had lunch with Joan of Arc.
• Clara Oswald mentions the comic-book Asterix the Gaul.
• Cybermen tried to raid the French gold reserves.
• The Eleventh Doctor has shown Alice his previous incarnations in his Monster Book.
• To concur with Clara Oswald's words about the Fixed point in time, the Tenth Doctor says "one point to the girl from Gryffindor" - a reference to Harry Potter. The Twelfth Doctor proudly proclaims that Clara is a Slytherin, which he says is a complement.

Notes

• The main setting, plot, and villains within Four Doctors appear to be a call-back to Doctor Who and the Daleks, one of the first non-TV pieces of Doctor Who media. Both feature parts of their stories set on Marinus and Earth, and both feature the Daleks and Voord as villains while illustrating the two in a struggle.
• All three issues feature unique narration from each of the different characters.
  • Issue one takes the story mainly from Clara Oswald's point-of-view, with her internal monologues and no one else's.
  • Issue two features the journal scribblings and thoughts of Gabby Gonzalez.
  • Issue three featured Alice Obiefune's internal comments during the story.
  • Issue four featured Gabby's internal comments during the story.
• The comic was printed with back-up stories.
  • Issue 1 included The Doctor Shops for Comics.
  • Issue 2 included Open Mic Night.
  • Issue 3 included The Meeting.
  • Issue 4 included The Doctors Do... Classic Comedy.
  • Issue 5 included The Doctor Shops for Angels, completing the loop to the first back-up strip.
• After its 5-issue print run, the story was reprinted in Titan's Doctor Who Comic magazine. Its launch saw a restart of that magazine's numbering scheme.

Continuity

• The Doctor previously encountered the Voord on Marinus during his first incarnation. (TV: The Keys of Marinus)
• A conflict between the Daleks and the Voord had previously been illustrated in PROSE: Doctor Who and the Daleks, the first piece on non-televised storytelling to feature the Doctor.
• Clara uses the TARDIS telepathic circuits to pilot the ship while the Doctor is asleep. (TV: Listen) This time, however, she is able to pilot the TARDIS with pinpoint precision. She also speaks kindly to the TARDIS afterwards. (HOMEVID: Clara and the TARDIS)
• The Eleventh Doctor drops Alice Obiefune at the Cafe as he heads off to get "bande dessinée": Franco-Belgian comics. This leads up to COMIC: The Doctor Shops for Comics.
• Clara knows that the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors meet at another point in their lives, which she was also present for. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
• The Tenth Doctor states that he recently met a Doctor imposter. (TV: The Next Doctor)
• The Tenth Doctor is untrusting of the Twelfth Doctor, believing him to be "impossible" due to the Doctor's knowledge that he has used all but one of his regenerations. (TV: Journey's End, The Time of the Doctor)
• The Doctor calls the events that they are living through "an abomination," which the Twelfth Doctor claims is a "Dalek word." (PROSE: Remembrance of the Daleks, TV: The Parting of the Ways, The Stolen Earth, COMIC: The Only Good Dalek)
• The Twelfth Doctor refers to the Tenth Doctor's oft used mantra "I'm so sorry." (TV: Doomsday, et. al)
• The Tenth and Twelfth Doctors accidentally set off the Blinovitch Limitation Effect in their argument. (TV: Mawdryn Undead et al.) Turlough had speculated that different incarnations of the Doctor couldn't trigger the Effect, since it was not observed during an encounter between four different Doctors. (TV: The Five Doctors) This causes Reapers to appear. (TV: Father's Day)
• The Eleventh Doctor has not met Clara before, nor does he recognise her as her Victorian London splinter, as his travels with Alice predate the events of TV: The Snowmen.
• The Twelfth Doctor says "whether you like it or not", mirroring a statement made by the Sixth not long after his regeneration. (TV: The Twin Dilemma)