Head Start (comic story)

Head Start
Doctor:	[[doctor::Tenth Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Martha Jones
Main enemy:	Zaan
Main setting:	Brendock Seven
Key crew
Publisher:	[[publisher::GE Fabbri Ltd]]
Editor:	Ben Robinson
Writer:	Steve Cole
Artist:	Lee Sullivan
Colourist:	Alan Craddock
Release details
Release number:	22
Format:	Comic - 1 parts (4 pages)

Opening Tag

When the Doctor and Martha pick up a distress signal they rush to help …

Summary

Responding to a distress call from Professor Dinsdale of the Interplanetary Archaeological Institute on Brendock Seven with an emergency materialisation, the TARDIS lands at the site of a dig beneath a circle of huge stone heads buried in the ground. They soon find the Professor who explains that the rest of his team were killed trying to open a door to an ancient buriel ground they discovered at the base of one of the heads. The Doctor manages to bypass the doors sonic disruptor and inside find The Vortex Cannon, a weapon so powerful it could destroy the universe. A dangerous weapon from an ancient and long dead civilisation that the Doctor had only heard of. Fortunately the rare treed crystals used to power the cannon have decayed. Unfortunately the Professor is a shape changing Zaan Warrior, using the guise of the archaeologists to lure help in order to open the chamber. The Zaan are close to obtaining a new supply of treed and the Zaan Warrior makes his escape with the Canon back to his shipwhere his Commander has been watching events. By leaving the chamber and taking the canon with him he activates the guardians of the canon, giant stone like creatures whose heads had been visable when they landed. The guardians emerge from the ground and are quick enough to snatch the Zaan craft from the air as it takes off. Leaving his officers to die the Zaan Commander makes his escape in a pod. Knowing that treed crystals can only be found on the planet Garvrath the Doctor and Martha make their escape in the TARDIS in order to stop the Zaan powering up the Vortex Canon.

Characters

• Tenth Doctor
• Martha Jones
• Zaan – Spiky-backed, green, bulky-but-agile, humanoid creatures with razor sharp teeth and capable of shape changing.

Original Print Details (Publication with page count and closing captions)

1. Doctor Who Battles in Time Issue 22 (4 pages) TO BE CONTINUED!!!

Reprints

• None to date

Notes

• Supporting the series of collectable Doctor Who trading cards, the magazine title, carried a regular 4 page comic strip series of the Tenth Doctor’s adventures.
• Many of the individually titled comic strip adventures were themed over several issues, but were relatively self contained ‘episodes’.
• The limitation of only 4 pages meant that stories often lacked some depth in comparrison to other regular comic strips running at the same time.
• Style wise, the artwork and colours were bold and bright reflecting the tone of the magazine and, as with Doctor Who Adventures (Magazine), it reflected the appeal to younger readers than that catered for by Doctor Who Magazine.
• The stone guardians of the vortex cannon are seemingly inspired by the statues on Easter Island.
• The skeletal remains of the Professors team at the entrance would suggest that a dig did indeed find the entrance while the Zaan watched and waited or, were lured to the site by the Zaan. Either way the Professor appears to have been a real person and the shape changing nature of the Zaan is unspecified.

References

to be added

Continuity

to be added

External Links

• The official magazine website with magazine and trading card details, including news of the latest available issue.