Transformers (franchise)
- You may be looking for the in-universe robots.
Transformers is a multimedia franchise which began with a range of toys, but later expanded into many other forms of media, including films, television series, and comic books.
These comic books included a Marvel UK series, which went on to have hundreds of issues. Issues #113 - #114 printed the comic story Wanted: Galvatron — Dead or Alive!, which marked the first appearance by the "Freelance Peacekeeping Agent" known as Death's Head.
Crossovers
The character of Death's Head would go on to become a highly-recurring part of the Marvel Multiverse when Death's Head fell through the time vortex in The Legacy of Unicron!, leading him to encounter the Seventh Doctor in the comic story The Crossroads of Time, with several further crossovers later occurring between Death's Head and the DWU.
Due to legal issues, when Death's Head's backstory was explored in The Incomplete Death's Head [+]Loading...["The Incomplete Death's Head (comic story)"], events were kept quite vague so as to avoid copyright infringement. This was explained as the archive having "poor image quality", with the image of Cyclonus even being somewhat miscoloured.
The events of The Incomplete Death's Head suggest that the Doctor himself was the one responsible for sending Death's Head into the so-called "robot universe" in the first place, sandwiching his Transformers adventures between ones featuring the Doctor.
Along with all this, an officially licensed one-page comic, Meet Death's Head [+]Loading...["Meet Death's Head (comic story)"], served to bring the reader up to speed on Death's Head's history, including references to several elements of the Transformers and Doctor Who series.
References to Transformers in the DWU
In the Faction Paradox novel Against Nature, Gedarra told Primo de la Vega that Yaotl was a member of Faction Paradox, leading him to remark that that information meant as little as if she was a member of the Transformers, robots in disguise.
At the end of The Crimson Horror, Clara Oswald briefly plays with an original Galvatron toy.
In Supremacy of the Cybermen, Cindy Wu misnames the CyberKings as "Cyber-Trons", referencing the Transformers' home planet.
References to the DWU in Transformers
In the comic To a Power Unknown!, Starscream flies over the English countryside, picking up transmissions involving, among other things, the Doctor and the Daleks.
The Decepticon leader Octus is perhaps one of the most subtle crossovers between the franchises. The character originates in the comic The Fall and Rise of the Decepticon Empire. This comic was illustrated by known Who artist Lee Sullivan, who chose to depict the character as having the alt mode of a Dalek casing. The character was never seen to transform but clearly had Dalek details even in robot mode. Since then, Octus has become a popular cameo character in other Transformers comics.
Skaro is mentioned in the reference book The AllSpark Almanac II as an unclaimed/neutral planet in the Milky Way that was destroyed. According to the book, Swindle noted the destruction as a shame, since he needed a Mark III Travel Machine.
In one installment of the Ask Vector Prime series, Vector Prime theorises that the Doctor hails from the Omniverse and occasionally visits the Transformers multiverse. Another instalment, titled Renegade Rhetoric, claims that Re-Volt once dressed as the Doctor while attending a sci-fi convention.
In the film Bumblebee, two posters of the Fourth Doctor appear in Memo's room.
In the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic/Transformers crossover miniseries Friendship in Disguise, the highly-recurring MLP background character of Doctor Hooves, a homage character to the Doctor (primarily in their tenth and fourth incarnations) made an appearance in the comic story They Eat Ponies, Don't They?.
In Tornado - Decepticon Saboteur, a warp star is an important plot device. Though Tornado makes clear it is not of Verron origin, his description of a Verron warp star echoes how Jack Harkness and Sarah Jane Smith described it in Journey's End. Tornado also mentions "a skirmish" on the planet Trenzalore where a combatant's name was revealed to be "Please", referencing a fandom joke following The Name of the Doctor where the Doctor's true name was thought to be "Please".
Overlord was inspired by the Saxon Master, quoting the Master's "Please attend carefully" line from Logopolis and The Sound of Drums. The writer, Roberts James Roberts, a fan of Russell T Davies' original run on Doctor Who, envisioned him sounding like John Simm.
In The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye, Skids' holomatter avatar is based off the Eleventh Doctor, in issue #13, and off the Ninth Doctor in issue #43. In the final entry of Ask Vector Prime, Vector Prime's own avatar is based off the Third Doctor.
Starscream picks up a transmission regarding a "Doctor" from the Daleks. (To a Power Unknown!)
The Decepticon leader Octus, who was designed by Lee Sullivan and was heavily implied to have a Dalek casing as his alt-mode. (The Fall and Rise of the Decepticon Empire)
Two posters of the Fourth Doctor. (Bumblebee)
Skids' holomatter avatar (left), greatly resembling the Eleventh Doctor. (Cybertronian Homesick Blues)
Production connections
- During its tenure as the licence holder for Doctor Who comics, IDW Publishing also held the rights to Transformers comics.
- Simon Furman, Dan Abnett and Steve Parkhouse have penned comics for both Doctor Who and Transformers.
- AKOM worked on animation production for some of The Transformers.
External links
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