Green Fingers (comic story)
Summary
Part One
Expecting to find himself at Baz’s Easy Diner on the eastern desert of Agrellian Thaxis, the Tenth Doctor finds himself instead arriving inside a biodome in space where modified (and carnivorous) plants have an increased growth dependent on light - even the light from the sonic screwdriver, as the Doctor discovered on arrival. Passing himself off as an inspector by using his psychic paper, the Doctor meets the civil research team of Professor Flynt who is at odds with her colleague Professor Brask who believes the plant research experiments could be more profitable with a military aim than for food crops. While Flynt is distracted by the Doctor’s arrival, Brask breaks into the seed store. Fighting off a robot guard, he secures his escape in an escape pod to board a waiting Weapontek Battlecruiser. With Brask having overridden all of the controls to the research station, the Doctor and Flynt are trapped in the biodome as it shifts out of geostationary orbit and into view of a nearby sun – the direct exposure of the sun on the plants causes them to go wild and crash through the glass walls of the dome.
Part Two
Onboard the Weapontek Battlecruiser, Professor Brask and his ‘client’ Jerrix watched as the plants attack in response to the increase in direct sunlight of a nearby sun as the research biodome moves out of the planet's shadow and out of control. The Doctor, using the laboratory, mixes some green chemicals to create a repellent that clears a path for their escape. Professor Flynt leads the Doctor to the space station's control systems. By disabling the main controls (sabotaged by Brask before he left) and leaving the secondary systems to take over, the Doctor manages to restore the stations to its former orbit in the planet's shadow. Overriding the robot's control protocols, the Doctor manages to convince the robots that the plant growth is a virulent strain of Centurian Strangle Weed, which the robots don’t like. The robots begin a ferocious cleanup of the vegetation. All sorted, the Doctor tinkers a bit more and activates a tractor beam on board the space station. This traps Jerrix and Brask before they can leave. The police arrive to take Brask and Jerrix away and the Doctor turns down Flynt’s offer to stay and help her, but leaves her with a reverse spectrum therapy without nasty side effects that she might like to try on the plants.
Named Individuals
References
- The Doctor refers to Baz’s Easy Diner on the eastern desert of Agrellian Thaxis and Centurian Strangle Weed.
Notes
- The DWA comic strip adventures were very much aimed at a younger audience and the artwork and colours were bold and bright, reflecting the tone of the magazine.
- Self contained, one part stories were the norm in the early issues, later being expanded to two-parters for a while before returning to standalone stories.
Original print details
Publication with page count and closing captions
- DWA 24 (6 pages) DON’T MISS PART TWO IN THE NEXT ISSUE!
- DWA 25 (6 pages) A BRAND-NEW ADVENTURE STARTS NEXT ISSUE!
- No reprints to date.
Continuity
- The Doctor uses his psychic paper to pass himself off as a surprise Inspector of the space station.
- The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver as a torch. The light from the sonic screwdriver is enough to trigger the accelerated growth and appetite of the plants.
