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Opening narration box
The Doctor and Martha go sightseeing in Harankast, when they stumble on an ugly secret …
Summary
The Doctor and Martha arrive on the beautiful and peaceful earth colony of Harankast. Only the Doctor hears a buzzing sound in the distance while a local vagrant introduces himself as Joseph Manver. Manver warns them of things not right, government conspiracies, young people disappearing and weird creatures.
The Doctor and Martha’s arrival was also seen by the native Ranfo, giant, tailed, frog-like creatures who kidnap them and take them back to their camp, where an uprising against the city dwellers is being planned. The City Dwellers are destroying the planet by riding around in their new cars which produce toxic clouds to destroy the countryside. The people, who once lived in harmony with the Ranfo, seem to be oblivious to their damage
The Doctor realises they are being influenced by a brainwashing beam that only he can hear. A multitude of artificial flies act like aerials. They beam the signals to the colonists. Each of the flies carries the logo of Manver Autos, the maker of the new environmentally unfriendly cars. The vagrant they met on arrival, Joseph Manver, had picked up their arrival. Suspecting they may upset his plans to convince the colonists to buy his new cars, he met the Doctor and Martha undercover to check out how much of a threat they pose.
Manver orders the flies to attack but the Ranfo attack the flies. The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to disable the flies' shared network. The colonists are no longer under Manver’s influence. After a joy ride back to the TARDIS on the back of the Ranfo, Joseph Manver is led away by the police.
Characters
- Tenth Doctor
- Joseph Manver - Ruthless, environmentally unfriendly car dealer who used robot manufactured flies to brainwash the colonists of Harankast into buying his manufactured polluting cars. Apprehended by the local authorities when his scheme was exposed.
- Ranfo – native to the earth colony planet Harankast, these intelligent and social giant, frog-like-lizards are capable of leaping great distance and heights even with passengers on their back. For a while their harmony with the humans was threatened when their environment was being unknowing being poluted by the colonists who were brainwashed by Joseph Manver.
Original print details
- 1/1 DWBIT 17 (4 pages) TO BE CONTINUED!!!
- No reprints to date.
Notes
- Supporting the series of collectable Doctor Who trading cards, the magazine carried a regular four page, individually titled comic strip of the Tenth Doctor’s adventures.
- The artwork and colours were bold and bright, reflecting the tone of the magazine and, as did Doctor Who Adventures, reflected the appeal to readers younger than those catered to by Doctor Who Magazine.
- Why the Ranfo would have a “feeeding frenzy” on the artificial metal flies is unclear unless it is for the sport.
- This Scooby Doo style story has a give-away clue in the first frame of the strip. where a car in the background carries Manver’s logo. Martha's comment (also in the first frame) that “most of the locals look, so human” seems at odd with the selection of characters drawn for the background – maybe she was looking in a different direction!
- Once again the Doctor wears his glasses for precision work, this time disorienting the flies.
- Without introduction, this is Martha's first appearance.
References
- The Battles in Time comic strip sought to reinforce the association of its Doctor with the one seen on screen with ‘props’ from the TV series: blue/brown suit, intelligent-looking glasses, sonic screwdriver and psychic paper.
Continuity
to be added